Where ideas live- sparkles on the water.

I've been in the woods for a while recently.

Not literally, of course, but perhaps literary (or liter-arily, is that a word?). I lost myself, and my ability to see ideas seems to have scattered and got lost amongst the trees. It was as if they (ideas) were now hiding under the water, tantalisingly almost visible, but nothing more than a reflection when I got up close.

When people say where do you get your ideas? I usually answer that it is never a problem - and normally ideas are flowing fast and furious, scattering like sparkles on the surface of water. At times almost as difficult to pin down, but the ideas were always there for the taking. 

Of course ideas are just the beginning, the first stones on the path but without them there is no path to wander along, no direction to head in. This was unfamiliar territory.


I found myself picking bits and pieces up and discarding them - 'You're not an idea, neither are you, You are a poor excuse for an idea.... and you are no better!'

Writing takes energy, creative energy and without it nothing seems to work.  I realised that the problem wasn't that there weren't any sparkles, no ideas to jump on and ride across the water into the delights of a new story.  The problem was that the energy wasn't there. It had been leeched away by other things in my life, and without it I couldn't see the sparkles. 

Even writing a blog was something to shy away from. This perhaps explains why this blog has been silent for a while.

But I think I am on my way again, on the path through the trees and between them I can just about see a sparkle on the water...