Of sparks and other such nonsense

The clock is ticking softly, measuring the lazy seconds of the late afternoon. The warm sun rays are coming in obliquely through the window. The air is so motionless, not even the tiny specks of dust are in a rush to go anywhere.

"Tick-tick tick-tick" dominates the silence. Then a low hiss and a thud set the ticking to the background, forgotten. Two shadows emerge from opposite corners of the room, ominous and blurry in their rage.

Their clash sends sparks flying in every direction and the room starts smelling like burnt carpet. Still, the two silhouettes do not stop, twisting and turning around each other, until they become a bright incandescent globe of energy.

***

This is about as far as I can take this today, with a headache and the hour getting late. Mind you, frustration doesn't get you very far and the worse it gets, the less you accomplish.

I had to get something out of my system though and it seems that this is the verbal part of it. I'm sure the rest will be sleep later on.

I wanted to share a few of my thoughts on writing and creativity and the open canvas here has become a bit too inviting...

First of all, the spark of inspiration and actually getting something good out of it are worlds apart. It's usually more interesting in your subconscious than it is on paper. So are dreams to the woken mind. And as for what others will get out of it... Barely anything at all.

Another interesting fact is that in poetry, your mind can wander from spark to spark, but in prose, you have to argue with the sparks and try to make them all sit nice and quiet until you get them all in a logical form. And we all know that sparks last very little and they seldom come back. Now you understand why I like writing poetry more than prose. And also why I am very picky about the poetry I read. Apart from my own, I only like the works of two Romanian poets. No, they also don't care too much about rhyme.

What I find particularly frustrating lately is critique - or anticipating critique, to be more precise. How does that go? Well, after reading a lot of "don't"s in writing and realising that I sometimes do them and also noticing them in other pieces of writing (and trust me, if you pay too much attention, they stick out like a sore thumb), I get doubly frustrated. Trying to avoid them is a real challenge, especially because they are simply fads. "You need to make it interesting from the get-go" "Don't overdescribe" "Don't this" "Don't that". Am I the only one who is starting to think writing is like fashion? That everyone is crazy about what is "in" this season? Just like rhyme, I really couldn't care much about fashion, mind you.

Well, for now, this is it. Just a few thoughts. And I would like to share more of those, but maybe later on. My arms are tired and my head hurts. And the pillow is very warm. G'nite.

Sweet dreams