I’m struggling with what to write about next. In fact I’m struggling with being able to write at all. I’ve got a writer’s block.
Or rather, I did have one. It stopped the day I made a decision to write something every day, until something worthwhile emerges.
I’ve kick-started my imagination through an effort of will, the way being put on an insulin pump recently kick-started my pancreas.
As a type 1 diabetic, the pump has the potential to revolutionise my life. It will enable me to go swimming or running without the constant fear of hypos, which have plagued me for the past three years, ever since I was first diagnosed.
Before reaching that sublime state however, I have to learn how to use it. A couple of nights ago I had a series of hypos which lasted for hours. I’ve never had anything like them before. They probably happened because being on the pump somehow forced my dying pancreas to force out a few drops of insulin, before falling silent again.
Hopefully my imagination has a bit more life in it than my pancreas, although for a few weeks now, I have wondered.
Today though, I felt a shifting inside me: I had an idea. It’s small and fragile as a foetus and it may come to nothing. But what is significant, is that this time I haven’t rubbished or discarded it. I’m being kind and accepting its imperfections, letting it shift and turn below the surface of my mind as it takes shape.
I have made a decision. All I have to do is keep doing my writing practise and trust that sooner or later, something will come…
Nice blog post, Cordelia. Touches a chord, ‘…All I have to do is keep doing my writing practise and trust that sooner or later, something will come…’
Hi Chris,
Thank you so much for your comment, Chris. I have been pushing through it and suddenly it’s starting to flow again. Cordelia.
Cordellia Appleby, author of Black Water, has created a novel that grabs the reader by the mere idea of a twelve year old boy who must come to grips with the loss of his mother.
The main character, Ben, is haunted by the idea that he may have caused his mom to have a heart attack. Overwhelmed with guilt and confusion, he runs away from the foster parents he was staying with and is sadly hit by a car. Though he survived the crash, he is in the hospital when a shape-shifter Coyote visits him and tempts him into believing he can produce his dead mother once again. Ben takes the tempt and winds up doing things he shouldn’t have, which escalate out of control.
Finally, he knows he must gain the strength to outwit the Coyote which is actually an evil demon. In this Native American myth, Ben must be strong enough to conquer his inner fear and go into the place he desperately does not want to go, a place he fears more than death itself…the Black Water!
What a thrilling and surprising ending to this superb novel!
Linda, that is so kind of you. I really appreciate it! Cordelia