Thursday, July 3, 2014

The interwebs of creative death.



 Alas! A storm wiped the database last night, powering down the entire core and striking the mainframe cold. That is to say, the power went off last night and now nothing can seem to revive it. It feels very wrong to be writing a blog post without internet streaming along the walls of this virtual space like it should be.
 The funny thing about this blog is that I only come to it when I should be writing elsewhere. When I don’t have an incoming data connection, my cyborg side pulls a Hamlet muscle and my human instinct kicks in. I suppose “they” are right when it is said that the best way to get writing done is to unplug.

 Sure, words are all fine and good when your internet is inaccessible and a random three-hour power failure occurs in the middle of the day (gotta love that urban living, folks). The real challenge is when that temptation is reachable. Many time I work a long shift and all I want to do is vegetate in front of Youtube for hours afterward. But that isn't always the case. I try to switch wifi off on occasion, usually only lasting ten minutes before I want to check my email or bank account or something. It really makes me question my motivation in life when all I can think about is finishing a scene so I can view Facebook notifications and make sure no one shared  a “What Disney Princess are You?” quiz, because those are so much more important than art and accomplishment and a complete piece of work, right? Ugh, talk about twisted priorities.

 In the Christian church, we talk about learning from the struggles. Most of the time it sounds like a loaded excuse to take a mistake you made and put it off on God. But then there are the times when I get caught up in something that isn’t fruitful, and when the opportunity to continue down that road ends but I’m still tangled in the temptation of it, my eyes look right into a mirror. Inconvenience is one of the best teachers out there, as far as I’m concerned.
 Does that mean the solution for me is to take the difficult path?

 I have no idea why blogging brings out the snark in me. Kind of like that a bit. If I got nothing else from this situation, I got the right attitude to finally develop that Queen Overlord sitting amongst the dregs of plot notes. And a 500 word blog post. The power isn’t even back on yet, who knows what I’ll do! *maniacal laughter*

 If you even dare make a comment about how I should have “rebooted the modem” I’m making you the expendable villain in my next story. You have been warned.