Work vs. Play

35K words. That’s all Water has. I need more sex, more story in Scorpio. That’s what I’ll work on this week.

I just finished Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. This is the second book I read that believes that creativity is magic. (The first one, The Inspired Writer by Bryan Hutchinson I thought was better.) Big Magic sounds a lot like The Artist’s Way. Between the “woe is me because of the success of Eat Pray Love” are some nuggets of interesting thought. However, I don’t care much for her Trickster vs Martyr stereotypes of the typical artist. I believe that we are combinations of the two. I don’t want to be Bugs Bunny, but she makes it seem that it’s better for the artist to be that way. Mind you, I don’t like suffering for my art, either.

Water I have been suffering for. Grimaulkin is more fun. Grimaulkin’s voice has been with me for 10 years,  Water, for three months. I have to come up with three distinct voices at that.Water has a deadline. Grimaulkin, not so much. Water stresses me out. Grimaulkin 2 is the one I really want to write. I feel like I keep getting tugged away from the “work” of Water and pushed toward the “play” of Grimaulkin. I honestly thought Water would be fun. But maybe it’s the idea that I have a genre I have to fit myself into. I have rules I have to follow.

Maybe my muse is more of a trickster than I like to believe. I never believed in flogging the muse, because that scares her and makes her retreat into a corner, never to speak again.  But maybe I should work a little bit on Grimaulkin 2, because that’s where she wants to be, and leave Water for a couple of days to let her stew over it. I have a scene in mind, but that’s all it is, a scene, no story.

I have until the end of the month for Water, but my hope was to get it done while on my vacation/recovery from surgery. Tomorrow is another snow day, so I’ll be home working on…something.