Sunday, March 17, 2013

THE BLANK PAGE MONSTER





Would you agree when I say facing that virgin white surface inside the monitor is one of the hardest parts in writing a script? I know a handful of writers who suffer from the same problem. It's like pumping a water well in the middle of a desert, or like being constipated as meteors fall from the sky.

I don't know what other writers do to overcome this terror. But me...when my creative juices won't squirt out of my head, I do the following activities so I can start caressing the computer and pollute that white shit...er...sheet of "paper" (staring at me) with words that could create different dimensions:

1.) I walk back and forth inside the house without any direction. I check the refrigerator and gobble some left overs. I stare outside the window and observe our neighbors busy discussing the latest update about Maia and Sir Chief. I drown myself with liters and liters of cold water. 

2.) I read my previous works (including the oldest ones) and reminisce how I felt having bad hair days when I wrote them, I recall how many of my neighbors' windows I broke, how many computer keyboards I shattered, and how many bottles of "Hinyebra" I tossed upside down.

3.) I listen to non-stop sentimental music until my tears fall like fire and made me cry like a pig being castrated...makes me feel the urge to bang my head on the wall 1000 times.

4.) I watch some parts of my favorite TV Series over and over again while imagining I am the lucky guy inside the screen. Hehe.

5.) I talk to myself, "Should I start writing now? Playing NBA has ignited my adrenaline." Then I answer myself, "No! One more game! Kobe did not score that much! He needs to improve his stats to win the MVP race!"

6.) I read my old Facebook posts and laugh like a clown every time I notice some grammatical errors and nonsense blah-blahs. 

7.) I surf the net to find any interesting subject that might ignite the passion inside me. Just need to be careful with those nasty pages that keep on popping from nowhere (you know what I mean, boys).

8.) I sing in the bathroom on top of my lungs (ugh...my never ending epic favorite song "Wherever You Will Go") to distract lizards and insects. Nah...to distract myself and loosen some rusty psychological dramas.

9.) I go to bed and sleep. There are many times that I figured out how to start/end my story while being chased by Freddy Kreugger. Creepy!

10.) Finally, I go back in front of the computer and shut it down. Maybe I should write tomorrow. I need to stretch my legs and take a walk, shower myself with sunrise, observe the moon, meet some friends, find some enemies.

Writing is not just about tapping abc's and killing/torturing people we (writers) hate in our stories or creating our imaginary world...it is about finding connections with real people around us and getting in touch with nature that binds us to the real world. 

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