to go in the rain or not to go in the rain

Posted by admin | July 5, 2021

Last week, Jynx was hollering for me to wake up so he could go outside. He avoids his litterbox if he can and he knows that the dogs get let out first thing in the morning, so he goes with them. I slowly got up and trudged my way downstairs, half awake. Jynx was waiting at the door for me to open it. Milo, being the eager beaver, raced by Jynx when I opened the door. Zailey just sat there and waited. While I coaxed Zailey, Jynx went out and made it to the end of the patio before realizing that the light drizzle was too much for him. He came back in without doing his business.

Once I got Zailey out, I turned my attention to feeding the animals. Since Jynx was in, I attended to him first. Once done, I let the dogs in and then fed them. Then Jynx was hollering at me again to be let out. I stopped feeding the dogs and opened the door expecting the same thing to happen as before. Since it was a cool morning, I left the door open. Fifteen minutes later, Jynx finally came back in. He was soaking wet, but apparently had done his morning business.

I’m always amazed when a writer comments that they can only write when inspiration takes hold of them. I’m so busy, my moments of inspiration come at odd times. When I do have time to write, I can’t just rely on inspiration to come on a whim. Instead, I generate inspiration.

If I’m writing a novel, I’ve already got a plan for the whole novel before writing page one. The plan may change, but at least I have some notes to guide me into a groove and write. For short stories, I usually don’t have such a plan. With those, I usually must have some inspiration. To generate it, I usually rely on some prompt or look over notes I’ve taken when I was too busy to write and had inspiration.

When I’m not fully inspired, I sit at the keyboard and my fingers hit the keyboard like as if they are creating a light drizzle. Then, as I build my piece up, my fingers start going faster and faster. Hard to tell if they’ll be a hard rain or a full-fledged thunderstorm, but things get wet in a hurry. Thus, I never really have what most writers complain about – writer’s block.

Jynx must be truly desperate to go out in the rain, even a light one. I create my own lightning when I need it. I love the rain!