Getting Unstuck, Creatively Speaking...

I committed to this script-writing challenge for the month of April, called Script Frenzy. The challenge is to write 100 pages in the month of April, and hopefully have a first-draft of a play by April 30th.  No sweat, right?  Ha!


I started off great.  Worked diligently for the first 9 days of April, and then on April 10th...something happened.  Well, actually...nothing happened.  I stopped writing.  Why?  Well...in a word...life.  I let life interrupt me.  It's known to do that from time to time. And you know what Mr. Isaac Newton said, right?  A body in motion, tends to stay in motion, but a body at rest, stays at rest.  Because as soon as I stopped, I found it very difficult to start up again.  And now I'm way behind and there are only 2 weeks left.


When a friend of mine suggested a hike in the glorious Columbia River Gorge, I knew it was exactly what I needed to free my mind.  And, if you've been following this blog at all, you know of my love for waterfalls.  I have a very emotional and visceral response when getting up close and personal to these magnificent creations of Nature.


We had the trail to ourselves; just me, my friend and his two wonderful dogs. We hiked along for awhile, the mist intensifying as we made our way up and down and all around.  We heard the water falling before we saw it, and then there she was.  In all her majestic glory.  And I stood up on a boulder, and let the mist encompass me.  I felt amazing; I felt all my stress release in that one moment; I turned to my friend to thank him for bringing me to this spectacular place, and found, not surprisingly, emotion rising in my throat.


Much, much later in the day, after I finished rehearsing for my play that's going up next month, I sat down and wrote 5 pages of my script.  It was midnight, and I wrote without stopping. 5 pages.    Is it any good?  I have no idea.  Does it make sense to the story I previously created?  I have no idea.  If I read through it, I think I would become blocked again.  But it doesn't matter if it's good or bad.  What matters is that the momentum has picked up once again.  I will worry about the quality of the writing when it's time to rewrite and revise.  


For now I'm just thankful to the beauty and wonder of Nature. For freeing me up...I'm so grateful to be living in such a stunning place and whenever I seek solitude, friendship, wonder and awe, it is literally in my very own backyard.  Who would have ever thought this city gal would become a Nature girl.  Yet here I am, and the better for it!