Barbed Wire
A friend of mine was talking about his creative process a few weeks ago. One of his music teachers had tried to give him advice back in the day:
“When I’m making music, it’s the happiest I am. It’s relaxing. It’s joyful.”
My friend: “Yeah, it’s not like that for me.”
“Really? What’s it like?”
“Like… pulling barbed wire out of my brain through my forehead.”
“Dear God man, then why do you do it?!”
“Because there’s so much barbed wire it has to come out.”
The creative process isn’t always like that for me… but frequently, yes, that exactly. Today there is a pile of barbed wire on my bench. *whew*
Lots of news to report, but I’m hungry. Off in search of burger.
My explanation for writing is that my brain gets so full I have to purge it out onto paper. And it feels exactly like throwing up a large quantity of unpleasantly large chunks.
What’s worse is writing under a deadline, when I have to choke those chunks down and then hack them back up in short order.