I write. True I also fuck for money but I write for money too. Since I started writing professionally I have run into my fair share of writers block. Though I do on occasion use prompts to help get my creative juices flowing, most of the time when blocked I look feverishly for inspiration where ever I can find it. When getting creatively blocked as an escort (yes being an escort has a creative slant to it, seriously it does) you can do a few things to get your mojo back. My favorite being the “fake it until you make it” response. It’s not so easy to fake it until you make it when you’re dealing with concept, story structure and word play. You cant close your eyes, put a sly smile on your face and mumble how fucking amazing that cock tastes in your mouth, then shut your mind off and let your body’s physical response take over. With writing you have to think. Its required to be present, unless you’re writing some 9th grade stream of conscious bullshit that’s really not creative at all but self indulgent crap-ola.
When I was in advertising I made inspiration boards. Huge white board that adorned my office walls littered with all kinds of scrap, as it was called in the trade. Bits and pieces of things I liked. Ads, designs, tag lines, pictures. Anything really, mine usually had an over abundance of naked people and religious icons. I would tack stuff on my boards and when I needed inspiration for whatever project or campaign was working on, I would melt into my boards and usually emerge with a spark of an idea I could then build upon and eventually take to my team for some real development. It’s not easy to be creative on demand. It’s a learned skill and there are tricks to the trade. Writing however is fairly new to me (well for money and on deadline) With writing you cant fall into your body and ask it for help, you cant rely on collected bits of images glued to a board.
You need to have something to say…
I’m slowly developing a bank of words, concepts, thoughts and ideas to go to for a creative jump start when I need one. One of my favorite go to places for creative inspiration is Willy Wonka. The book, the movie, the new movie. Inevitably I will wonder off on a whole Gene Wilder track. He’s always been one of my favorite actors/artists/funnymen/geniuses. That doesn’t always jump start my juices but at least I will be entertained while looking for the flow and not so frustrated and angry that I can’t write.
“We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;—
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.”
Though the first line is the most famous and used in the first Wonka movie, it’s from a poem called Ode written by Arthur O’Shaughnessy. The term “movers and shakers” was taken from this great little collection of words and O’Shaughnessy too, is a favorite of mine. I do dig me some dead Irish Poet.
So as I sit here unable to find a way inside, unable to dig up something interesting to say…I tell myself… then I suddenly remember….
I am the music maker and I am the dreamer of the dream.