No Wonder He's Having So Much Trouble With It

As I believe I have mentioned, video/image skills, I have them not. But in this absolutely fabulous, one-of-the-all-time best movies Rear Window is a great snippet of dialogue that often plays in my head. I tried to embed it and failed, so the link is here. link The dialogue is at 9:00 to 9:30. If you don't have the patience for that, it's like this.

Lisa (dreamily): There's that song again. Where does a man get inspiration to write a song like that.

Jeff (dryly): He gets it from the landlady once a month.

I do get that question from wonderful concerned friends and subtle saboteurs alike. How do you keep writing? Aren't you afraid you'll run out of ideas? Where do you find the time?

It is both of sides of the coin in that dialogue: the dreams and the dry, romance and practicality. I get the wonderful booster shots from the powers of creation that gift me with a flow. On days when those powers have other places to be and my fingers are halting and painfully slow at the keyboard, I remind myself that I'm in a business.

I love writing stories. It's my passion, but I've gone part time at my day job (Whoo and a whole lot a Hoo!) and the desire to be sheltered and fed and hopefully solvent is an equally strong inspiration.

When my imaginary friends are pissed off enough to not be speaking to me, I have to go to plans B, C, and sometimes as far as AaPrime to haul the words out of my brain, but as far as inspiration goes, there's nothing like the sheer panic of working with a much smaller net.

Earlier in the film, the characters talk about the same song and songwriter.

Lisa: Where's that beautiful music coming from.

Jeff: There's a songwriter over there in that apartment. Lives alone. Probably had a very unhappy marriage.

Lisa: It's enchanting. It's almost as if it were being written especially for us.

Jeff: No wonder he's having so much trouble with it.