“Strange Brew — kill what’s inside of you”, sand The Cream on one of their legendary albums, “Disraeli Gears”, recently getting a lavish reissue (vinyl or CD, your voice). Great song, but if you take those lyrics, it makes you wander is that always true? No contest, ‘strange brews’ always have that sinister sound when you mention them, but is that always true in writing? What I here have in mind as a strange brew is not some chemical, or even herbal additive you put into your coffee to stimulate your inspiration, but looking for good, solid, brain cell produced inspiration, looking in places that are not only ‘strange’ but even mundane, ordinary. You see, if you really are inspired to write, there should be no such thing as a writer’s block. I see it as an excuse for not trying, not using your imagination. Sure, there are times you seem to be stuck - but then you have to ask yourself, did I do my research fully and properly, did I plan out the the damn thing thoroughly and properly. You can’t just rely on flashes and blurts of your imagination. So what do you do when those flashes end up in the pan of the main thing you are focused on? You focus on something else, preferably completely different. Writing a tightly woven thriller, and you need another extra twist that seemly seems to escape you? Take a look at that Tom Hanks fun music movie “That Thing You Do!” from 1996. Not simply to get your mind of your thriller that you desperately don’t want to turn into a shelf filler. It might give you a completely new idea, for example, for an article on Beatles inspired bands. Write it through. When you’re done, that twist you were looking for will get an unexpected but a fruitful turn. And you didn’t even waste your time - you saw a nice little movie, wrote an article that might bring some extra cash and got back on track of your main story. Maybe not really a “Strange Brew”, but definitely a different one! |
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February 2020
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