A Day When You Shouldn't Write

Without boring you with the details, I'm having a lousy day. Make that a lousy week. Plans made and almost complete for today have been changed last minute,  then longtime friends planning an overnight visit had to cancel, and this morning came word of the death of a good friend. Add a few other upsetting things and it's not a pretty picture right now.

It's a bad day, and one thing that I know is that I shouldn't try to write a story or essay on days like this. Why? Because it's not the real me writing. It's not my usual outlook on life coming through. Normally, I'm a pretty positive person, but when all kinds of things go wrong, I get cranky and/or sad just like any other person. And when that happens, my writing is not anything that would inspire a reader, not something that would touch the heart of a reader, not something I would feel proud of.

So, the best thing to do is to get through these next few days of changes and upsets in my life. I can then take a deep breath and step back into the shoes of the person I usually am and I can write with a better outlook.

Artists's paintings often show their mood. When going through difficult times, they might paint in dark, dreary colors or depressing subjects. Maybe it's a good release, but it's not all that pleasing to those who are appreciators of art. For writers, I doubt they'd sell a whole lot of work that comes with a dark cloud hanging over it. Better to wait until the sun breaks through.