So I have been thinking about this thing, The Well. That is what I call the place where stories come from, where energy comes from, where writing comes from, the place you draw from.
It sounds a little melodramatic, calling it The Well. Or fairy tale. But it is the best name I have come up with so far and The Rock just sounded stupid.
Every once in a while a writer of mine goes on burn out. I don’t usually know what is going on, going in, I just know something is really wrong. Someone who usually writes and reviews suddenly doesn’t. And then the email comes. And it is usually crazy mad bad well stuff. Like, Well my father has cancer and I’ve spent the last three months in cancer wards with him and he’s dying and chemo stopped working last month and this month I don’t think I can write.
Okay here is the thing about the well. The well is energy. And, energy has a cut off point. If all your energy has been going for three months to go through chemo with a family member who is dying, the well will not give you enough energy to write. It just won’t. Because every ounce of energy you have is going to be needed to keep you afloat through THIS.
That is when you stop. That is when you say, The Well is tapped. I have to save this energy for me. Just to get through. We have limited life energy. Usually is it an overflow. In those cases? Not.
Remember to know when you have taken too much out of The Well. Remember when to cut yourself some slack. And just say, Today? Today I am okay with getting by, today I am okay with resting the writing thing, letting it coast. Tomorrow it may be better. Today it is tapped out. And I will just hold someone’s hand.
*Classes start today. We are missing a student. That student was lost to The Well. We will have her back when The Well is filled again.