I'm breaking the thirty-thousand word barrier with my NaNoWriMo project and I'm drying up. Hopelessly drying up.
Few years ago, this is the word count around which I run out of English words to write. I'm writing my current novel in Indonesian; because I thought I might have more words with my mother tongue than English. Turns out that it isn't true. I'm just as dried up in Indonesian as I am in English, and switching between the languages wouldn't help either.
Then I read this tip by Deb Olin Unferth, from one of the pep-talks from last year's NaNoWriMo (Yes, from last year. Yes, I'm that desperate):
"Keep in mind the initial image that you had of your book. Writers often say that they were struck with an early image or tiny scene that filled them inexplicably with emotion and inspired them to create a story around it."
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then looking at the energy and urgency caught in "Le Baiser" by Robert Doisnaeau twenty times could churn at least twenty thousand words more, couldn't it?
Easy.
PS. Come on, my little brown muse. Give it. Don't let me strangle you for it.
PPS. I think I just cracked the mystery of the origin of Arabic slang for kiss boos بوس,.
PPPS. Write from where it hurts the most. Always.
