Has The Muse Vanished?

When I first started writing this blog I was writing at the rate of more than one post a day. I never seemed to have any difficulty finding something to write about, and the words seemed to flow from my fingers without any real effort. Over the last couple of months the post rate has fallen, albeit not much below a rate of one post a day, but it is a reduction nonetheless.

Sometimes I really feel the need to write something, but I have no idea what to write about. Am I suffering some sort of writer's block?

I really hope that this is a temporary phase for writing this blog has been one of the best things that has happened to me for quite a few years. I get a great sense of achievement when I write a really good piece of prose, and while I really write for myself, I also enjoy it enormously when one of my posts strikes a chord with other bloggers and they take the time to write a comment to say how they have enjoyed what I have written or how it has reinforced something that they thought.

At the moment I am not sure where I stand with this particular depressive phase. I know that I am past the worst of it, that occurred a couple of weeks ago and resulted in a trip to my GP, but while I started to feel better mentally as the symptoms from the various infections that I managed to pick up seemed to disappear, suddenly I am feeling worse again, and the effects are quite physical.

I've had a few bad nights for sleep, so last night took some of the medication that I have for occasional use when this gets too bad. It took a while for me to get to sleep, but I managed it eventually and slept pretty well through the night. Unfortunately, I have also slept most of the day too. I did manage to have something to eat in one of my wakeful periods, but that was some considerable time ago, and though I know that I ought to have another meal, I can't be bothered to prepare anything. On top of all this I have a feeling of light-headedness which is most peculiar. And I'm not sure what is causing it.

This is a somewhat disjointed post, and is probably so because of the way that I am feeling. I may not be on top form, but I can recognize coincidences when they occur. I am lucky enough to be able to touch-type, having taken RSA exams in typing, shorthand and various other secretarial-type qualifications when I was at school, although I have never worked in such a job apart from a temporary job for six weeks when I was waiting to join the RAF. I can no longer remember any of the shorthand except "Dear Sir, Thank you for your letter dated" but I worked with computers both while I was in the RAF and afterwards, so the typing skills were pretty well honed over the years. However, I still prefer to draft my essays, and even some of my more insightful posts by hand and then transfer them to the computer later.

Now you may wonder where this is all leading; this is where the coincidences come in. There and Back (who has stopped blogging for a while, but with whom I correspond on a daily basis) and Loopy Kate (in a post today) also write things longhand and then have to type them up, and I have suggested the same thing to both of them: voice-recognition software. So why am I suggesting voice-recognition software to others, yet although I have it myself, do I so often forget to use it and end up hitting the keys literally rather than just figuratively?

I guess that it is just one of life's little mysteries!