Blogging about writer’s block…
So, I decided to move to Barcelona in Spain, just as I had decided that I wanted to be a writer. Since I don’t speak a word Spanish (or Catalan for that matter) the two decisions seemed equally sensible and I wanted to share them both with the world. I think the world should generally feel better about its decision-making skills and this is me doing my part to improve everybody’s self-esteem. You’re welcome.
To make things better I am not even a native English speaker. No, I’m Danish (no, not A danish – it’s a nation… it is! Look it up if you don’t believe me.). So, shortly put I am a Dane living in the Catalan-speaking part of Spain who writes in English. I had hoped that would made me this really cool, international person, but instead it has just made me generally and confoundedly confused. When I wander through the charming streets of Barcelona, I have no idea of what is going on around me at any given time. People may be chatting on the street about the toxic gas especially designed to make testicles shrivel and explode that has just been released into the metro system by maddened lesbian terrorists, and yet you will see me smiling and nodding while I get out my metro card and keep walking down the stairs.
But really, you may then ask, does the internet need another blog about being an idiot? Surely we have enough of those. And yes, we do have enough of those, but this blog is actually not intended to be about idiocy (note: intended). No, this blog is about writing and about the unfocused, sometimes unwelcomed and almost always strange ideas, thoughts and notions that pop into your (or at least mine) head while you try to write something sensible. Having moved to another country seems to only make this problem worse as I have no one around me to throw these distracting ideas at. No one who will understand me anyway. I have tried flushing these creative hick-ups out of my head but they seem to clog up the drain instead. They insist on being realised and they keep blocking my brain from writing anything else until I do realise them. So now, I am going to blog them – I am going to create a place where I can simply write them and put them.
In many ways then, I have created this blog mainly for my own personal reasons, but don’t get me wrong: I would love nothing more than for someone to take something of value away from what I write here. Be it joy, inspiration or just a quick laugh on my expense – it is not important. So, I will put my thoughts and small pieces of creative misfits and peculiarities here for anyone to read or discard as rubbish – whichever they prefer. I have added a section to the blog called “Texts and oddities” where I will put the imposing, creatively disturbing notions that come out either as short stories, short prose or even poetry. At this point in time there is but one text there, but there will be added more, I’m sure.
So, we will see how it works out, I guess – both for me and anyone who stumbled in here either by mistake or led by a fetish for the odd, creative misfit and perhaps a good laugh.
Hello Jeppe
I see that finding a publisher interested in your first novel in Danish is somewhat difficult. I recommend using Google Translate to stirr up the media attention and at the same time receiving an English version!
Regards
//Jens
Hey Jens.
Great idea, but why stop there? I could have google.translate make it into Arabian gibberish and really have it become famous.