Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Brain Gone...

Eesh. I swear, this week, my brain hopped a flight to Tahiti and hasn't so much as sent a post card back.

It happens, from time to time. The old creative muse completely rebels, riles up the rest of the gray matter, and suddenly I've got a mutiny on my hands - or in my head, as the case may be. No matter how much I try to concentrate on what I need to do, Ye Olde Muse is bound and determined to fully immerse itself in frivolous fluff - sketches, doodles, writing that will never see the light of day...

It's a little like existing in a void where "out of sight, out of mind" is the going rule and if you don't keep a train of thought, it may well be gone forever. But for those things the Muse is interested in at the moment... well, when the Muse gets interested, it gets interested, and there's no room for negotiation. It's either draw or write it right now and get it out of my head, or suffer the consequences.

I like to call this a creative brain purge. Giving it a fancy name makes me feel like it actually serves a purpose... which it does. I guess it's the waking equivalent of dreaming for me. Dreaming, as my high school psych teacher fondly put it, is the same thing as flossing your brain. It gets out all the stuff wedged in the crevices, occasionally hurts a little, and leaves your brain better able to function when it's all said and done. These CBPs of mine seem to do the same thing, only since I don't do it every single night, they tend to show up out of the blue and dominate my life for a good week at a time. Forget continuing the story, doing a full finished picture, or turning out a post-worthy comic page: it's time for a CBP!

Which is why there is no comic page this week. No matter how hard I tried, the concentration just wasn't there. It's like trying to read a book while someone's pulling on your sleeve, going, "Hey! Hey! Hey! Look at that! Look over there! Hey!"

Yeah, not happening.

But, when it's over, I'll be able to concentrate again, and I might even have something to show for it. So, I am just going to ride it out and hope it's done by next week. Because really, I would like my brain back sometime before Christmas, thanks.