In John Steinbeck’s Sweet Thursday, Lousy Wednesday is the day before Sweet Thursday.  He described Lousy Wednesday like this:

Some days are born ugly. From the very first light they are no damn good whatever the weather, and everybody knows it. No one knows what causes this, but on such a day people resist getting out of bed and set their heels against the day. When they are finally foce out by hunger or job they find that the day is just as lousy as they knew it would be.

Today is a lousy Wednesday. It’s sunny, but rooms seem cloudy. The weather’s mild, but it feels like winter. This has been a crazy week and not in a good way. There’s always something else, another e-mail, or another person to talk to. Good things have happened (I won an election, for example), but I’m haunted by the shadow of what happens when I don’t do so well. It’s the middle of the week and there are still two more days left.

And then there’s the writer’s block. Writer’s block is more serious an affliction than small pox. Ideas that can’t be phrased are like free radicals causing damage, just kicking around. I’ve never experienced a case so bad that I literally cannot write. Sometimes it takes more effort than usual, but it’s always possible. But the result is painful. The finished product doesn’t seem finished. If I look at a piece of writing I did this week (maybe this one included) I would probably rip it to shreds. Sometimes I write better than other times.

Today is lousy because it was born that way. There was no particular event or catalyst, it was just the confluence of a bunch of minor problems.

But I always have to remember that Lousy Wednesday is followed by Sweet Thursday, “that magic kind of day.”

On a more serious note that’s not desperately trying to connect what I just said to the novel, I will be back tomorrow or Friday with real writing. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel.