Internet as Motivational Tool?

          For the past two months, I have been experiencing financial difficulties.  Therefore, I was not able to pay my cable/internet/too-many-bills-to-mention.  As a result of this, the company that provides my cable, internet and home phone was forced to disconnect me until I could pay.  Now you would think that such a lack of distraction would produce a flurry of writing activity, creating masterpieces of the written word, the likes of which have never been seen before.

            But no, instead, dear friends, I descended into a creative funk.  Though my writings lay within my fully functioning hard drive, the lack of network connectivity seemed to turn my computer into no more than an empty shell, devoid of life and purpose.  And so I ignored the offending piece of machinery as one would ignore an antique clock that never chimes, but you can’t make yourself throw out because your Great-Aunt Doris, twice removed on your mother’s side, gave you that clock and besides it still keeps good time and you swear that one of these days you’ll get if fixed and hang it in the hallway.  But then it passes from your mind into oblivion until the next time you open the coat closet, or venture into the attic or the basement and you think, “I really should do something with that clock.”

            But I digress.  The point is my computer sat collecting dust while I sat in the living room watching “Gone with the Wind” and feeling sorry for myself.  But the moment my bill was paid and my internet was back on, I went to work on my fictional endeavors with a fervor I hadn’t previously thought I possessed.  What in the world made me think I had to have the internet to be productive?  None of the projects I have been working on in the last week or so have required the use of the internet.  I could easily have accomplished everything I’ve done so far in the time that my internet was MIA.  No research was required to continue my works-in-progress.  And even if there had been, I’m perfectly capable of writing without research and simply rewriting when the research can be accomplished.  It’s something I’ve done many times in the past.

            I don’t know if the answer to that question will ever be found, but I’m more than willing to hear opinions and theories on the subject.  One possible explanation I’ve come up with is that I was simply due a creative down-swing and it just happened to coincide with my lack of internet service.  But that seems a bit too convenient.  Is it possible that I’m simply addicted to the Web?  I’d like to think that wasn’t the case.  I don’t think I spend much time surfing the digital waves, but many of my projects are bound for a home on the super-information highway, particularly my FanFiction and my YouTube fan videos.

            Feel free to comment and let me know what you think.  I would love to hear your theories on this strange phenomenon.  🙂 Until next time, may your days be filled with unending, interconnected bliss.