Writing Head

I've been trying to get my writing head back on.  It's difficult at the moment because I'm doing a lot of line learning or performing and they are very different mindsets.  Last night I was sat, listening to music, notebook on lap, trying to get something flowing.  Nothing specific, just general words.  And it's not that I haven't written anything for a while.  I only finished The Juliet Inquiry a few weeks ago, and Hang a few weeks before that.  But most of the writing I was doing was really editing.  Rewriting.  The ideas, shapes, notes, plans for those plays were done earlier.  And I've also been writing The Trolls Trilogy each week.  But still, it's not the same.  Letting the imagination flow, letting new ideas in - so that the next 'generation' of plays can be written - is really important.  I know that once The Shakespeare Delusion is done (I'm learning it now, and with monologues like that there is always some rewriting to do as you learn) I have to be ready to write the next two shows on my project list - Metal Harvest and Historic Crimes.  I need to get my head together for that.  Hence the sitting with the notebook.
Not a lot came.  Nothing useful, anyway.  It was mostly self pity, which was interesting.  Meditations on memory, which is something I'm preoccupied with at the moment.  I have noticed that my brain is not as good at things as it used to be.  This is probably temporary, following on from last year and my spell of not-well-ness and I'm learning lines alright.  It's more trivial things.  I've noticed a certain lack of sharpness to my thinking, where I do like to be precise.  Added to that, the discovery that after drinking alcohol, I no longer have total recall of events.  I used to be brilliant at remembering things the morning after.  It was so useful when others were hazy.  But now - a disturbing blur, with occasional flashes of lighting.  It's rather like watching Abigail's Party with the sound off.  Underwater.
That's new.  Interesting.  And like all experiences gets filed in the box of things to put in plays - both as writer and actor.  Because that's how artists think.  We use our lives as material.  Sometimes I suspect I don't actually live my life, I merely use it.  And then I remember that's just bollocks and make a cup of tea.
Now, time to do some line learning and later to sit and pretend to write again.