SCP #18: Fig Tree Slumber

I worked out today that I have been writing songs for about fifteen years, which sounds like an amazingly long time, and I feel I should be much better at it than I am by now.  One chunk of that fifteen year period was plagued with horrible writers' block, which was largely due to not knowing how to write about things that were not highly and specifically personal.  Learning how to separate myself from the songs and treat them more like works of fiction really helped me to get past that period, and now my writing tends to draw as much from my imagination as it does my own life experiences.  Opening up space for my imagination means I can turn to books, films, mythology, poetry or art for stories and ideas, without having to wait for something in my own life to throw me a spark of inspiration.  

For today's piece I turned to the Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore and the Occult Sciences, which is one of my favourite resources for writing.  I started with the word fig from yesterday's piece, and one entry in the Encyclopaedia noted that there was an ancient belief that sleeping under a fig tree would secure slumber and quiet.  This became the backbone for my writing, and I wanted to explore the idea of putting a loved one to sleep under a fig tree when they were having trouble settling.  Because I live in a flat with no garden I decided to paint the fig tree with shadows on the wall, which I guess is where the fact starts to blur into the fiction.

I had another play with my borrowed electric guitar, and felt a little more comfortable with it today.  It was more fun than frustrating this time around, and is making my fingers itch a little for one of my own.