Conversations with Calliope

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. How are you today?
JOE: Pensive.
CALLIOPE: I think maybe you better explain that one.
JOE: Okay. Yesterday my trusted reviewer Jerry sent me his reactions to my current draft of Marital Property.
CALLIOPE: And?
JOE: He liked the story but thought the characters were too stereotyped and did not come to life.
CALLIOPE: Did his comments surprise you?
JOE: No. I felt the same thing as I was writing the story. I tried to make some revisions but I am afraid they fell short.
CALLIOPE: How do you think this happened?
JOE: I talked with Gerry about it and concluded that I have been living a fairly isolated existence lately with most of my time spent before a computer screen. I think I have become too insular and introverted. My creative juices have been drying up.
CALLIOPE: Not a good state for a writer. What do you plan to do about it?
JOE: I think I need to take a break from writing and work on restoring my creative energy maybe through art, photography and spending more time socially. I see myself as a cotton field which has been over cultivated and exhausted. It needs time to recover.
CALLIOPE: That seems to fly in the face of conventional writer wisdom to keep writing no matter what.
JOE: I realize that but I have not always been conventional. In fact, I think I am at my best when I allow myself to be unconventional. We'll talk some more about this tomorrow.
(Fishing boat- Dunkirk harbor)