…since my last blog post. Longer than that since I’ve really written anything. It’s been a struggle. Writer’s block:
Writer’s block may have several causes. Some are creative problems that originate within an author’s work itself. A writer may run out of inspiration, or be distracted by other events.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writer’s_block
“...or be distracted by other events.” Well…I guess I need not list such events for anybody.
…among other things…
My idea here is to work back into writing by, well, writing. Starting with a simple project: a blog post about some of the things I have done during this time of not writing.
- Admired our cats
- Admired our cats
- Read “The Expanse” books, including the companion short stories in Memory’s Legion
- Um…admired our cats
- Washed my hands far too much (did I mention I was already a bit of a germaphobe when all this started? Already washed my hands often and at least 20 seconds…I just upped it. Result? Cracked dry bleeding hands…no image required, I’m sure I’m not the only one.
- Watched a lot of golfers
- Collected a lot of wayward golf balls which we’ll donate to the golf course’s youth program.
- Admired our cats
- Demolished our rotted deck. OK, well this was Klee doing this job…but I helped carry junk!
- Worked a jigsaw puzzle
- Watched progress on the patio which is firewise and replacing our rotted deck
- Admired our cats supervising the work on the deck demo and patio build up
- …another jigsaw puzzle
- …and you guessed it! Another jigsaw puzzle
- Experienced snow in April
- Tried a few new recipes in the new Instant Pot
- Made several feeble and failed attempts to get a decent photo of Mt. McLoughlin trying to do its Fuji-san imitation.
- Pulled weeds
- Planted bulbs
- Enjoyed bulbs blooming and peonies
- Took our indoor cats outside
- A few cherished, masked, distanced chats with our wonderful neighbors
- Started early morning walks on the golf course cart path and admiring this heron
- A little bit of bicycle riding
- And started another puzzle
- A new experience! Geese hanging out on our roof for the day…
- Phase one of replacing rotted deck with Catio complete! Next up Phase 2…Netting and “things” to make it safe and fun for our (indoor) cats, to be outside. They are going to love to be able to be outside and we are going to love to be able to enjoy our patio with the boys!
- …and you guessed it: Admired our cats
If you made it this far, my thanks. This is my first effort to break my writer’s block. Is it cheating that it is mostly a list with images? At any rate, I’m sitting down at the page…taking it “Bird by Bird” (thank you Anne Lamott).
Try this: Set a timer for twenty minutes and just type nonstop until the bell goes off.
Do not stop your fingers moving even if you’re typing “OK nothing what there’s a blue wall in front of car just went by gee its raining again” (don’t need periods or punctuation, this is just to get the machinery going).
Or the Gene Wolfe method: No creative activities, at all. You can mow the lawn or clean the house, but no reading, no TV, no puzzles, until you write.
Best of luck.
Many thanks! I’ll give those a try.