Many of us suffer from writer's block. We didn't truly know we were writers until we had the urge to write and nothing was happening. That has happened to the best of us and has given us a syndrome: writer's block. "I really wanted to put something on paper, but I've been suffering --- from writer's block." "I think I have what you have -- writer's block." "I have so much to say, it just doesn't want to come out." Sound familiar?
A stagnant time. A brain lull. A quiet...because the disquiet and the need to write about it isn't there.
I own several books that have writing exercises meant to open your mind. Have I used any of these books ever? Nah...they just sit on the shelf and wait. Once in a while, I open them and just read some of the writing prompts because: 1. they are ridiculous or 2. they are often funny.
A wonderful Web site, www.writersdigest.com offers a section of writing prompts. Some of the ideas are so creative and would make wonderful assignments for school kids. Here's the latest prompt:
Hollywood producers are making a film based on your life and have put you in charge of casting. They want it as realistic as possible, so they ask that you pick actors and actresses who look the part. Who would you pick to play your family and friends, and, more importantly, who will play you?
Now, I want to tell you about my friend Randi. She wrote a wonderful post about her writer's block. What is the key word in that previous sentence: "wrote"! Someone with writer's block wrote a post, claiming that they were suffering from writer's block. Huh? Not only did she write a post, she wrote a funny post, which is often her style, and a wonderful and creative image accompanied that post.
Guess what, Randi? Your post about writer's block inspired this post... Now what do you have to say about that?!
If you think you suffer from writer's block, don't try too hard, and don't announce it to us; just step back for a while, go about your life and something no doubt will inspire you. Whether that's tracking the mundane activities in your daily life, whether it's writing about family and friends, pets, and professional people; whether it's skipping through your blogroll and peeking in at others' posts, something is sure to stir you. (my previous post was inspired by my looking through a Talbots catalog) And guess what? No doubt soon enough you'll have "something to write home about" and I'm guessing the ideas will just keep coming!
Today's post has been brought to you by the letters W R I T E and by the exclamation point!
5 comments:
If I inspired you to write a post because of my writer's block, then hey, it was worth having writer's block! Thanks for the mention, Pearl. :)
As a teenager a no-nonsense, affirmative book called "If You Want to Write," by Brenda Ueland, moved me.
More on Ueland's book here, including readers' comments.
All the atoms of earth left the big bang together. Chance determined which would fly where? For millions of years, the atoms travelled together through mind numbing eons of time and uncountable miles through frosty space. Some captured by asteroids, some by other suns, others by planets. But the Atoms that make up the rose and the atoms that make up your body travelled together before coalescing into planet earth. All the atoms that make up the rose you see now, have been parts of myriad creatures and plants before becoming the rose. Or you. What was the rose yesterday? Dust and sunshine and rain. Before that? T Rex. a hedgehog? 'Tiger, tiger burning bright in the forest of the night. What immortal hand and eye hath framed they fearful symmetry.'
We strut our hour or two upon the stage. Then back to earth, our bones are laid. To become, what? A rose, a tree, some insect, Kublai Kahn or dancing maiden, or some little boys puppy. The deck is shuffled again. And again. And again. No rhyme nor reason in the play.
How do I edit the above post about the rose?
Froggy57
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