Tag Archives: Why I Can’t Write a Post

As If I Had Actually Written Something

Posted on June 2, 2015 by mohawkvalleygirl

Oh, just type anything.

That is what I finally said to myself after staring at the blank space under “Add New Post” on the wordpress page. It is Monday, so I know I can do a Middle-age Musing Monday or a Monday Mental Meanderings (still can’t decide between those two). However, whatever I do, I must actually type words into the computer.

It’s a funny thing about words and me. Sometimes they just fall out of my fingers, via pen or keyboard. Today at work (BEFORE work and while ON BREAK, in case you were concerned), I wrote almost two pages on my novel (YES, the novel I was supposed to finish in May, don’t judge). Got to the end of the scene, yes!

Couldn’t start another scene. I was just blank. And the blankness continues. All I can write about, and I realize this seems to happen to me frequently, is the fact that I can’t write. AAAUUUGH!!!

I could blame the weather: it became cold and rainy today. It brought on flashbacks to 2013. In 2013, I had signed up for a St. Baldrick’s Day fundraiser. I asked for donations to help cure children’s cancer, then I got my head shaved. That happened June 2. It was swelteringly hot all May. I cursed my hair, which I had not cut for almost two years. I got it shaved. Then the weather turned cold. It was a rainy, miserable June. Then Herkimer flooded on June 30.

You know, I could have expanded that last paragraph into a full blog post, and it would have looked as if I had actually written something. Silly me.

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Posted in blogging, humor, Middle-aged Musings Monday, Monday Mental Meanderings, personal, writing and tagged blog post, not writing, novel, Why I Can't Write a Post, words, Writers Blank. Bookmark the permalink.

Another Doggy Sick Day, Please?

Posted on April 27, 2015 by mohawkvalleygirl

Full disclosure: I don’t really need another doggy sick day. My dog is on the mend. She is not her happy, jumpy self yet, but she drank water, ate food and took her medicine. Phew! Thank you Mohawk Valley Veterinary Services. But, alas, I do not seem to be able to write a really good blog post today.

It happened again. There I was, in the midst of writing a blog post and I started not to like it. I was even editing it, rearranging sentences, adding, subtracting. I always feel like a real writer when I do that.

Oh dear, I can hear the critics now, “You can’t write and edit at the same time! Write first! Get it down! THEN you can look at it and edit!” This is one of those pieces of writing advice given so often that everybody just accepts as true for every writer. Is it true for me? Could be, because I just brought that post to a grinding halt.

The fact is. it is Wrist to Forehead Sunday for me, as it often is. I am in a funk, and I have been in a funk. However, I do not despair. After all, I have my new plan of Finish That Novel May (yes, yes, it wasn’t my idea originally, but it is my plan now). I still have four more days to gear up for that. Four days is certainly enough time to find a way out of my funk.

In the meantime, I tell my critics that I will edit when and where I feel like it. I will pet my dog and take her for a walk as soon as she feels like it. I will write what I can when I can. And hope that I still have readers. Happy Sunday, everybody.

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Posted in blogging, humor, personal, Wrist to Forehead Sunday and tagged blog post, dogs, not writing, sick day, Tabby, Why I Can't Write a Post, writing. Bookmark the permalink.

Random Thoughts at the Laundromat

Posted on August 31, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

I really must get back to running on Saturday mornings and have my Saturday Running Commentary. This week it was better for me to do run on Friday and do laundry on Saturday (today). I suppose I could have written about Friday’s run and published it today. Only I did not write about it on Friday and today I don’t seem to remember that much about it. Ah, middle age.

In the meantime, Saturday is passing and I have no blog post. In desperation, I offer some nonsense I wrote while at the laundromat this morning (I’m not really desperate; I just like the prepositional phrase “in desperation”).

I have discovered that 50 Mystery Classics is not filled with the delightful cheesy nuggets I found in 50 Horror Classics. I’m sure there are some films I could write about. First I am seeking films I can sit through all the way. I tried and discarded two last weekend. As I often say, one must persevere in these things. Um, not necessarily to the end of a movie. In writing a blog post about a movie. Or anything. That is what I mean to persevere at.

A note to new readers, if any: 50 Horror Classics and 50 Mystery Classics are DVD collections I purchased for my husband Steven at the local big box store for a really quite reasonable price. I have written several blog posts about silly movies in the Horror collection.

So here I am writing Another Post About Why I Can’t Write a Post. This one is perhaps destined for my Drafts section, so I can haul it out and hit Publish in an emergency. Um, unless I don’t come up with something else to write about for today. Then this baby is right here for me. (And you see what happened, obviously, although full disclosure: I, for one, saw it coming.)

OK, what I am really doing is killing time in the laundromat while my clothes tumble in the drier. I’ve already folded the first little bunch (confession: some of the sock cuffs seemed a little damp. I hope they don’t mildew). I wrote a letter to a friend, stared at the last things I wrote on my novel, pondered a few other ideas, made a to-do list for the rest of the day. Why I don’t bring a book to the laundromat is beyond me.

I continue to sit here jotting down randoms thoughts and wondering how or if I will use them. Publish them as written? A kind of stream of consciousness patchwork, a sort of modern art, abstract deal. Or could I take each random thought, expend some actual thought on it and come up with several authentic blog posts? The possibility intrigues me.

I am tired of being here and want to get on with my day. I could sit here and list all the things I dislike about doing laundry. Then I could attempt to counteract my grouchiness by listing all the good things or at least the minor compensations.

Oh, but it’s time to stand in front of the drier and stare at the 1:00, waiting for the last sixty seconds to pass.

Hope to see you all on Wrist to Forehead Sunday.

Better Words Are Not Forthcoming

Posted on July 11, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

I am having a Blog Crisis. I started this blog thinking to highlight the Mohawk Valley. I would write ABOUT things, it would not be just a silly diary kind of thing all about me. So why is it, I write a ridiculous thing about not being able to write anything and I get 11 Likes, then I write about the library book sale — a “real” post, so I thought — and one measly Like!

Oh dear, I did not mean “measly,” really. Each and every Like is near and dear to my heart.

But I’m just saying, what am I doing here? Do I really write so much better about not being able to write? Is that really much more interesting than my beloved Mohawk Valley? Oh no, does this mean I am so narcissistic that my writing purely about me is better than my writing about anything else?

SAY IT AIN’T SO!!!

Perhaps my problem is getting so caught up in the number of Likes I get on a given post. Oh, this is getting worse and worse. I’m not only narcissistic, I am dependent on the admiration of others. I must get my validation from outside, not from within!

Oh well, I guess I’m not a particularly valid person to begin with (and I don’t usually go to places where I need to get my parking validated) (sorry, couldn’t resist). But look, I’m over 200 words. We can postpone this existential crisis to another time, possible a Lame Post Friday.

I Must, I Positively Must Write My Blog Post

Posted on May 26, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

It’s another Wrist to Forehead Sunday. Actually the only reason my wrist is on my forehead is that I have not made my blog post yet. I must, I positively must make my blog post.

Unfortunately, I have a dreadful case of Writer’s Blank. I know I have done things I could write a blog post about. I’ve had a rather busy weekend so far. It’s not over yet, because I have Monday off, making a Preview of Coming Attractions perfectly eligible. But when I think I’ve done this, I’ve gone here, I’ve cooked that, I might do the other… I just can’t think of a thing to say about them.

This is not really a post about Why I Can’t Write a Post, because I DON’T KNOW why I can’t seem to write a post. And it’s all very well to say to myself, “Oh, just try.” THAT’S WHAT I’M DOING, DAMMIT! Pardon my French.

I’ve said it before and I will no doubt say it again: writing about not writing is still writing. The funny thing is, as soon as I say it, I stop writing. Do you suppose if I hadn’t started writing about not writing that I could have in fact kept writing?

Well, duh.

I’ll see what I can write about on Monday.

Novel Problem Solving

Posted on February 20, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

This is not going to be the usual Why I Can’t Write a Blog Post Today post. Oh, I did not write a blog post and I’m not exactly going to write one now. I’m going to tell you what I did instead.

I wrote.

I don’t know if I mentioned that my novel has hit another snag. It’s been doing that a lot lately. Then I think of something else to write and I limp along for a few more pages. And then I hit another snag. Oh dear.

I’ve read that when you run into a snag, sometimes it means there is an inherent problem in the work. Bulling your way through is not the best thing to do. Pausing and figuring out the problem is. As long as it does not become an excuse for just not writing the damn thing. Which, for many projects, is actually the right thing to do.

But I digress.

I think my problem with this novel is a problem that often plagues works of fiction: namely, there is no problem. To put that more clearly, the problem WITH the novel is that there are not enough problems IN the novel. I need some more conflict, more obstacles for my characters to overcome. I need a few other things, too, but to get into those would be to tell entirely too much of my plot, so, sorry, let’s stick with the no problem thing.

Knowing what the issue is is unfortunately only half the battle. Now I have to figure out how to solve it. I decided to (1) not beat myself up and (2) not worry if I did not write on the novel for the rest of the week as long as I thought about the novel and what it needed. A rationalization for a mental vacation? Well, who cares if it was, just listen to what happened today.

I sat at my machine at work, thinking (working too; I believe I’ve mentioned I have that sort of a job). I came up with some ideas. I thought some more. I thought I’d better write some notes on a few of these ideas. Of course, writing notes is not the same thing as writing a novel, but sometimes you do what you have to do.

And here is the amazing thing: I sat down and did NOT write notes, I wrote NOVEL! Suddenly, I was deep into an exciting scene that I hadn’t even thought about writing. I was in a character’s head I had not thought I would get into. Ooh, what would come next? Dammit, a fifteen minute break is short!

I couldn’t wait for lunch, when I wrote some more. I am aware, of course, that some of the things we feel most pleased about as we write and immediately after we have written turn out not to be as wonderful as we thought. I don’t care. I wrote on my novel. I can’t wait to see what I write tomorrow.

Although I do hope to get back to writing good blog posts eventually. As always, I hope you’ll stay tuned.

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Posted in humor, personal, writing and tagged blogging, novel, problems, Why I Can't Write a Post, writing. Bookmark the permalink.

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