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Tag Archives: Writers Block

I Had a Monstrous Time Trying to Write

I knew earlier today I would make a blog post about Not Writing. I knew it when I got to work early, took out my notebook, put pen to paper, and… no words. I don’t even know how to describe it. I usually say Writer’s Blank, as opposed to Writer’s Block, but it was more than a blank mind. It was a complete lack of mental function. Cue unkind remarks about how my mental facultlies’ functioning is sporadic at best.

At least he managed more than a blank page.

I threw in a picture of Nosferatu so I could combine a whiny I Can’t Write Post with a Monstrous Monday Post. Regular readers know how much I love my monsters.

It was quite the disappointment this morning when my brain refused to work. I suppose some people would have advised me to write anyways, that I was just being lazy or timorous, there’s no such thing as Writer’s Block! They could have a point. I did give up rather quickly.

Maybe my brain had been eaten!

The thing is, sometimes I want to give myself a break. Sometimes I am completely disinclined to sit in front of a blank page feeling huge resistance. Sometimes I just want to open my puzzle book and work on a cryptogram.

Um, I did not pour myself a glass of wine at work.

As I type this (on my Tablet, one letter at a time with the stylus, just to give you the picture), I am suddenly not inclined to let myself off the hook. For heaven’s sake, I say to myself, couldn’t I have written SOMETHING? Perhaps not the project at hand, but another project, a blog post, a letter, anything! Did I even try?

That’s it! We’ll blame it on Monday!

This self-recrimination is useless. I can’t jump into a time machine, return to this morning and try again, a little harder this time, to write. All I can do is work on the next time I put pen to paper.

In the meantime, I am over 300 words and have included a couple monsters. Let’s call it a blog post. Thank you for tuning in.

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Block, Blank, Blob? It’s Tired Tuesday!

Alas, I am having a Tired Tuesday. Many of my days are tired, but today it is at least alliterative. I take my happiness where I find it.

Wow, this is really bad. I just pecked in the above paragraph (one letter at a time with the stylus, feeling happy that I found my stylus again) (speaking of taking my happiness, etc.), then sat here staring at the otherwise blank screen. Earlier today, I opened my notebook (the paper, spiral-bound kind, of course), picked up my pen, and, yes, stared at the blankness.

I’ve said it before: I don’t usually get Writer’s Block, I get Writer’s Blank. I know, I know, the solution is to just write something, anything. Well, that’s what I’m doing, isn’t it? And I gotta say, I am not pleased with what I am writing. Maybe the blank was better (ooh, a little more alliteration!).

How about Writer’s Blob instead?

When in doubt, throw in a picture of a monster and hope for the best. I do feel rather blobbish when I am not writing. It is one of those vicious cycles: I don’t write because I feel blobbish, and I feel blobbish when I do not write. That being the case, I would expect to feel at least marginally less blobbish now.

But blobbish or not, I am over 200 words. I’ll try for a better blog post tomorrow.

I Know! We’ll Blame it on the Weather!

This was actually not the illustration I was looking for.

It is not Writer’s Block; it is Writer’s Blank.  I can pick up a pen (or a stylus as the case may be) and produce words, but they are not the words I want.  When I try to think of characters, scenes, plot… nothing.

Yet I must persevere.

This isn’t it either, but what the hell, it is Tuesday.

I knew I could at least manage a Tired Tuesday Post.  I have been trying to abide by my rule of Any Writing Counts, but so far it has not been working out well.  Today I only made some notes in the TV Journal.  Yesterday I managed a couple of cards, before that a letter.  However, when I put pen to paper and attempt fiction, nothing.

THIS is the one I was looking for!

I really did put pen to paper and try.  I feel this is important.  There are many times (and I feel sure I am not the only one here) when I feel so discouraged, I do not even try.  I will, of course, try again.

In the meantime,  this is yet another blog post about not writing.  I wonder if I can’t find one more illustration, for your amusement and mine.

Me not be dramatic? Dream on!

Perhaps the hot humid weather is to blame for my malaise.  Most likely it is, as usual, operator error.  However, I shall try again tomorrow.  Sooner or later I hope to meet with success.

 

Throwback Thursday about Future Flowers

I have a dreadful case of Writer’s Blank, complicated by the type-it-in-backspace-it-out syndrome.  However, I think I can just about manage a Throwback Thursday Post.

Pretty!

This is discouraging.  The above picture is from May 2017.  In May 2020, my rhododendron has not a bloom to be seen.

I like these too!

Another flower I have not seen yet this year are my irises.  However, since this picture is from June 2017, I do not despair.

Please don’t eat the daisies.

We are also waiting for our daisies.  I’m seeing a lot of greenery for them, so I live in hope.

I LOVE my peonies!

Last year I did not get any peonies at all. I think something came along and ate the whole bush.  How greedy!  However, since I am known to hog down a lot of goodies myself, I suppose I should not criticize.

Pretty little blooms!

Here are my forget-me-nots, which look about like this now.  I previously said they were only out front this year, having inexplicably moved from the back yard.  However, today I noticed that they are also out back.  I am delighted to have these flowers spreading out and taking over my lawn.  I even dare to hope that they will obviate my need to mow, but that may take a few more years.

It is nice to look back on flowers past.  I look forward to more in the future.  I hope to visit the Flower Barn in Ilion to purchase some to plant.  I will certainly make a blog post about it when I so.

 

Am I Write?

I am wondering if today’s post will be Mid-week Middle-aged Musings or Wuss-out Wednesday.   I guess I’ll start typing and see what happens (and by “typing,” of course I mean tapping one letter at a time with the stylus on my Tablet).

Who me? A monster? I suppose it could be.

This is not the illustration I was looking for, but I think it is fitting for a post about not writing.  Today was a particularly dreadful day in that respect.  I could not convince myself to write any post cards or letters (I am running out of post cards in any case).  I did not even make any notes in the TV Journal.  That novel?  I couldn’t even think about it!

Some would say that this is the moment to take myself firmly in hand and Just Write.  What am I stalling for, these people will ask.  Stop being so lazy, they will exhort.  Put pen to paper and get on with it!

My sister Cheryl gave me this, and many agree to its appropriateness.

I think “Oh, stop dilly dallying” is  kinder exhortation than “Stop being so lazy!”  The question is how I will respond to any exhortations.

OK.  I just typed in about five sentences after the word “exhortations” and backspaced them out.  I guess trying to make a blog post has not cured my malaise.  No matter.  I am over 200 words.  Perhaps after I hit Publish I will take up a pen and try again.

THIS is the illustration I was looking for!

 

Apparently I Can Write a Blog Post

I can’t have a Monstrous Tuesday; it’s not alliterative!  But here I am, doing nothing but read other blogs or look at Facebook when I meant to be making today’s post.  I should perhaps mention I am having a dreadful bout of Writer’s Blank.  At least, maybe this time it really is Writer’s Block, because there are words in my head that I intend to write.  Only when I sit down and put pen to paper, nothing comes out.

I found this gem by typing “monsters writing” into the search bar on Facebook.

Maybe it really is a discipline thing.  Perhaps if I gritted my teeth and forced myself to write the words I was thinking… Look, I already get sore muscles in my temples from grinding my teeth in my sleep, I do NOT need any more teeth gritting.  I really did sit down and write a sentence, which I immediately hated.  Oh, it was not the sentence you see at the top of this post.  I was trying to write my articles for Mohawk Valley Living magazine.

I imagine this was done with some gritted teeth.

I seem to follow a pattern with almost everything I write:  I can’t write it, I can’t write it, I can’t write it, I sit down and write it.  And I have yet to figure out how to skip any of the “I can’t write it”s.  I like to think the picture above is what might result if I tried.  For the uninitiated, it is from the 1980 movie The Shining, adapted from the Steven King book (by the way, they changed a LOT).  The main character is a writer, and this is all he has managed to come up with.

And now here I am approaching 300 words after I thought I couldn’t write at all.  So I guess that is one solution:  if you can’t write one thing, try something else.  Maybe I will be able to segue over to my articles next.  In the meantime, I’m going to call this a Tired Tuesday and drive on.  Maybe one picture of Nosferatu, just to cheer myself up.

“Wasn’t I supposed to be here on Monstrous Monday?”

 

I Think the Word was “Conflict”

It is Wuss-out Wednesday, and it is going to be a Wuss-out Wednesday blog post, and you can read it and enjoy it or ignore it.  You can do that as a reader.  As a blogger, I have to post (“The blog must go on!” I say in a dramatic tone of voice, posing in a half swoon, with one wrist to my forehead) (THAT’S IT!!! It’s Wrist to Forehead Wednesday! Damn!)

OK, now I’m getting silly.  I just searched WordPress blogs for Writer’s Block and find that I am not alone.  Oddly enough, not one of the posts I looked at claimed that “there just ain’t no sech animal” as Writer’s Block, a contention I have heard on many occasions (with or without the hillbilly wording).  They may have something at that, as I see I am over 100 words already.  It is almost never impossible to write SOMETHING.  But to write something good?  As Hamlet once emoted, “Ay, there’s the rub!”

I spent my breaks at work trying to work on a project which ought to have been done by now (I dare not tell you what project, because I don’t want people who know about it to know it is not yet finished) (in fact, already I’ve said too much).  I couldn’t do it!  I managed to write some notes, which is more useful than it sounds.  Then I started to write another note and completely blanked on a word.

WHAT THE HELL IS THAT ALL ABOUT???  I asked myself.  Have I gone senile?  Is it early onset Alzheimer’s? Yes, I am a self-dramatizing fool (see wrist to forehead pose in the first paragraph).  I daresay I’m no stupider than I was yesterday (cue jokes about how that is quite stupid enough).   Still, it is upsetting when one cannot think of a word or even a reasonable substitute.

I think I like it better when I share pictures from monster movies on these days when I just don’t have a blog post.  I may do that tomorrow on Non-Sequitur Thursday.  As always, I hope you’ll stay tuned.

 

Nobody’s Perfect

Likewise blog posts.

Yes, it is another post about How I Can’t Write a Post Today.  Or much of anything else.  However, I do have a fascination with writing about not writing.  By the way, I stole the above image from a Facebook page I follow called Writing About Writing.  The fellow that runs it writes a blog, but full disclosure:  I don’t follow the blog.  Come to think about it, none of the blogs I follow are about writing per se.  I wonder what that says about me?  To answer that would probably call for some half-baked philosophy more suitable to Lame Post Friday than Monday Mental Meanderings.

As you may guess by the plethora of lame posts lately, I continue to have difficulty with my writing.  Sometimes it is a question of just not sitting down and getting to it.  However, whenever I do sit myself down, it seems that nothing happens.  I know, one must persevere, and I will.  I’ll let you know as soon as I get some results.

I would like to share with you the actual projects I am having difficulties with.  However, that would be to advertise to the world how close I have come to the deadlines and nothing to show for it.  Oh dear, what if the people I am writing for read this blog?  I’m hard at work!  I’ve finished those projects!  Everything is great!  Not writing?  Me? You must be daft! I am prolific as the day is long!

They say you mustn’t worry what people think, about writing and everything else.  However, right now, the thought of people counting on me, feeling certain that I have written or am writing wonderful things for them… well, it makes me want to finish off this blog post and get back to work on them.  Writer’s Block?  Pshaw!  Never heard of it!

 

Never Give Up! Never Surrender!

Earlier this evening, I wrote the following two paragraphs:

Is this Writer’s Block or a panic attack?

OK, I just wrote that, so it isn’t Writer’s Block, although maybe you could call it Write Anything Good Block.  I have to leave soon for rehearsal for He Laughed Himself to Death, the murder mystery to be presented at Morning Star Methodist Church April 1, and I’m afraid I am letting myself become overwhelmed with what-all I have to do.   How self-dramatizing of me.  Then again, with all the theatre I’m involved in, how can you blame me for being dramatic?  I know, I know, a time and a place.

Then I went to rehearsal, after deciding to get a grip on myself.  In my defense, it has been rather a dreadful week, and it seems to be taking forever.  However, I have plenty of blessing to count, and I must not discount them.  I have a daunting amount of things to get done, but I feel certain that if I can make the right plan, I can get most or all of them done.

As you see, I am in a better mood now.

Rehearsal went very well.  I think He Laughed Himself to Death is going to be a great success.  As we left rehearsal, Charity, the actress playing my daughter, called her father, Jerry, for a ride.  Jerry has agreed to be in Who Shot JS?, the murder mystery benefit for Herkimer County Historical Society April 22. Charity asked me to wait till her father got there, because he had to ask me something.  I thought it must be about rehearsals or rides or something.  When Jerry arrived, he got out of the car carrying a beautiful bouquet.  He thought I could use a little pick me up.

Do I have the sweetest friends or what?

So here is my reminder to myself to not surrender to these little panic attacks.  Just take a deep breath and go to rehearsal.  You just never know when a wonderful friend is going to give you a lovely surprise.  Thank you, Jerry.  And happy Thursday, readers.

I put them in water right away.

I Ax You: Is This a Good Picture of Me?

 

Oh I am having a dreadful case of Writer’s Block.  Seriously, my brain is blocking me from writing this post (I know, I know, that’s not writing, that’s typing, as Truman Capote said).  It is Tired Tuesday, but I truly did not want to spend 200 or so words whining about how tired I am and how I can’t think of anything to write.  So I went to my new standby: looking through photos we’ve downloaded to this laptop and picking a few to write about.  I had found some good ones of me and my husband, Steven.

I don’t want to post any pictures of me!  I don’t even like looking at pictures of me!  Many people feel this way.  Most of us look better in pictures to others than we look to ourselves.  I can’t tell you how many times people have said, “Oh, what a great picture of you,” and I have thought, “Wow, I’m not nearly as cute as I think I am.”  I don’t even like to have my own picture as my Facebook profile.  This is what I currently have:

14601127_569210533270207_287460256763850175_n

I was having a Lizzie Borden kind of a day.

The caption doesn’t show on my Facebook.  I prefer threatening people with an ax on general principles, not to get candy.  I can buy candy.

Oh, OK, I have never actually threatened anybody with an ax in real life.  On stage once, I held an ax over the guy who was playing my husband, after I had shot him and he had fallen on the floor. However, I was not threatening; I actually brought the thing down on that bastard.  He had it coming.  This was in Roxy, a play about Roxalana Druse, a famous local murderess. Herkimer County Historical Society presented it at Ilion Little Theatre in September of 2015.  Perhaps you read some of my blog posts about it at the time.

So now I am over 300 words.  Whined a little, showed a picture, shared a memory.  I call that all right for a Tired Tuesday.  Now I’m off to my rehearsal for Steel Magnolias at Ilion Little Theatre.  Maybe I can find my Tablet and take pictures of the progress made on the set.  I think it’s looking pretty good, and will make a marvelous Wordless Wednesday post.  Hope to see you then.