Nuthin’
Pretty damn sad when a writer has nothing to say. Nada. Zip. Zilch. The big ze-ro. Oh I have a myriad of excuses that I could lay out like a nervous merchant spreading his trinkets on a carpet before the King as he passes by in the bazaar, but these excuses du jour count for little in the grand scope of “all things writing.” To be a writer means to write: daily, frequently, in spurts, sessions, or moments of freedom. The operative word here, of course, is “write,” or as defined in the dictionary: to form (as characters or symbols) on a surface with an instrument (as a pen). Ah, so it would follow that this means some sort of “action” on my part, an effort expended to produce words and sentences yielding on rare occasions that delicate fruit called coherent thought.
I started to write this morning about my own Freaky Friday syndrome, not because I’ve switched life-roles (heaven forbid) with my son who’s two weeks into the college life, but because I’ve only managed to post something on the last three consecutive Fridays. Surely there’s symbolism in that somewhere, somehow, but I think I’ll spoil some therapist’s dream and choose instead to ignore a search for meaning in that odd pattern. Seems too coincidental to ignore, but between my back issues and the day job life has been unusually distracting from more important pursuits such as daily blog writing. After all, blog writing is where the big bucks are, right?
Consumed by the mystery of “why am I blogging only on three consecutive Fridays,” I invested oh, about 10 seconds pondering this enigma then decided to have breakfast instead: almond oats ‘n honey cereal with organic blueberries. I could mumble something about being able to think better on a full tummy, but the truth is my breakfast held more interest to me than the reasons behind an odd pattern of blog posting. Sometimes we need to just accept things as they are and not search for meaning. But one important realization did surface: I blog to keep my hand moving and my mind converting thoughts to form, and doing so only once a week provides little exercise of this yet too easily promotes lethargy, one of many banes of a writer’s existence. Hopefully, starting with this post, I’ll be back blogging consistently, unless that unopened package of organic raspberries in the freezer distracts me from my purpose. That may not be a good reason to avoid writing a morning blog post, but you have to agree it’s a tasty one.
3 Responses to “Nuthin’”
Is it coincidence that not only are you interested in writing regularly again at this time, but so am I and Alan Macey (http://www.alanmacey.com/b2trackback.php/713)?
Hmmm. I just got back from forcing a group of college students to spend 5 minutes writing about nothing, and then I announced they’d have to whip up something worthy of posting online from that nothingness. Yes, I am Satan Spawn…but having a taskmaster can be incredibly motivating.
Actually, I’m a liar. We didn’t start with “nothing” exactly. Instead, I gave my writing students a goofy writing prompt: I popped in a cheesy video of (get this) a roaring fire, a gag birthday gift I received as a “replacement” for the fireplace I no longer have. Since I don’t have a TV/VCR, the only place I can “enjoy” my “virtual fireplace” is at school…and hence a crazy, first-day writing prompt is born!
So, here is your assignment (if you dare to accept it…)
You’ve written about Freaky Fridays…now I want to hear about fires and/or fireplaces. Why have a fireplace in Houston? Have you ever been in a burnt out house? Any creepy around-the-campfire ghost stories? Beside the fire love scenes? Pick a fire, any fire, and write about it: quick. Five minutes, starting now: keep you hand moving or else.
Class dismissed.
PS: Oh yeah, I forgot the most important part. I DARE YOU TO. [evil laughter]