Earlier this
month I had to spend a few days in the hospital with a bad back. They took really good care of me and I’ve
been doing better since I got out. I am
taking physical therapy twice a week in a pool.
I think it is great and I’m feeling much better. The only problem is this has put me behind on
several project around the house and my writing. So I’ve been sitting over my tablet for a
couple of days and I am coming up blank!
You would
think it wouldn’t be that difficult to come up with some type of thoughts that
you could put down on paper. I know that
sound crazy in this technology age, but I always put my thoughts on paper BEFORE
I type them into my computer. I’ve
always gotten some “comfort” from feeling the pen in my hand flow across the
paper as the words unfold. And
considering the past few days I have set with my writing pad in my lap and my
pen in my hand and the words just don’t come.
It’s a really strange feeling to just sit and stare at a blank page!
Then a great fear came across me when the
thought drifted through my mind: What if NOTHING
comes into my mind to write about? How long
would I have to sit and be unable to come up with some type of subject that I
could expand upon for my readers? What
if those thoughts NEVER came? How
could I face a BLANK entry on my blog site with NOTHING there?
Now I started
thinking about various times in my life and I’m certain it’s true for others,
when we might have said NOTHING
was going on or maybe NOTHING
had happened. Really we meant that the “every
day” events had occurred, but there was really NOTHING major or earth-shattering going on to talk
about. But I guess that’s somewhat of a
relative prospective to take. Let’s say
your “daily” activities consisted of disarming explosive devices. And during each day’s activities about five
of those devices would explode before you got them disarmed. Today there were only TWO such explosions
that occurred. I guess to some degree
there was really NOTHING to talk
about during the course of the day’s activities!
To some
degree, and that is probably a very small degree, I feel like that today. Normally my pen hits the surface of the paper
and I almost don’t have to think! Once I have my subject in mind the words just
begin to flow as the pen tracks back and forth across the lines of the
page. You might think it almost
impossible to consider that such a thing could happen. But it does!
This is called writer’s block: that condition in which an author loses
the ability to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown. It’s not uncommon either. Professionals who have struggled with this
affliction include authors such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Joseph Mitchell,
comic strip cartoonist Charles M. Schulz and even British songwriter
Adele! Now I am by no means trying to
imply that just because I can’t place a few words together for a personal blog
that I am placing myself in the company of or the talent of those individuals previously
named. But it is nice to know that I’m
not alone and that others, far more professional than I am, have found
themselves with the same dilemma.
Now that I’m
thinking about it I guess I have written quite a few words for this blog even
though I thought I had NOTHING
to say!
THOUGHTFUL GEM
"Look for the good in everyone ---
it's GOT to be in there somewhere!"
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