Writer's Block

Hi!

I've always been a bit dismissive of those people that complain of writer's block.  I mean, how hard can it be to pick up your pen and jot some ideas down?  Even if you don't crank out a few hundred pages of a new novella, or a paragraph or two of your dissertation - at least you can write something, surely?

So why has it been so long since I last wrote this blog?

My journal (which I write almost daily btw) is full of to-do lists, and always somewhere on that list is "write new blog post".  I know I want to - it's not like I don't enjoy writing!  I LOVE writing!

So I go to my blog page, and have a look at my last few posts.  I weep silently for a few moments at how few page views my stats report, but console myself with knowing they're genuine views and not just bot-produced junk,

And then I think... "What shall I write about today?"
And then...

Hmm...
What shall I write about today?   (Taps pen against pad reflectively)
What.  Shall.  I.  Write?  (Looks out of window.  I spy with my little eye something beginning with...)

OK, Maybe I'll get some inspiration from my trusty Pinterest?
(Lots of pretty pictures, a few TED talks I've earmarked for later, random adverts for food...)

OK, I admit, there is a genuine case for writer's block!
The thing that always seems to trip me up is wondering "What will my readers want to read?"
I worry that my subject will be boring, uninformative, not very funny.  I spend so long trying to think of a riveting subject, I forget that the joy of writing is to just write.

I always sit down and write my posts straight to the site.  I don't make notes, I don't sit on a draft post and go back to it later - I just write a post in one go - and maybe that's where i go wrong?
A friend who also writes tends to have several draft posts on the go, and also makes notes about things she sees or experiences during the day, going back to her drafts and edits them regularly before she publishes. 

I think I'll try and follow her advice for a bit, and see if I can't improve my own blog writing, and banish the dreaded writer's block for good!

Wish me luck!

Why do you write?

I was originally going to title this post why do I write, but soon changed it because I want to engage you, invite you into this as a discussion, rather than me monologue at you.

Now I know that you're not really going to respond to my questions, so it's going to end up as a monologue anyway, but I really do want to interact - and that word there, interact, is the crux of why I write.

In real life, I talk a lot.  But not often.  No.  I don't "interact" very much at all, because I don't think I'm all that interesting and I get the impression people would rather be doing something else.  I get interrupted a lot. I... Hold on. Bullet points would be better here!

1. I assume I'm boring because:
   a) people I'm talking to let other people interrupt me.
   b) they talk over me as if what I'm saying is unimportant.
   c) they're not listening anyway.
   
2. I can't make "small talk". I'm not really bothered where you bought your margarine, or how much your shoes cost.  I'm not concerned if your 8 year old son is playing netball this weekend.  I want to know why you don't see in five dimensions.  I want to hear your ghost stories.  I want to know where your atoms were before you were born.
   
3. When I speak, it's because I have something to add to a conversation or topic. Not because I need to fill silence and not because I want people to notice me.  If I wanted people to notice me, I'd dye my hair pink - but that would be bad. Very bad... because people would notice me. (For the wrong reasons!)

Whoa! - do you see what happened there??  I started off wanting to talk about me, changed it to talking about you (to be polite, and engage you) but immediately shifted back to talking about me!  How crass!  Sorry.  Where were we?

Oh yes - why do you write? What do you gain from committing your thoughts and inner quandaries to the public domain, the global forum?  Is it some form of catharsis?  Is it like a Catholic priest's confessional? Oh, wow!  Are you some Orator - like Socrates?  Or a Diarist - like Pepys??

What do you want to achieve?  Do you want people to read your words for entertainment? Do you want to inform? Do you want to make the World a better place?  Persuade someone through your clever use of argument to change their opinion? 

Maybe you're not a writer - maybe you prefer to read?  OK - in that case this post is only tenuously linked to you, but you could just substitute write for read, and carry on...

The most important question though, is, Why Are You Here? Are you looking for inspiration? Guidance?

Idle Curiosity? Did you search key-words in Google and click on my link or did you click Next... somewhere and end up here by mistake?  Are you searching for blogging enlightenment?  Are you looking for some inner wisdom?  Did you wake up this morning and think "Hang on a sec... Where DID the iron in my blood come from?"

(I can sort of answer that last one, but it'd have to be another time)

Why, why, WHY do you write?  Do you want to know why I write?  Because of this.  Because you - YOU, whoever you are, wherever you are, are right here... HERE... now.  I have touched your life for the (in the Universe's time-frame) briefest moment, and I have connected with you.  Two human beings coming together for a moment.  That is awesome, don't you think?  I have written something, and you are reading it right this moment!  You could be on the other side of the world in 2018, or on Mars Colony in 2156.  You are  listening to me speaking to you, and I am so happy because of this.  So very happy.

Why do I write?  Because I want to connect.  I just want to reach out and touch another person's mind, albeit briefly, and be there - just for a moment, and for that moment, be alive in their mind. I want to help them think, just for a fraction, about who they are, how they connect with other people - and if, as a result, they send someone a letter, or a text, or an email, and connect - then my writing has done what I hope it would do - inspire someone else to write.

So. Why do you write?

Inspiration

Inspiration - such an awesome thing. Where does it come from? The Heart? The Soul?
Two of my favourite pieces of inspiration are:

Desiderata - by Max Erhmann
and
If - by Rudyard Kipling

Edgar Allen Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, Ian Fleming.
Einstein, Galileo, Leonardo-da Vinci, Stephen Hawking.

Captain Scarlet.

The list goes on.
Nature inspires me too - The Weather, The Landscape - Where I live. Where I can go? - how I can get there? Physical travel - bus, train, aircraft, boat? Or Electronic travel? Email, Internet, browsing, surfing? What about TV and Film?
Aliens, Star Wars, Star Trek, Avatar?
X-Files?
Hackers, Swordfish??

24, LOST??? Discovery channel? History Channel?
What bout all those Home-makeover, DIY, Shed-Head programs?
The Salvager, Restoration Man, New Yankee Workshop.

What about Nature programs?
David Attenborough's Blue Planet? Planet Earth??
Michael Palin's Around the World in 80 Days, Pole to Pole, Himalayas?

What about the great explorers, scientists, painters, poets, diarists?
The Greeks and Romans - Pliny, Plato, Plasticine?
OK - that last one wasn't an ancient Greek or Roman, but is inspirational!
Plasticine, LEGO, Meccano.

Each of us find our inspiration in different ways. My wife inspires me, and my daughter inspires me. Most things actually inspire me!
: )