Writing and My Aching Brain

Writing Is It’s Own Reward?

Says who? There are times when I feel like I have absolutely nothing to write about.

Like today.  Okay, like this whole weekend.

Thinking about writing makes my brain hurt in times like these.  So I start looking for inspiration.  What can I write about?  The hardest part is that I don’t want to write about anything.

Thesn, I do what I am doing right now.  I sit here at the computer, set a time limit, and just put one word after another.  Worry later about whether it makes any sense or not.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love writing – just not all the time.  It occurs to me that this may make writing very similar to meditation.  The less I want to do it, maybe the more important it is that I do do it.  And hope it’s not do-do. Or doo-doo.  I’m not sure.

Here are some of the random thoughts that have occured to me in the last few minutes about writing about nothing.

Jerry Seinfeld had a television series that lasted for, what, nine years, and made the careers of numerous actors and writers.

Annie LaMott’s advice about writing could be summed up in the title to her book, Bird by Bird.  In my current state, word by word.

I think about Ernest Hemingway’s answer when asked how he went about writing a novel.  He said, “First you fix the refrigerator.”

To paraphrase Maslow (I think) — When I am trying to avoid doing something, the whole damn world looks like a refrigerator.  One that needs fixing.  Not a Maytag, obviously.

George Bush filled 8 years of his presidency with nothing to offer. See, nothing can amount to something, even if it is nothing.

Zen master Charlotte Joko Beck wrote an entire book called Nothing Special: Living Zen.

Finally, in my search for what to write about, a post on The Blogging Park was informative and I wouldn’t be satisfied with this if I didn’t mention it – The Ultimate Fighting Writers Block Tip

The key then is to put one word in front of another and march on.  I am now sufficiently inspired to live and write again another day.

Mike

Art via Vince Kusters