Stuff that I Have Noticed #75: Writing Ideas

• Posted on 5th March 2024
• in Entertainment, entertainment books
• by Ben

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Since publishing my memoirs a few years ago it has been my practice to write an essay at least every couple of weeks or so. The subjects are wide ranging from reminiscences to new ideas (to me anyhow). I recently became aware that I haven’t written anything for almost a month.

What happened? Has my muse departed? I have no idea so I decided simply to begin and see what comes out.

I wrote this recently during my least favorite month, February. BTW “February” seems to be the most mispronounced month. Most folks say Feb-u-ary when the correct pronunciation is Feb-RU-ary. (I know, I know my pedantry about English can be annoying.)

Anyhow, nit picking aside, maybe it’s the cold, dank weather that quashes my creativity or perhaps it’s simply sloth. Although writing is an activity I usually find pleasurable there are times, such as now, when new ideas are absent. Natalie Goldberg has written an excellent book entitled Writing Down the Bones in which she advises one, in the absence of an idea, to just start typing and see what comes. That is what I’m doing now and we’ll see if it produces anything worth reading.

Maybe my lack of creativity is a withdrawal symptom seeing as how the NFL season recently ended with a very good Super Bowl. If you are a regular reader of my stuff you know that I love pro football. Being an “immigrant” New Yorker I’m a fan of both the Giants and Jets. (When they play each other I root for the offenses.)

There is no shortage of topics in which I’m either interested or curious or opinionated but none of these is attacking me today. And that is exactly what ideas do, they attack.

It’s not unusual for them to attack as I’m in bed about to go to sleep. When that happens I get my phone from my bedside table and dictate a few key words to jog my memory in the morning. Unfortunately I often play back what I recorded and get mphj budhbv grunt flebd jolnbcy or some such gibberish which is more than somewhat useless. If any of my fellow “essayists” should chance to read this I am open to suggestions on how to alleviate the blockage.

So anyhow here are four-hundred and eight words comprising a few dozen sentences about … nothing. Sorry to have wasted your time.

Tags: blank page, ideas, inspiration