Perpetual Ruminations

Broken Block

Is the block broken? We can only hope.

Blockage is a terrible thing. In the digestive system, blockage means you can't poop and, over time, will start to have crappy ideas. For us who write, blockage means there aren't any ideas flowing, not even crappy ones. That's right, a writer can sit and grunt, push, and turn redder than ever and not get a single crappy thing out.

That's been my case for a while now. It's been years since I wrote a story, and it's been almost a year since I pumped out any poems, I think. No matter how long, it's been a while, and it seems the more I try to write, the more difficult it becomes; that is the way of writer's block. But today it seems the blockage broke.

"For how long?" you ask.

"Who knows?" I answer.

I hope it's gone forever, it was terrible wanting needing to write but not being able to. For a writer, there's not much worse than sitting and staring at a blank page, except for sitting and staring at a blank screen.

As I was saying before, you interrupted me with your question, this morning I broke the block. I woke up at four o'clock and could not get back to sleep. I tried, but after a few minutes of lying there with all sorts of gobbledygook running through my head, I decided I may as well get up.

And so I did; I got up and started coffee. As I waited for the coffee, I scrambled a couple of eggs for my extra-early breakfast. After, I took my coffee to the living room, got comfortable in my recliner, and logged into WdC. This time of day (still night in my book), there's not a lot going on, as most normal people are still sleeping.

But, as I wandered the site, I started to have this idea brewing about groundhogs and woodchucks, which are the same critter, so today could be referred to as either Groundhog or Woodchuck Day. As the idea continued to brew in my half-asleep brain, I knew I needed to write it out before it faded away into yet another ghost of a story unwritten.

I was concerned that once I started to write this short tale, it would fade away as so many other stories did as a result of the blockage, but this morning, the idea continued to flow, and soon, I had an entertaining little tale written.

It may not seem like much, but for me it's hope the blockage is broken and I'll be writing again. I'm excited and feeling a bit giddy.

And, if you're interested, you can find my tale here:

         "Woodchuck Day"