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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: Inspiration/Block (for the writer) (05/20/10)
As a writer I have a risk gene.


No, I haven't climbed Mount Everest, or jumped from a plane-yet. But I did some writing at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

As a writer, like a mountain climber stuck on the precipice of a mountain, we can wish that our pen were a pickaxe carving a way out from our clouded mind. But suddenly, the clouds that once blinded us disappear, and we rise in panoramic celebration over the world we conquer.

One should take risks when writing. But what should you do when the inkwell of your mind has run dry? I tend to write when my mind is blank, like a blind man running without a cane. I'd say that's dangerous. Sometimes I leap off into to my created world and start-freefalling, rushing into my words as if I had a death wish.

I admire the solitary climber, or hiker, who fears nothing. The one who takes the mountain wall as a temporary setback, and finds heroic means to circumnavigate it. I have been known to slip on a word or two. I may not be the most adventurous fellow, but I will take chances on words, even if my mind feels like wet moss.


Writer's block is dangerous, when your characters are strung out with no place else to go. A trapped character can grow freakish. Same with any writer: freedom can be a wellspring of inspiration, but confinement to writer's environment can make your mind feel like it's in a straightjacket. Your thoughts need not feel confined.

I have some tips I want to share with you. It will help create the atmosphere for inspiration, and melt that writer's block, like a supernova slamming the iceberg in your head.

Dear Wannabe's:

Here is the dispensation of my list, free of charge from an exotic location where I see "White Elephants." After all, if I want to be the next Ernest Hemmingway, I must live what I write.

Top Five Ways To Break Writer's Block:

1. Read more books that take you to exotic locations, or pretend you can fly like a superhero, just don't let your cape get in the way of your keyboard.
2. Sleep more: dreams are like pearls in your clammy brain waiting to surface.
3. Socialize more with friends and family, don't be a couch magnet, set cameras up if you have to. It's way better than TV.
4. Pray and sing, as if you're a prisoner in your own house. Your mind will soon learn the true meaning of freedom.
5. Get...


"Tommy!!! What ya doin down in the basement? Come get your grilled cheeze!"

"Ma! I'm workin already, you know I'm a writer! Cut me some slack."

"It's cold already!"

I can't work like this; it's no place for inspiration. The pipes are sweating, and dear mother is doting over me. How should I ever finish my story?

"Tommy! Don't make me come down there!"

"Oh no. Just a minute!"

5. Get...living! Live life on the edge. Travel the world. If not, you should do the next best thing: get a high-rise apartment.

Sincerely:
Tommy Ledbetter
Blogfog.com
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This article has been read 846 times
Member Comments
Member
Date
AnneRene' Capp
05/30/10
Love all the light-hearted humor in this. Very fun read!
Brenda Shipman
05/31/10
I think you GET what the writing life is all about. A few glitches with punctuation (nothing major), but the visualization in this entry is fantastic! Loved your opening line; you carried that "risk" theme throughout your article. Great tips about breaking the block! I also liked that little dialogue interruption you threw in there - it broke up the pace and made it more interesting. Clever use of the "writer's edge" and illustrating it with Mt. Everest, jumping out of an airplane, and high-rise apartments. I really like this!