Inspiration III

There are times when the blank computer screen is a daunting foe. Like now, for instance. It becomes much easier to write about writing than it is to actually write. This is my own fault at this point -accustomed as I am to writing extremely short (under 2000 words) stories. I have found this to be a fun if slightly masturbatorial experience, and so I endeavor for a higher word count. Right there. The brick wall comes up and everything seems hopeless. I've already committed more words on my opinion of writing today than I have on actually writing something.

So I will turn to a third point of inspiration: Handwriting.

I have found it useful in the past to pull out an unused notebook and a mechanical pencil and start writing. Sometimes I start with one word over and over and over again. Sometimes I fill a page with that, sometimes more than one. But then something weird starts to happen around the five hundredth time I've written the same word (besides hand cramp). Words start to flow. And sometimes they are rather clever, and I'm amazed that I had that in me. Sometimes they are not, and it's just a dull exercise. Either way, there is production where once there was nothing. And that's worth something? I guess.