Tag Archives: writer’s block

Writer’s block

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The first few days of retirement have been a writer’s wasteland. Then I found a saved draft of Steve Shoemaker’s verse. It was as though it was waiting for just this time. Maybe tomorrow I’ll feel like throwing something away.

Write something, anything

(Was it Malcolm Muggeridge who said if
you can’t write something good, write something
bad that you can throw away.)
…
How do I know what I think till I see what I say?
…
Can ideas be feelings or colors or moods,
or must letters and spaces reveal the mind?
…
Type on an iPhone, computer or pad:
words, sentence, phrases–the good and the bad.
…
Drivel, insight, cliche, Truth–
symbol, allegory, tall-tale, lie;
future, memory, made-of-whole-cloth,
fiction, non-fiction, poetry.
…
Muses, Graces all have wings–they flit and fly away.

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL

another non-original day

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Writers often suffer from writer’s block. Cures for it are suggested by the Purdue University Online Writing Lab. For some of us writer’s block arrives one day in early July and continues into August. Steve emailed this today:

My Dad often quoted

(was it from Burma-Shave road signs?):

“As a rule, man’s a fool,

When it’s hot, he wants it cool.

When it’s cool, he wants it hot.

Always wanting what it’s not!”

(Gordon, yet another non-original day…)

Steve’s not the only one who’s been suffering through unoriginal days. I can’t put two sentences together that seem worth sharing. So…I found this Burma Shave ad on the web…a reminder that sometimes it’s better to keep silent than to contribute to word polution.

Burma Shave ad for writer’s block