Life and Island Times July 28 2016 – Writer’s Block

This one is from 2015.

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There it was again. A blank, white screen, devoid of black snowflakes. It was insistent that it be filled. Marlow could not respond. He was blocked.

Writer’s Block by Adam Scott Rote

Writer’s block sounded like a bad medical condition. Was it permanent this time? The end of his invention?

He had lots of topics, events and thoughts about which to write. He had tried endlessly typing and then erasing, always ending up staring at a blank screen. In a town full of characters, narratives, and history, this was always the easiest problem to solve.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t commit to any of the ideas, or that they petered out after a few paragraphs. In the past he had had cool ideas that led to dead ends. He even had tried writing about dumb ideas to get his motor revving. Still nothing.

He had outlines and idea pieces, but none engaged him. Perhaps there was a flow issue getting from point A to point C, because point B made no sense. He admitted that some of the problem was due to the boring parts that he hated to write. He oftentimes in these situations would get sidetracked into very cool tangentials that should and could have stood on their own.

There were many ways to proceed he had employed in the past. Vignettes, short stories and novels abounded. The words were still not coming.

Being bored with his characters was not the problem. They always said and did things. They were bold and vibrant. Admittedly some weren’t interesting or did not fit the flow. At these times he would wield the knife, shelving them for later use.

Much success had been had in the past by submitting to his darkest fears – writing about of worst case outcomes he had seen or experienced. He tried this twice during this latest walkabout in his whited out world to no avail.

Perhaps just dropping in to see what his condition was in would work. “Dope and Roll?” Psychedelia had been a long ago way station on his life’s tracks. Sadly, it never led to anything of worth.

Phasing, backward mastering and a trippy vibe had worked wonders for Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles. His mind was already in a brown paper bag. Painting “April Fool” in big black letters on the “Dead End’ sign outside his island’s cemetery just might work.

Yeah, yeah, oh-yeah

Copyright © 2016 From My Isle Seat