Blogger’s Block

StuckInMud

What do you do when you don’t feel like writing anything?  I suppose I am about to find out.

Before I started this blogging project, I was advised to publish on a regular schedule.  I chose Friday mornings because, well, it just seemed like as good a time and as good an interval as any.

And I can say that in nearly three years I have largely fulfilled my responsiblity to have something fresh for you to read in this little corner of the universe each week.  Yes, I have punted a time or two with some abnormally short pieces, but those have been the rare exception.  It is with no small amount of pride that I can say that I have yet to resort to re-runs.

If I were better disciplined I would have multiple things lined up and set to publish so that I could get through three or four weeks without needing to worry about that one bad stretch where I cannot find the time or the inspiration to write about something.  But I am not better disciplined, at least not here.

Yes, I have probably fifteen pieces in various states of unfinishedness.  Some of them require more thought, some of them were an initial thought that will probably never flesh out enough to hit “publish” and a few were ideas born from certain events that have faded from relevance.

Many times I have picked through that junkpile of verbage (why is it never nounage?) and found a substantial enough piece of word-clay to mold into a finished post.  But not always, which happens when I have been through a stretch in which I have lacked time, inspiration, or both.  OK, actually this was one of them from a time a week or two when I found myself in the same spot.

So here we are.

The thing I am having trouble with is this: Am I having trouble making time and getting inspiration because I am running out of things to say?  Am I running out of interesting things and ideas to share?  Or am I just temporarily out of gas because of some of the too-many things going on in my life at the moment.

1969PontiacGTOSilver09

I proved that I can still find some inspiration when the mood hits, like when I found a 1969 Pontiac GTO to write about over at Curbside Classic.  It was silver, which I found interesting because 1) I had never seen a silver ’60s GTO in my life and 2) because it was the exact color of the Pontiac sedan my grandma bought new that year.

And I will admit that I got a good strong temporary charge of enthusiasm from Dizzy Gillespie’s Salt Peanuts a couple of weeks ago.  But otherwise, I am getting sick of our country’s dysfunctional politics where there are no consistent principles beyond whether something benefits “us” or “them”, leaving me in a state of “I’m not sure I care anymore.”

Perhaps I am fighting a case of the blahs brought on by challenges at work, with my ailing mother, and some other things going on at the moment.

Or maybe I am in too much of a personal rut with all of the kids out of the house this summer and 2/3 of them out of town.  I had a pretty good Fathers’ Day, so perhaps I should write about that.

But right now it is 12:20 pm on Thursday and I have a deadline looming.  Faced with not enough time to develop something worth saying, well . . . .

I know, I should have started earlier.  That is my mother of German descent talking.  That upbringing saved me here early on, and it remains as true as ever.  But I did not start earlier, so we will all just have to deal with it.

A weekend is upon us and it is summer time.  There are walks to take, breaded tenderloin sandwiches to eat and plenty of projects to do around the house.  Plus I have some plans for this weekend that promise to be enjoyable.

So perhaps things will have turned around when you check back next week.  I hope so because I get tremendous enjoyment from this enterprise, not  the least part of which is all of you who come here.

Photo sources:

Unmodified opening photo of Ford Model T hopelessly mired in the mud during a 1909 endurance race – from the Flickr page of The Henry Ford, and found at https://www.flickr.com/photos/thehenryford/5266976830.  Free use for noncommercial purposes.

1969 Pontiac GTO – photo by the author.

12 thoughts on “Blogger’s Block”

  1. Drawing a blank on what to say? Have a few inspired sentences but not enough to extrapolate it to an entire post? The thought isn’t fully forming? The spark hit but extinguished itself before you could feed it?

    It happens, all is good, we are all susceptible to it.

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  3. Hmm, well you didn’t specifically ask for suggestions but since we don’t have much else to talk about here goes:

    For starts, why not vacation in Canada? Our federal politics is remarkably united at the moment (and you can probably guess why) although opinion is currently divided on our Prime Minister’s choice of socks, and his eyebrow detailing. I think everyone likes Sophie and the kids at the moment too, so I guess we’re a world leader in that respect.

    You haven’t done any jazz guitar posts, maybe something on Django Reinhart which admittedly is low hanging fruit. Or why did Pat Metheny always wear that same striped shirt for 20 years? Or why can’t I find a reasonable price on a good used Epiphone Emperor Regent?

    Or you could write about your Miata, since you’re a self admitted serial car philanderer you’ve been mostly faithful to it for quite a while.

    How much more can we write about our mothers? Mine is fading, still enjoying being at home but we can see the end of that in sight. At least Dad’s more spry than he’s been in years thanks to new knees.

    Hope that helps, I’ll be painting my co-worker’s windows this afternoon. Isaiah 1:17 doesn’t specifically say anything about painting widows’ windows, but that probably falls under the “Learn to do good” part. We’ll see if I learn anything

    Cheers!

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  4. For someone with “nothing” to blog, you have done a fine job this morning communicating to your readers the sense of a familiar feeling that just about all thinking people run into now and then, especially when a lot of stuff is going on in a full life.

    Be it periodic block, or a small and temporary burn-out, sometimes one just needs to stop. For a while. And as this is your blog, you can pretty much do what you want.

    As Mel Brooks said in “History Of The World (Part 1): “It’s good to be king”.

    Besides, you’ve already put out a thoughtful entry for this Friday.

    Maybe later, it’ll be time to get that 1938 Benny Goodman Carnegie Hall single mike two CD recording and listen to the whole thing, scratches and all. Yes, even Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen. And when they do the first encore and the audience starts to clap in unison, you’ll know immediately when Mr. Goodman gives them that “stop doing that” look.

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    • Haha, thanks for the encouraging words, RL. I think I do best when I can get an idea and pound out 5 or 6 quick paragraphs, then let the thoughts swirl and percolate. And it has been awhile since I have played that CD. Perhaps if I combine that with some painting . . .

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  5. You are a much more thoughtful blogger than me. My nounage generally conisists of word vomit with no proof reading and hitting publish at 2am. I suppose there’s a time and a place for everything right?

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    • I have employed your method a time or two, although a lot earlier than 2 am. I don’t do 2 am any more. Barfing into a keyboard can sometimes work. I am in awe that you can make it work constantly.

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  6. If you need something to write about, how about “breaded tenderloin sandwiches”? This California boy (well, not quite a boy as I’m a few years older than you, I think) can’t quite imagine what that could be, especially since the first thing that comes to my mind is San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood, notorious for is street crime. And, besides, in a sense, aren’t all sandwiches are breaded? Or is it breaded meat between two slices of bread? Pork or beef tenderloin? In any case, sounds like heavy food more suitable for winter than a hot and humid Midwestern summer. I think the topic is worthy of a few hundred words at least.

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