Feeling Stumped

Can’t think.
Brain dumb.
Inspiration won’t come.
Poor ink.
Bum Pen.
Best Wishes.
Amen.

The above poem keeps running through my head. I had this book in elementary school that listed different creative ways to sign a yearbook and the prose above was one of the choices. What was it about that poem that stuck with me? How do some written words stay with you for life, while others disappear without a second thought.

Writing this blog is much harder than I thought. Each day I am challenged to come up with something mesmerizing, something fascinating for you guys to read. My life has its moments of excitement, but like most people, there are many ordinary days. You know those days. You get up, go to work, pick up some groceries on the way home, play with your kid(s), eat some dinner, go to bed and start the same routine over the next day.

I want to be the kind of author that my readers are eager to read. I want to inspire the kind of loyalty that we all have to specific favorite writers. You enjoy their work so much that you keep coming back for more. You have the intense desire to know what happens next and you can’t wait until you can read it. Would people be as devoted to Stephen King if he spent a page describing what his character had for lunch? (I had a pizza bagel today, just in case that kind of information does rock your world.)

I have racked my brain, stopped and started numerous ideas today, and nothing seems to work for me. So instead of some novel post, you are getting my poem called “Writer’s block.”

Woke up and felt like a fool.
Couldn’t write anything cool.
Made a lame attempt to create a rhyme
That you’d quote back, time after time.
Although I gave it the old college try.
It’s time to close this post and say good-bye.

What are the odds some of you will be quoting THAT stunning work of poetry 25 years from now? Then again, it’s amazing what stays with you. Twenty five years ago, I thought the poem I started this post with was just one of hundreds I read. I can’t quote you The Raven, but I can quote you Feeling Stumped. Guess there is hope for me as a writer yet.