A Writer's Bloc

Good morning.  It's Monday again.  Don't you love Monday mornings?  You know, a reminder how short you weekend seemed to be and how long your week is going to be?

Seriously, though.  I figured I just write a little blog about bloc.  As in writer's bloc. The disability of a writer to produce new work.  Which is, for me, usually lasts a few days.  Though on occasion, it has lasted several months.

I find the practice of writing should be a routine.  So I am usually up at 5 am to get something done.  This morning, I was up earlier, so I decided to put in even more time than usual.

First, I fire up the coffeemaker.  Definitely need the caffeine.  I turn on the computer.  I then sit at my keyboard, not the computer kind, but an EMI.  I run up the keys, playing chords in different octaves.  I find this helps eliminate cramps in the fingers  when I am working on the computer keyboard. (As an aside, I am fortunate not to have back problems, and I attest this as my training as a pianist.  It is really all in the posture.)

After pouring my coffee, I sit at the computer and open my manuscript file.  I watch as the cursor blinks, and blinks, and blinks some more. This when on for at least ten minutes.

I write a sentence.  Then I read it aloud.   Realizing how awful it sounded,  I erased it.  I did this several times and I realize I am at a loss at what to write.

So I go back to the EMI,  and play a rendition of Chopin's Piano Concerto No 2, but in Prestissimo, figuring that the fast pace would fire up my synapses.  It failed miserably.

Okay, a hot shower might help.  So I take a long one.  I can say I felt cleaner and I thought I had a new perspective, but after sitting back down at the computer, I knew it wasn't the case.

I figured maybe a walk in the early morning fall air might help.  I took my camera with me, maybe I can get in a couple of decent shots.  I was trying work out my problem as I walked, but I just couldn't get past it.  Also,the shots weren't there, or maybe I saw them as a redundancy, duplicating ones I took earlier.  Or I missed then all together because I was so focused on my problem.

I return home about twenty minutes later, having done nothing productive in that time.  Sitting back at the computer,   I see that darn blinking cursor again.  It seems to be mocking me.

"Laugh at me will you!   Here, take this!"   I bang out a few sentences.  I reread them, and was satisfied that is was adequate enough for this first draft.  There will be a stage 1 rewrite most likely anyways.

I was lucky this time.  There is were times where I just couldn't write down anything. Even if I could, they were just some gibberish no one could understand.

Now, here I am writing this blog.  This would constitute as writing, right?  Wow, the irony is that.

How do you deal with your own writer's bloc?