Blog

Ohio weather is far behind, and I hope my friends are comfortable and warm.

 

While I have been away enjoying the simple pleasures of South Carolina and the temperatures in the high 70s and 80s, my writing has continued. In fact, my word production has increased. I decided Hemmingway was not any more disciplined than me. He lived among chickens, cats, gin, and heat in Key West, Florida, and never missed a beat. Gee that must have been fun. I may need to run out and get a few bottles of gin.

 

Unfortunately, a writer spends long periods alone, banging away at the computer keys. Hemmingway was a gregarious personality; I wonder if all his alone time caught up with him. Memo to self: get out more!

 

In my mind, I often close my eyes and visualize a thought entering my eyes and pushing its way through the folds of my brain, powered by neurons and synapses. I imagine bursts of emitted light in the interior of my brain's housing group and wonder if there are crunching sounds as my tiny idea fights through accumulated memories and sealed-off passageways. And when the idea stops transmitting, something in my brain takes a sledgehammer to the memory vault and clears the way for the right word or emotion.

 

I smile as I realize it's me cutting and slashing my way through a triple-canopy jungle with a machete, knowing I have to reach my objective or fail. 

 

The objective!

 

Trying to find the one word that will allow me to continue writing...my objective for that moment.

 

My brain is like the Library of Congress, a vast, spacious room with stacks of volumes covered in dust. Just waiting for me to grab and devour the contents. 

 

A book opens on a page, and my brain reads it. This is the one thought I never forget and always repeat to myself. 

 

"Write what you are knowledgeable about and passionate about."

 

That is why I never have writer's block.

I have trained my mind to chisel and hammer its way through the recesses of my brain and never quit until it figures out the next step. Train the brain...wow, I have such a clever slogan!

 

My advice is to make your brain your best friend. Remind it that "What the mind can conceive and believe in, it can achieve."

 

You must work your brain hard! You are the master, and it will eventually do what you want!