Writer’s Block

Today I am having a bad case of writer’s block.

It’s a glorious day outside with temperatures in the 60s, and yet other than a short walk with the dogs, I’ve been cooped up at the computer all day. And what do I have to show for my efforts?

Nothing.

I spent some time playing games on Orisinal.com which features very cute animals that jump–my favorite type of game. Sadly, my cute animals, as manipulated by me, died rather quick and violent deaths so the novelty of the games wore off quickly.

Having spent effort on the games, I felt I now deserved a break from the computer. I thought about going outside so the dogs and I could enjoy the sun, but I’d seen a yellowjacket on the trash can on the deck earlier. My neighbor, who had owned the house before selling it to us and moving next door, had mentioned once that her five-year-old son had been bitten by a yellowjacket in the back yard and stung seven times.

Naturally he was terrified to go outside after that, and she hung a jar of yellowjacket bait on the trees, which she’d left when we moved in.

I’ve never been stung by a bee, and I didn’t intend to start now. So I spent some time arranging dog beds and blankets by the sunny patch in front of the door, which I opened. I locked the screen door in case Flacko took it upon himself to push through and attack an unsuspecting hundred-pound dog ambling by, and Mina and Flacko settled themselves to bake in the heat.

Paco, meanwhile, was worn out from his walk that morning, and had been sleeping steadily and quietly, rolled up in a blanket on the papasan chair next to my computer. Evidently he didn’t care for sun as much as he did for food.

I ate a peanut butter sandwich and contemplated my options. There was the mystery I was working on, which was only two pages long. But I still had no plot, which made it a little difficult to continue with the story.

I had some unfinished children’s stories, but when I looked them over, I realized why I had never finished them. They sucked. And the effort involved in pulling them from the depths of suckitude was more than I was capable of.

Unsurprisingly, I got sidetracked at this point and began looking up houses on various Registries of Deeds. I looked up what Chris’s friends had purchased their homes for, and the amounts of mortgage they had taken out. I also checked out a few people from high school who weren’t my friends any longer, but whom I liked to periodically examine online in order to compare my status with theirs.

I spent quite some time on the Middlesex South Registry of Deeds website which covered our current neighborhood and also the house which we were supposed to buy last year, before the sale fell through and we initiated a lawsuit against the owners.

Eventually I ran out of people and houses to look up. The dogs were still sleeping, and I had nothing to write.

Posted by: ssjane | March 26, 2004 | 4:28 pm
Posted in: This Life