I’ve decided that I need to be more regular in updating my blog and as such I am harvesting some ideas from older notes for a few of my latest blog posts.

My current dilemma is what most people call writers block but I tend to be a bit dramatic so I like to refer to it as “the proverbial brick wall.” It has a nice combination of legend and pain.

One would think that a pandemic in which you are forced to restrict all physical contact with everyone would be perfect for getting some writing done. One could think this but one would be wrong.

Writing during a pandemic has been near impossible for me to do without being affected by any emotion associated with the pandemic.

Consider the cliche and somewhat comedic, “It was a dark and stormy night.” During a pandemic a “dark and stormy night” is a walk in the park and does not achieve what the writer intended to create , a foreboding atmosphere. To truly capture the feeling of impending doom, the cliche would have to be modified such that the walk in the park turned into a dark and stormy walk in central park, during a recession. Maybe I’ve seen “The Warriors” too many times.

For me, an extended visit to writers block land can usually be broken up by a trip to Vegas. In Vegas there are way too many “What the hell did I just see?” moments to not have any ideas to write about.
In the middle of a pandemic a trip to Vegas doesn’t strike me as a good idea. Don’t give me any “cancel culture” bull. I have a compromised immune system and Ive been a science geek all of my life. If you find yourself using the term cancel culture regularly you might want to retrace your steps back to Jr. High School and find out where you lost your common sense.

In lieu of a trip to Vegas the internet is a good place to break through the proverbial brick wall. Just don’t believe everything you read.
Which is a great way to get writing ideas. Prefacing anything you read with the phrase “what if this were true” is a great way to generate story ideas. Of course if it is true you may be just sewing seeds for disinformation and conspiracy theories. If you can’t tell the difference between fact and fiction and you have performed exhaustive searches through “snopes.com”, “factcheck.org” and “politifact.com” then you should move on to something that is obviously as true as “the world is round”. If you have doubts even about that then for god sake stay off of the internet.