Writer's bloc...
Advice is great, but advice on its own won’t make you a better writer. We become better writers by writing and it’s always easier to write when we’re inspired. To that end, a creative prompt using an ordinary item.
writer’s bloc… | an exercise in shaking things off
Determined to find the answer before she walked through the door, she was. It was no uncommon thing for her thoughts and actions to go before her. A course set, a line of thinking explored, and then…there Jenna came along as well. Not exactly straggling, but certainly a bit out of breath.
“Last time I said too much about the pointlessness of these dinners, the time before that I refused to participate in their random conversation card exercises, if you could even call them conversations.” The muttering only made her appear even more hectic to passersby.
“This time I’ll be ready,” Jenna’s determination would not be shaken, even in spite of the steady dripping of rain starting to soak into the edges of her shoes.
Turning the final corner she saw the door. It had always appeared so ordinary to her, and even in this hour filled with purpose, she had to shake off the initial disdain, “Common knob, standard frame…NO! It doesn’t matter. Stop!” She had arrived.
Someone with a bit more reserve wouldn’t do this, of course, but with Jenna trailing a few steps behind, her words didn’t hesitate once she saw she had an audience, “I don’t know why you want to talk about this but a bloc is, ‘a combination of countries, parties, or groups sharing a common purpose.’ Typically used to promote trading activity, a few of the most well-known blocs are the ‘European Union – a customs union, a single market and now with a single currency,’ and North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, between the USA, Canada and Mexico. A writer’s bloc then could be thought of as a collection of writers from various backgrounds who come together to promote each other’s work and share in the common purpose of writing.” She finally took a breath.
She had their attention at least, she thought to herself, proud that she could say with confidence I participated.
Just then Jenna caught up. The first thing she noticed was an easel in the center of the room, with a giant sheet of paper covered in bold black writing, starting with a headline -
A few of the most commonly asked questions on Google using the phrase writer’s block:
and then followed below that with a bulleted list:
what to do if you have a writer's block
how do i overcome writer's block
how long can writer's block last
why does writer's block happen
where does writer's block come from
how to stop having writer's block
The next thing she heard was the whispers, “She was reading verbatim from the screen of her phone for that last part.” “No, I think she wrote the whole thing out.” “Did she really think the topic tonight was writer’s bloc?”
It was just then that Jenna realized she had never taken the red umbrella from over her head, never shaken the water droplets from the sleeves of her jacket, and that the edges of her shoes were wetter than she thought.
With a steady hand she took care of all three, folding the umbrella back into its case, giving her arm a quick brush off, and slipping out of her shoes. She stood, a woman still determined, “Well, when do we eat?”
—
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