The Words are in Your Pocket Friday Round-Up

The way to conquer writer’s block is to rummage through the debris in the pocket of your favorite jacket. The words are in there. You put them there and then forgot about them. They’ve been waiting for you to come back.

A story, like a meatloaf, can be repurposed. I’m revising a story set in a rehab facility to be a story set in a rehab facility in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The story served its time as just a plain rehab facility story, now it needs some extra U.P. logging mystery buzz, a whole new slant with a couple of very red flannel shirts thrown in, and I’m ready.

I’ve been told it’s National Sled Dog Day. One of our dogs, not the usual suspect but the new girl, ate a half a loaf of pumpernickel bread to celebrate. I loved that bread, too, and just today had a fine cheese sandwich using that bread, but then stupidly left it in the fruit bowl of the kitchen table where Tempest could reach after going after a placemat and a man’s glove. There was a lot of strewn wreckage when we came home.

My first month into my 2024 blogging mission and goals has gone pretty well. I posted new content every day which has sometimes seemed like a strain, but I follow point #1 above. The words are there in my pocket. I just have to reach in and rummage around. Some of my effort has been pedestrian, some more than pedestrian. I judge myself but I’m never harsh, and I never hang back because I think I’m not good enough. I just keep showing up.

We’ve had a rash of people we know dying. My reaction to this has been to swim more, walk faster, stand up straight, and write the words. It’s not strategic. It’s just to keep myself from dread.