The Snowflake Chronicles

Letter to the editor for August 2014

Don't Blame It On Writer's Block

Ideas for stories and characters are everywhere


I stare at the screen without a clue
Of what to write
I don't know what to do
Until I walk out in the sun
And go to a bookstore to have some fun
Plowing through books and magazines
For the seed of my next character or plot


When I cannot write or think of a plot, I tend to blame it on Writer's Block. I realized today that this is not the case because I have no problems composing blog entries. I can respond to a blog prompt by writing a flash fiction story or poem without any problem. I have difficulty sitting down at the keyboard to write a story or poem without a prompt. This is a recent issue, since I cannot let it bother me or I will stop writing.

The first thing to do when confronted with a problem is write it down. Problem: I cannot write without a prompt. Solution: Look for prompts in my environment. I live in Las Vegas. I live in a multicultural neighborhood. A neighborhood in which I would expect to encounter other then humans, pigeons or wild birds, cats and dogs. I would not expect to encounter farm animals such as chickens. Yet every morning when I open my front door, I hear roosters crowing. Somewhere in this neighborhood, that is in the middle of Las Vegas, there are flocks chickens. There is a prompt for a story right in my own neighborhood.

Another place to look for prompts is in magazines. Fortunately, I do not have to walk or drive all the way to a bookstore. When I went to the grocery store last week, I bought a Scientific American. Under the title of the magazine is the headline "Living in the Connected World", which is a good prompt for a science fiction story. When I opened the magazine and looked under Features, I found more prompts for both fantasy and science fiction stories. I cannot blame my writing difficulty on writer's block because there is an abundance of ideas in my environment. All I have to do is open my eyes and ears to find prompts to base stories on.

I urge everyone to get out and find something in your environment to write a story about. If you have any other ideas then please let me know. Ideas for anything from newsletter subjects to ways to overcome writing problems.