Need an Idea

15 Azamat 163 B.E. – May 30 – 31, 2006 A.D.

In a few days, I’m going to have to come up with a subject that other people in a blog contest can respond to. The background is this, at writing.com I am in a Follow the Leader Blog contest. There are about twenty participants in the contest, which began Monday, May 29, and each participant submits a leading entry once during the contest and everyone else responds to the entry. When the participants respond to the leading entry, they use the title of the leading entry as the title to their response entry. Anyway, I’m going to need to come up with an interesting title and then write the entry to go along with the title.

The reason I entered the contest was to spice up my blog entries and break through a wall of writers’ block. I’ve spiced up my blog entry, at least the Snowflake Chronicles which is my writing.com blog. In fact, I’ve changed the rating on that blog from ASR to 18+. Now I have to come up with an intriguing title, this seem to be the problem at the moment. My muse doesn’t want to light on anything. She (my muse) keeps fluttering from flower to flower, but doesn’t want to settle on anything specific.

Here are the ideas I’ve come up with so far:
1. A rant about gas price, but without an interesting title; actually I don’t have a title for this at all.
2. A description of my muse and how my muse is a skin changer (I wrote a short essay on this for another writing.com contest last year); the title to this is “My Muse is a Skin Changer”.
3. Why I date my blogs the way I do; I don’t have a hook for this.
4. A rant about SPAM; I don’t have either a title or a hook for this.
5. A rant about my telephone hookup and how it kicks me off; I need a title for this. (Besides I really don’t want to do a rant).
6. Why laundry needs doing everyday and what happens when one doesn’t do it everyday (properly written this could be very funny).
7. Write a survey of some type (Written properly this could be funny); I still need an interesting title.
8. Write a short story.
9. Write a poem.
10. Write an essay on the similarities between playing FreeCell Solitary and rewriting poetry. I do have an article about this, but it needs rewritten and I wanted to write something new for my leading entry.
11. Do an entry about Las Vegas colorful characters, one of which is the Mayor.
12. Do an entry about my cats, I haven’t written a lot about my cats in any of my blogs.
13. Write about living in Las Vegas and not gambling.
14. Write about some of the dreams I remember. I responded to today’s (May 31) leading entry by writing about the dream I had last night.
15. Write about the Master’s Class I’m taking.
16. Write about the Ruhi class I’m taking.
17. Describe my inner critic; this doesn’t appeal to me at the moment. Although, properly written it could be enlightening.
18. Write the rules to a poetry game; this has the potential of being very funny.
19. Describe an open mike poetry reading. This has potential.

I’ve got a start, the problem is that none of the ideas listed appeals to me at this time. Maybe if I attempt to come up with some interesting, unusual or weird titles lightning will strike. It could also be that I just worry way too much about this and need to stop obsessing about the subject. Maybe what I need to do is just start writing, I don’t have to make the leading entry until next Monday or something like that. I’m sure that I will find an idea between now and then.

Writers’ Block

13 Azamat 163 B.E. – May 28 – 29, 2006 A.D.

I’ve had one bad case of writers’ block lately. OK, I know a poet who had writers’ block for two or three years, so my case isn’t too bad, but for me it was depressing. I did find out one thing about writers’ block today. If I let my muse ramble, I don’t have a problem. Maybe I need to change my routine. Get out of my routine and do things in a different order. Routine isn’t conducive to new ideas, although it’s conducive to rewriting or is it? Having a writing routine is good, but getting in a rut isn’t. There is a thin line between routine and rut. If you stay in a rut the rut gets deeper and deeper until you need a ladder to get you out.

Anyway, I realized today, when I was making the entry for my Writing.com blog that I need to let my muse roam and ramble. If I let her (Yes, I refer to my muse as female) ramble then she will walk around the wall that’s causing the writers’ block. My writers’ block is never just a square or a block. My writers’ block is usually a wall, a huge long wall with no doors or windows or drawbridges. In fact, my writers’ block usually resembles the Great Wall of China, so if I let my muse roam she usually either rides or walks around the wall.

What else was I planning on saying? That’s one of the problems, if I don’t let my muse roam I can’t think of anything to say. If I ramble across the page moving from one subject to the other, then I come up with all sorts of ideas to write about. Therefore, I suppose my entries will be rambling for a while moving from subject to subject. I guess I could decide on the main subject or the title and then start writing. That should be interesting and enlightening. If I do that there’s no telling what I’ll come up with, but the rewriting will be fun. Focusing the piece down to one subject and separating the subject into different articles.

I enjoy blogging, but I don’t write directly into my blog any more. I write the piece in MSWord and then copy and past it into the blog. I’ve got telephone hookup to my internet provider and the connection’s been really freaky lately. I can be on line for an hour or two hours without a problem (on rare occasions), but usually I get knocked off every thirty or forty minutes. I don’t know why, it could be the phone line or it could be the weather. It could be anything; it’s not so aggravating that I’m planning on getting anything more expensive (at least not yet). Beside there are other advantages to having telephone internet hookup.

Happy Mothers' Day

17 Jamal 163 B.E. – May 13 – 14, 2006 A.D.

Happy Mothers’ Day

Here is a Mothers’ Day wish for all!
A hope that today will bring.
Plenty of flowers to symbolize love,
Plenty of chocolates from children who remember
Your sacrifices for their welfare.

May today bring you all that you wish for
Opals of love from your sons;
Thank You, Mama, from your daughters;
Happiness wrap in hand made gifts from your grandchildren.
Everything else you want today:
Respect and a restaurant meal
Sonnets and odes written by great grandchildren.

Dear Mother, Grandmother, Great Grandmother:
Another year has passed, we want to thank you for
Your sacrifices. We love you.