Michelle at Lipstick and Laundry and Eli at Coach Daddy teamed up this morning for an insightful and entertaining post offering advice on Getting Past Writing Obstacles Like a Ninja. I can tell you their suggestions are terrific (although I did pull a groin muscle doing a ninja roll.) So do some stretches and then go read their post. In the meantime, think of this excerpt from my upcoming book Ned’s Nickel’s Worth on Writing: Advice From 16 Years as a Shucking Columnist as a special accompaniment piece that neither Michelle or Eli actually asked for. And not just because this image alone could be a mental obstacle impossible to overcome…
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There’s nothing quite like staring at a blank page, knowing that with a few strokes of the keyboard you will transform a landscape devoid of life into a living, breathing thing of your own creation. There’s also nothing quite like finishing that fourth cup of coffee only to find that same blank page staring back at you.
Sure, you may have typed several sentences — or maybe even the same sentence several times — in hopes of gaining some kind of momentum to carry you over that first hump, but the cursor repeatedly stalls out in the same spot, leaving you with the same blank page after riding the “delete” button back to the beginning.
Hey, that’s why it’s called a “cursor.”
I’ll be honest. I don’t necessarily subscribe to the notion of writer’s “block,” which suggests some kind of blockage — such as a cheese wedge or too many butter biscuits — restricting movement through a hypothetical colon of creativity. Although there are some books in print that offer evidence to support at least part of the colon theory, I prefer to think of the writing process as cells in a battery; when they are fully charged, things start easily. But if the alternator belt slips too much or the terminals get corroded, you end up without enough juice to turn the engine. Because we are writers and not mechanics, and because that last sentence exhausted the full extent of my automotive knowledge, I will sum up my analogy with this: When your battery is low, you get a jump, right?
Writing is no different. Continue reading How to jumpstart your writing without any permanent damage
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For those of you following — and in many cases supporting — my pursuit of The Public Blogger’s “Performer of the Year” award, the voting has officially opened tonight for round five! I say “in many cases” because, after seeing tonight’s performance, I may lose the support of Canadian readers.
Voting for this week’s round of competition for the “Performance of the Year” at 
It started with 700 people, now it’s down to seven. No, I’m not talking about the list of Republican presidential nominees. As 
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