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Writing
Pen and paper: Writer's sustenance
Have you ever had one of those moments where an entire sequence of events unfolded itself in your head, and all you needed was something to write on and with and you'd have the Great American Novel? Yeah. Join the club. Part of being a writer is that something's always missing: Whenever you have something to write on and with, you don't have anything to say, and whenever you have something to say there's no paper and no pen nearby.
All the same, Truman Capote was right when he said that writing was an affliction that was always uniquely his in a way that no other professional could claim. The secretary does not forever fantasize of the perfect filing cabinet or the dentist the perfect cavity-filling the way that a writer dreams of the perfect novel. It is a gift that provides both the talent and the whip; it is both sinner and saint, both friend and foe. And it is ours. I have been afflicted all my life with an affliction even more frustrating than Capote's: writer's block. I would love to sit down at my desk and begin to write, but it appears that my finest writing is off the cuff, just as this is, spontaneously thinking of something specific: OK, I need to write about writing for my website.
In a stroke of good luck for you, my readers, however, my writer's block has slowly begun to lift over the past year or two. I have a fair volume of essays (although the media-related ones belong in the media section) and several short stories which I will be placing in the articles subsection of this, the writing section. Some of them are not by any means my finest work, at least one piece of fiction is totally unpolished and only revised in the smallest details—but is under revision—and yet one is possibly my finest English-class paper ever.
As I find the energy to convert these, they too will be added to the collection. The formatting will, of course, be different: just a simple link at top and bottom to return you to the articles subsection, to reflect the simplicity of the original formatting. Enjoy!
(mwm223), Webmaster, 2002