tips_for_writer's_block kerry give em to me. 220822 ... raze one of the things i've found that works for me is taking a walk and trying to soak up the whole experience. which probably sounds simple to the point of absurdity. but i don't know how many blathes i've written that have come out of walking somewhere unfamiliar, or trying to find what's alien in a place i know well. it's a lot. something as simple as finding a marble someone lost or abandoned in the dirt can spark a whole chain of images and ideas. the natural world has so much to offer us. i think it gets easy after a while to forget how strange and wondrous and magical the simplest things can be. last night i found myself watching_the_lightning for the first time in years. just standing at a window and letting a quiet storm wash over me for a while. it reminded me that i need to keep my eyes open and pay more attention to what's happening all around me. even the things i think i already see. you could write about a song or album you love (or hate). an experience that time has reframed for you. your favourite photograph. what you think louie dreams about at night. a random_memory_resurfaced. or a new memory you'd like to make. and i think there's so much inside of you already, even when it feels like there might not be. you have a heart the size of the whole world. when you're feeling empty, all you need to do is drink from the reservoir of your life. you'll feel yourself being filled up again. and the words will come. 220822 ... kerry thanks for this, times three million. i decided to take a walk and you're right--it was like it unlocked a little key and i came home and poured out all this stuff that maybe i can shape into something. i didn't even get around to trying out one of your prompts, if you could call them that, like writing about a photograph or a song or BEST OF ALL what louie dreams about!! that is brilliant. putting it in my back pocket for the next time i'm stuck, which will probably be tomorrow. i also forget how simple things can offer so much. i love how you phrased it, about simple things like watching lightning: "it reminded me that i need to keep my eyes open and pay more attention to what's happening all around me, even the things i i think i already see." the things we already "think" we see! this reminds me of mirages, like when you're driving on a hot long highway and it looks like there's a pool of water up ahead. and obviously there isn't, but you saw it anyway, somehow. 220824 ... kerry rephrase: it didn't unlock a key, it turned a key and unlocked something. you know what i mean. 220824 ... tender_square i'm big on raze's walk suggestion too. another thing that worked for me was sitting with stillness. when i was having a hard time with writing a couple summers ago, i sat in my backyard and observed the birds and the squirrels moving about and the plants swaying. i didn't think it would turn into anything, but those fleeting images i captured turned into some of my best poems. this is why i appreciate "porch_blathing" for the same reason. when the well is empty, those are the spaces i go to fill up. 220824 what's it to you? who go blather from