Doc vs. Doc

I changed my posting name on the blog from Doctor Augur to Doc Brown. An augur was a Roman soothsayer and I can't say as I achieved that status here on the blog, so I decided to just stick with my name. It would take too much of my time and creative energy to try to post something researched and profound every day, and since no one has complained about the hack work I've been posting thus far, I may as well keep it hack work.

No one reads this stuff anyway. That's why I have to mail copies to my mom and grandmother to get anyone to read it. Not that that was a whine or complaint. Don't get me wrong. I have said before and say again now that I write this for myself to keep me honest. The longer I go without making an entry the more guilty I feel. I'm not sure why, but I have grown accustomed to posting my small daily victories here. Thus, if I miss a post, I am either really really tired or I have not accomplished enough that day and am too embarrassed with myself to talk about it. Usually, the latter.

I did not get any writing done last night, but I did get a number of small things out of the way. Useless stuff mostly, but obviously I'm not so embarrassed by the work to miss my post. Perhaps the biggest accomplishment was finally using Audacity (that freeware sound recording program I mentioned a long time ago) to make a 90 second contribution to one of the podcasts I listen to. Basically, I thanked them for their hard work and great content and then said a few words about the passing of Robert Asprin. It was through their podcast that I first heard of his passing, so it seemed appropriate that I air my opinion on their show.

As for my writing, I am in one of those, "I don't know what I'm going to write next" phases. I wouldn't go so far as to call it writer's block. I'm not sure I've ever experienced such an event. Excuse me while I knock the underside of my command center. I have always taken writer's block to be something that is a persistent problem that prevents someone for writing for weeks. It just saps all creativity and writing drive.

If I don't write for weeks, it is more typically laziness or simply being burned out from writing. When burned out, I can still force myself to write, but it takes a couple hours to squeeze out two or three hundred words. I usually write two to three times that speed, but I appear to be a sprinter. I can't write more than two to three hours a day in most cases.

Days like today I don't consider writer's block because if I had something to write, I feel I could write it. It's just that at the moment, I haven't figured out what happens next in the story. I mean literally, what should happen in the next scene escapes me. I just need to let the creative juices simmer a bit and then I'll know what goes next. Once I decide what the next scene will be, I don't feel as though I'll have any trouble writing it.

If this is writer's block, then I guess I have it all the time, but it only lasts a day, maybe two tops. I'll let you come up with your own definition and allow you to apply it to determine whether or not I am undergoing a fit of writer's block.