How to Beat Writer's Block for Good
Every Wednesday at 3:00, I pull up my chair, click a red button, and start talking on the radio. I run through the most important national news, tell an interesting local anecdote, recap sports scores, and predict the weather. (There are no windows in the radio station, so the old joke about weathermen never looking out the window is sadly true in my case.) If I didn't get on with the talking, well, there would be no newscast that day. "I just wasn't feeling it," my brain-dead alter ego might complain, avoiding the station chief's eyes. (Even just thinking about this, I'm grateful it's just an imaginary scenario. Shivers.) "I sat down in front of the microphone, but I went mute, and therefore there will be no 4:00 news. The station will just have to be silent out of respect for my suffering. Apologies for any inconvenience. I will try again next Wednesday." That would be almost ludicrously unacceptable - and yet, writers do this all the time. Me
