Writing Troubles

I’ve had trouble writing lately. If you read this blog you know all about my recent medical woes. Obviously pain and unexpected emergency (redundant?) surgery will hamper getting work done but I’m mostly recovered from the appendix nightmare and the back thing isn’t going to change anytime soon. I want to write, hell I need to, but finding my stride again is hard!

I sat at my desk and started trying to come up with things to write about. I figured doing some flash fiction was a good way to get back into the swing of things. Unfortunately I couldn’t come up with anything. Well I did glance around the room and saw all the empty prescription bottles and thought about writing something about an addict but I have no experience with that kind of thing and I hate drugs above all else so I squashed that idea quickly. Mostly all I could think about was how I couldn’t think of anything! I went through my archived posts containing prompts but I’ve used most of those already.

I switched to looking up writing prompts here on WordPress. I wrote down a few that were interesting but I don’t yet know where to go with any of them. I plan to expand the search in a few minutes. It’s all guesswork on the tags the bloggers used. I’ve only looked up writing prompt. I can still check writing prompts, prompts, flash fiction prompts, simply flash fiction, etc. One problem I’m having, and have had in the past is there are plenty of wonderful prompts out there, but not many that work for me presently. I’m not even sure what will. I saw one that asked for a 50 word story posted in the comments. I did that but really it was just about my appendix problem.

Maybe it is a good idea to write about someone being injured or almost dying, something along those lines but in a way, that hits too close to home. Part of me thinks I should write something happy and peppy to push all the negativity away but it’s hard to write something pleasant when I’m feeling gloomy. Self defeating at it’s finest folks!

I started a hundred word story about a girl doing physical therapy because it’s in my zone at the moment but won’t bring back all the fear I felt last week but I’m struggling with it so I put it aside for now. There was another prompt called ‘the fifth door.’ My muse is mulling it over as I type this because I’m intrigued.

Sometime next week I’ll have a skype chat with Holly Lisle, the author/creator of How To Think Sideways. Perhaps it will help me. She’s recently gone through some things that kept her from writing as well so she’ll have some advice on how to overcome it. I actually have a workshop from her called “21 Ways Too Get Yourself Writing When Your Life Has Just Exploded.” I’ll go through that tonight. I did it once before but my life hadn’t really exploded. Now it has and I’m bound to get something new out of the course.

I know I have it in me to write. I glanced down at my word count and clearly words are coming out of me. Yesterday’s ridiculously long post is also encouraging but I want to write fiction! Any genre, preferably multiple stories. I’ve already tried working on my WIP but I’m too intimidated by it now. I still can’t sit at the computer for long spans of time and leaning forward is particularly unpleasant so I’m sticking with shorter stuff for a while. I need the reassurance a finished story can give me.

Anyone have a tip to get me back to writing?

---

Maybe this little guy I got on the boardwalk will inspire me:

It’s ripping itself out of the book! For perspective this little box is no wider than a tube of Chapstix and only a little taller than that. I haven’t decided if the dragon is male or female yet (leaning towards male) and for some reason I want to name it. Any suggestions are welcome. Pardon the shaky pics, they were taken with my phone with the box siting on my clipboard while on my lap lol.