The empty pages flapping in the wind...

I want so badly to be able to write about what I've seen. (I also want it to be good.)

I want to write and write and write and write and record until my hands get stiff and the syntax is spent and all of it is outside of me, ready to be catalogued and assembled.

Unfortunately, with the slower than expected transition back to normalcy and my lack of free time, I haven’t been allowed this luxury.

I had a teacher in college that used to start our night class (Exposition and Report Writing, blech) with an assignment: Write freely about anything for 15 minutes.

It could be thoughts, story, poem, whatever. It definitely couldn't be edited, and it probably wouldn't be good. But that was the point.

I’m not sure if he thought that you had to work though the crap to get something great or if he felt that it was like letting the cap off a bottle of ink – you had to pry at it before it for a while before it would pop and flow out freely.

As I tried no fewer than four times today to write a blog, it got me thinking: maybe I need to revisit college and reuse my professor's strategy. Maybe even, dare I say it, develop a habit of disciplining myself to do it?

Any other writers out there that have any tried and true methods to get the ink flowing?

- Letter writing? (Hemingway wrote letters 3-4 times a day to his first wife.)
- Interviews full of wit? (Like his politics or not, Safire was a brilliant punster.)
- Exploring the gaps in mythology and Biblical story-telling? (Gibran's Prophet springs to mind.)
- Mind maps?
- Venn diagrams?

Throw 'em in. I'm open to suggestions...and ready to practice.

Today's soundtrack: Little Words - Mint Royale - See You in the Morning