The Cursor

A writer's angst of the page.

So here I sit. It's been months since I've been able to write anything and the only idea that has popped into my head is that of a cursor. A solitary vertical line blinks at me, flashing a monotonous beat on my screen, daring me to break the rhythm.

"Just do it, you know like Nike! Just type," i can hear some inner voice calling out to me.

I don't know what to write, nothing is coming to me. Though I hate to use the term, I find that saying "my well of inspiration has dried up" seems to be ironically appropriate. I can feel the stories in me, but I can't seem to find them, to transfer them from abstract thoughts to words on a page. I miss the days when I could sit down and write for hours on end, a frown of determination etched on my face. I could scribble for days until the story was just right, until I had every character and every plot was perfect. There was a time when I could write stories sweet as honey, poems bitter as wormwood brandy. 

Now? Now I just stare at the blank page, the familiarity of the pen burning in my hand. The screen remains empty, but for that damned cursor... blinking out a droll existence, taunting me from the page.

Author's Note

I know this is a short piece and doesn't really qualify as an article, but it is what it is.

Reviews

[Creepy Swine Guy]

I can never help but notice that the cursor seems to keep the same beat as the second hand on my clock ... seemingly beating away the seconds of my life as I desperately scratch and claw to get at the stories in the back of my mind. They seem to be pressing themselves against the back of my mind in a desperate effort to stay out of my reach. It's like they believe that if they are put on paper ... they will die.

Here's a thought. What would happen if you were walking down the street one day and met a person that only you seemed to see who insisted that she was ... your conscience.

[Shadow Writer]

You penned writers block to a tee. Enjoyed this piece that has taunted us all. Phantom.....

[Tony]

And it is good, because I believe you have said something that we all encounter at one time or another, and I also believe that the longer we write, that we become more aware of perfection and that is the key to our demise, before we even start to write we want it to be perfect in our mind, where as before in the early stages of our writing, we would put words on paper and then go from there and reread and correct. That is my own opinion on the blank page problem. The cursor has a perfect name. lol, I enjoyed this little story.

Tony