Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

Writer's Block

Ceri felt like a cliché as she stared at the cursor blink-blink-blinking on her computer screen. Trying hard not to succumb to Writer's Block, she laid her fingers down on the home keys and began tapping away.

asdfjkl;
asdfjkl;
asdfjkl;
asdfjkl;

Her hope was that the movement and sound of her keys working would trick her mind into believing it had already begun creating. But, of course her mind was not so easily deceived.

Letting out an exasperated sigh Ceri began to massage her temples, another attempt at stimulating her idle mind.

Sounds of the quiet room filled every corner of her mind, leaving no room for Inspiration to enter.

The computer whirred gently. The bathroom faucet dripped. The radiator creaked and moaned. The wind whispered through the window.

A thud and a loud purr interrupted the symphony of silence and pushed the noises back into their hiding places as Ceri's cat leapt onto her desk.

Purring, the cat rubbed against Ceri's arm as she recovered from the shock of her pet's unexpected visit. Then, entranced by the blink-blink-blinking that had so infuriated it's owner, the cat moved towards the computer screen, stepping haphazardly onto the keyboard in order to attack the cursor. It swatted at the screen trying to catch the arrow. Humoring the cat, Ceri moved the mouse around, feeding the cat's fervor to hunt down and catch it's prey.

After a few minutes, the game of cat and mouse abruptly ended as the cat realized that lazing about was a better use of it's time than pursuing the unattainable.

Ceri had begun to feel the same way about her own endeavor. Content to join the lazy feline in repose on the bed, she reached for the glowing green power button on the screen.

And then, it struck her. While she was not watching for it, Inspiration had come.

There, on the screen, amongst the garbled chaos of her keyboard exercises and the cat's game were three letters, nestled so nicely in all of the disarray: h-u-g.

Inspiration filled her mind, It pushed out all the thoughts and sounds that Writer's Block had fiendishly placed there. Gone were the dripping, whirring, whispering, moaning sounds of inactivity. In their place were the feelings of an embrace. The sweet smell of love. The wholeness of envelopment. The contented sighs. The relief.

Deftly, Ceri hit the DEL button and discarded the mess that Writer's Block had left behind. All that remained on the screen was one word:

hug

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