Excuses, Excuses, Excuses.

I've be kind of cheating the last couple of nights. I have been using some of my recently-written poetry instead of creating original work. I promised that I'd write every night, but sometimes that just isn't possible. I am still working full-time and have a number of other obligations, but that is no real excuse. Someone once told me that if something was really important, to make time for it. They were right. I need to make time to write. To set the time aside, and to do nothing but write during that time. But sometimes there are other temptations. NCIS on TV, for one. A lame excuse, I know, but a temptation, none the less.

Sometimes I just feel empty. No thoughts. No ideas. Nothing to say. Some people would call that "writer's block." A fellow poet once told me that there is no such thing as writer's block. When someone claims to have writer's block, they are just trying to write a final draft on the first shot. I agree with him. Sometimes we writers (after the last few days, I use that title loosely) want to produce a masterpiece on the first try. I guess a lot of people believe the story of Shakespeare writing all of his plays "without blotting a line." (For those of you reading this that are younger than I, you can only "blot" a line if you are writing in ink with a fountain pen or a quill). Envy, I guess, is a green-eyed monster. Well, I don't believe that story. I do believe that Shakespeare (and Milton, and Mozart, and Brahms, and Bach) and a great many other writers and composers were geniuses, but that they had to work hard to use that genius to produce masterpieces. Creating a masterpiece takes hard work.

And what I am doing tonight is far from that process. I am just trying to keep my promise to myself (and possibly my readers, if they exist). It's simple. To be a good writer, you have to keep writing. However, this is tonight's offering. I am adding a pretty picture so that, if you find tonight's offering meager, you have something to enjoy. So enjoy the picture. I'll be back to attempt the first draft of the masterpiece tomorrow night.