Writer's Cramp

"Uh-oh, another writer's strike from Shauna" writes my brother-in-law Mark.

I would like to call it a writer's cramp instead. A cramp in the head. Come on, with a blog title like "Much Ado About Nothing," you'd think I'd find material just about anywhere. Not this time. I was feeling very boring and to make matters worse, not feeling very clever or witty.

I am fully committed to drone on about nothing, but I MUST do it with wit and humor and a sense of personality and that my friends is where I got stuck.

I got a book recently from a friend entitled, "Words in a french life - lessons in love and language from the south of France." I am enjoying it very much. It is written by an American woman who met a Frenchman in 92, fell in love and married him. Now she is living in France and raising her children in Aix-en-Provence. She started a blog in '02 entitled french-word-a-day.com that chronicles her life with her family incorporating a new french word everyday. Her book is bound blog entries.

And then I thought. Wow. She is cool. She is living the writer's dream. Binding her blog entries into a book. She's the best kind of writer - the kind I want to be. Taking care of her family, writing about nothing merely utilizing a french word a day to do it. Wow!

Then I got involved in another book I purchased last year in Hawaii written by Mark Twain called, "Letters from Hawaii." Yeah, he gets published too. This book was written in Twain's early days when he was actually a journalist writing for the San Francisco Chronicle. The paper took him up on his idea to visit the unknown Sandwich Islands and write letters to the paper (and their readers) about it.

So, I started thinking. I wish I was this, I wish I could, ya know that kind of thinking . . .and it shut me up. I got a writer's cramp. So, thanks for the kick in the pants Mark, cause if any writer is worth his salt, he or she writes when there is nothing to say.

Leave pity alone. Gird up your writing loins and get busy! Think of an angle and keep writing.

Practice . Practice. Practice.

So, here's an angle: Anybody interested in sponsoring a typical soccer mom interested in finding her voice? Will be able to send you daily affirmations, blog about nothing and try to make it interesting. I could send a Maori word a day from New Zealand or even retry Mark Twain's approach and write letters to you from Hawaii. Really, I'm flexible.