It’s been one of those days when I do an incredible amount of creative work, but it looked like I spent the whole day just cleaning and unfucking my office while I watched and listened to the latest episode of The Record Junkies, followed immediately by the entire Saturday Night Fever soundtrack.
Yes, to the untrained eye, it would appear that I didn’t do any writing work today. But! The creatives among us already know what I’m going to say next: the entire time, I was creating space for the writer’s assistant who lives in my brain (Damon Knight calls his “Fred”, mine is currently unnamed) to help me figure out how to get through this block that’s vexing me. He did a ton of work, pitched a lot of ideas (some of them were even kinda good), and threw away a lot of stuff that’s been cluttering up the space between my idea and a draft I don’t hate. We got a lot accomplished. Maybe tomorrow we’ll actually make words happen.
Then, at the end of the day, I went to the pharmacy and got my flu shot.
I’ve been getting the flu shot every year for as long as I can remember, and I can’t remember the last time I had the flu. I feel like these two things may be related. I have a lot of travel scheduled during cold and flu season, and I’d like to keep my streak alive.
Here’s a thought, that came up while I was getting ready to hit publish:
I haven’t written a blog post like this in years. Somewhere along the way, I decided that everything had to be just so, you know? I really got in my own head and in my own way. It doesn’t have to be huge essays or perfect, or some minimum length. It can just be my blog.
Writer’s Block and Creative Paralysis Hate This One Weird Trick!
I’m gonna try to remember that one way to just post more stuff in my blog (because it makes me happy to do that) is to just post more stuff in my blog (because it makes me happy to do that).
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By “unfucking” your office, at what point did it become fucked?
It happened slowly, then all at once, over the last few months.
I like these kind of blog posts.
I’ve always heard that writer’s write. Be it a blog about nothing in particular, a pointed missive on the current hellscape reality tends to be most of the time, or an informative blurb about an upcoming gig. My point – you’ve done all 3 recently and your readers are here for them all. Write and we will gladly read.
Perfect. Go back to your roots. Just write and see what comes out. Sometimes that’s the best way.
I am the same way on social media. When I get in my head it turns into some performative bullshit instead of just me being me. That’s not who I want to be.
I like hearing about your everyday stuff, Wil. Glad you got your flu shot! I got mine last week, and got a COVID booster, too. The doctor says it will still be effective against the current strains, and it had been a year since my previous one. Plus, who knows when the updated one will be ready or if I would be eligible for it? A 🐦 in the ✋ is worth 2 in the 🌲
I love these kind of posts. I mean, I love the other kind too, but these are great. Thanks for checking in.
Just post all the random thoughts. Maybe one will be the magic one to kick things into gear
It’s always good to read your writing… even if it’s not “just so.” And congrats on the flu shot; I’m scheduled to get mine tomorrow.
Back in the day when I was doing a degree while holding down a fairly serious job and I had to turn in essays I learned to clean the house first
Displacement activity is the devil. Good work
It was a bunch of entries like this that drew me in many moons ago. As my friend said when he recommended I check it out, “He’s one of us.” He meant “a geek,” back when the idea that a TV/movie star could be into RPGs and weird board games was novel. Now, Joe Manganiello and Stephen Colbert and Judi Dench play D&D, and it’s no big whoop. Anyway, none of that would have happened if Wil Wheaton hadn’t made D&D cool, which may or may not be true, but it should be, so I choose to believe it.
I also follow the f&sf writer Sharon Lee’s blog and she calls her’s “the guys in the basement.” https://sharonleewriter.com/blog-without-a-name/
Thanks for reminding me to schedule my flu shot! Also, we’re of the age now that “If you remember this, it’s time to schedule your” could end with “shingles vaccination” as well as “colonoscopy.”
I get a reminder for pneumonia and RSV shots I guess I’ve moved to the next level 👩🏻🦳🤦🏻♀️
Thanks for reminding me…it’s important as we get older.
I write one entry a day, however trivial, in my 90s-style Dreamwidth blog, and have done so without fail since 2007. I don’t ever get writer’s block. Are these facts related, like your flu shot anecdote? Perhaps!
As soon as I get the notification that a new piece from you is waiting for me to read, I get a little spark of joy. What might be waiting for me? What direction are you going to take us today?
Some days you take us to places we might need to dig around in emotionally to face up to our own not always perfect histories, some days you challenge us to think deeper and consider taking a stand on an issue (or at least shake out of our inertia of numbness). Some days you make us laugh with joy, some days we smile together at shared (from our own point of view) memories. Some days we fly with you as you hang with “our” Star Trek friends (if only – still waiting for my ride through a transporter). Some days we cheer you on as you continue to do the really hard work as best you can that day, and are so brave to share it publicly so it might help that one person who needed to hear it at that minute.
We are all proud to think of you as a “friend” although we have not and likely never will meet in person. And just like our families, sometimes we just like a quick touch in to make sure people we care about are doing well. Or well enough. Or at least having a sense of humor about how absurd life can be at times.
Until next time, hope you find what you need to spark your own joy.
Good job. Keep em coming.
It is so good to see you writing in your blog again, Wil. I was beginning to wonder if everything was okay…well, as okay as it can be these days. You have been missed.
Thank you for your vaccine advocacy. As a medical provider in Rheumatology, treating people with immune compromising medications, vaccination is a vital safeguard for my patients. Continue to be a voice for reason and science.
As an immuno-compromised person due to combined psoriasis/arthritic medication, who thus gets their shots and thus rarely gets sick, thank you for your work, and thanks to Wil for his advocacy!
Right on, man! 👍
More stuff on your blog sounds good to me! As it happens I just tonight made an appointment for me and my wife to go get flu shots and COVID boosters.
Thank you for the reminder that it’s flu shot season!
Yes and yes!
I’ve had a blog forever too, and for years I’ve only been writing when I traveled for fun (so, once or twice a year). Now I’m writing more often and I know exactly how you feel about wanting it to be “Just so” – but you are 100% right: “It doesn’t have to be huge essays or perfect, or some minimum length. It can just be my blog.” Thank you. (You’re awesome!)
Serious writing question: what’s your editing process? I love conjuring up ideas. My “busy activities” are also the time when my Ideas Man starts talking to me. I kind of like writing them down, which usually ends up as a stream-of-consciousness ramble. (I almost wrote “steam-of-consciousness” which, yeah, sometimes the ideas come out “steaming”.) Editing paralyzes me. I’m partly reluctant to change what I’ve written, and mostly daunted by what feels like attacking a mountain of heavily connected spaghetti. I’ve taken writing classes and been in writing groups, but that editing part still stares me in the face like a big, stinky monster.
“I haven’t written a blog post like this in years” — back to the roots of a “web log”? 🙂
What can I say that hasn’t already been said? I love your blog! It makes me happy, and not so alone! Thank you.
I was thinking “A flu shot, already?” and assuming they won’t be ready in Ireland until October at the earliest, so I checked, and I’m told they’re normally available from September. Which is a whole four days away! Where did the year go?!
Now I have to try and remember if this is the year I also need a pneumococcal vaccination, and a colonoscopy… this linear time and associated aging thing sucks!
Just scheduled my flu shot for later today! For some reason I didn’t think it was available yet… (Tried to schedule updated COVID, wouldn’t let me. Grumble.)
Anyway, yay, science!
It makes us happy when you post like this, too!
Yay for everyday normal stuff that you can write about and make you and all of us feel normal and happy :). We need this! And yay that we can still get flu shots!
I really like your style, Wil. It is so relatable, interesting, funny…just makes me happy to read. Thanks for your work!
I kept this on the printer for years (mainly to help my son through creating essays in High School): “It doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t even have to be good. It just has to exist.”
Thanks for stopping in to just chat.
I always enjoy your posts. I really liked this one, although I don’t know why. Could be the big smile as your getting your flu shot 🙂
That’s Good WORK! “If you relax your brain, it will come” as in “If you build it, he will come [Field of Dreams]…
I also have not had Flu, I can’t even remember the last time… Never had Covid, still get the vaccine. Screw the non-science believers. I guess they’ll be getting sick.
Good for you Wil, and we are here for all of it!
Wishing you safe and healthy travels!
It make us happy too!
A WIN for all 🙂
Yay for flu shot! I do research based in a university hospital, so I have the advantage of convenient flu shot clinics at work every year. Crossing my fingers that the hospital says we all have to have COVID boosters and subsidizes them, otherwise no one iny family will qualify [insert many bad words directed at RFK Jr].
One of the ways that I break through writing block, is to open up notepad (or similar) and let myself rant. I’m no Brennan Lee Mulligan, but there’s usually something that has been annoying me to some degree that I can just indulge myself in a good rant that no one is going to see. Just the sheer process of getting typing, particularly ranting which just begs for flowery, over the top prose, tends to completely and utterly destroy any block that has come up. I’ll set a timer, let myself rant for 15 minutes, delete the note, and then turn to the thing I’m supposed to be writing up. It’s also wonderfully cathartic, as it helps me get past what is bugging me, and put whatever I’m ranting in in perspective.
I’m an academic, rather than creative, writer, but this really speaks to me! So much important work happens in my brain while on the outside it looks like I’m cleaning or doing crafts or playing Civ 6. I think of it as putting a problem in the back of my brain and letting it figure it out while the front part does other things.
I like these updates too, Wil.
I am working on unfucking my entire place; like your office, it starts slowly, and then I look around and it’s very cluttered. Oops. I realize a lot of this is one of my trauma responses plus growing up with my family dynamics. My aunt decided on her own to come over to “help” me at some point this weekend, so I’m trying to get most of it under control before she comes in with her bull-in-the-china-shop energy, which throws my nervous system out of whack and I need Extra Time to recover from.
I’ll get a flu shot along with a Covid booster when they are available here along with more hybrid in-office days now that the humidity levels have dropped (for the time being). Safe upcoming travels, Wil.
I think you should call your brain buddy “Yam,” if they even need a name. Think of it as a brain potato, opposite from couch potato. It is nutrient dense and can be either savory or sweet. An added plus, you can think of your creative whole as “Wil-Yam,” which makes me smile. And if this is too goofy for you, blame it on my post surgery anesthesia brain, which I call “Befuddled.”
💕