Skip to main content

"Writer's Block"

     I sat in the back of the car, my parents singing together in the front seat to some weird song on the radio. It was something I'd never heard of, so you know it was old.
    Sitting on my lap was my computer. I had a story I needed to write, but I was drawing a blank. The only phrase that kept entering my mind was, 'The bedroom was cold.' Now, this was something of a good starting point for me normally. Usually I could come up with some good lines to follow it with and trail the rabbit hole that the story led me down. But for some reason, that phrase left me stumped.
    In frustration, I turned my head to the window, watching the world pass us by in a blur. We were all alone of this deserted road, out in the middle of nowhere. Nothing but grass and trees and powerlines for miles. On one hand it was incredibly boring. On the other, it gave me this strange perspective of how vast the world is and how small we were compared to it.
    My attention shifted back to my laptop. Surely I could come up with something clever, I thought. Maybe the story takes place in the middle of winter? I typed out a new line, talking about the harshness of the world outside and the comfort they felt as they wrapped themselves tightly in their blankets.
    I was getting strangely bored of what I was writing and decided to backspace the entire thing and start over. I mean, the writing was good and all, but the trail lead nowhere interesting. What, someone laying in bed? How's that supposed to be scary?
    Was it horror that I was even trying to write?
    I was unsure.
    All I knew was I needed to have a story written. One that I felt excited to write. Something twisted. Something I could feel proud of. Something that peeked through the dark abyss of my imagination.
    And as we drove on, I noticed something rather peculiar. The sun was nowhere to be seen. I mean, it was the afternoon. The sun would normally be over head, leaving my parents to put down a visor to shield themselves from being blinded. But it wasn't there. There weren't even any shadows around us. Just light. This was uncanny as hell.
    My parents paid no mind. They were still up front, singing along to an old song on the radio. A song that I had tuned out a long time ago. A song that was becoming more familiar the more I started really listening to it. This was the same song they'd been singing along to this entire trip, I realized. It's like its playing in a loop.
    I gazed down at my computer and saw that the cursor was blinking, the phrase still lingering on the screen, 'The bedroom was cold.'
    Didn't I erase that? I had to have, right? I mean, I erased everything else that was on the page. The world I'd created within this story vanishing from existence with just the few taps of a backspace key.
    An entire world erased. Fading. Elements disappearing. The world folding in upon itself until there was nothing.
    Until all that was left...
    Were the words on the page...

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

01 "A Monstrous Storm"

  The shadows crept in through the window is the dark clouds overtook the mid-afternoon sky. A feeling of dread and hopelessness flooded me, tying my stomach into a knot. Looking at the clouds, I saw a streak of purple lightning streaking across the sky until it crashed down somewhere along the skyline with a thunderous boom, followed shortly by the ground rumbling beneath my feet. It was jarring. what started as a regular summer afternoon was quickly turning into something dreadful. The nearby trees were all swaying lightly in the breeze as rain gradually started pouring down, eventually creating a curtain of turrential downpour that threatened to flood the streets. Another flash of light followed by another thunderous boom forced me to look away from the window. It was becoming far too real for me. The oncoming storm was becoming too much to bear. I walked back into my bedroom and sat in front of my television. There was a news guy standing before a weather map. He was po...

"Hooked"

T he summer can be the perfect time to get away, to unwind while kicking your feet into the cool water while the hot sun is beaming down on you. But what if the bright summer sky was hiding behind it something even darker? I had been waiting for today all week. They'd finally opened the stream up for fishing. I was a little upset at the fact they'd decided to raise prices, but I didn't care, it was a nice day outside and I wasn't about to waste it sitting inside when I could be fishing. With my tacklebox in hand and my fishing pole in the other, I made my way to my truck. I threw everything in the back seat. I was about to head to the driver's seat but hesitated when I thought about bringing my cooler. I had one in the back ready for fish, as well as housing some canisters of worms. But what if I brought one along for some drinks? After a few moments I decided it might not be the greatest idea. It would be too much to carry and I didn't trust anyone that...

"Let it Snow"

I t was beginning to look a lot like Christmas. There was snow all over the ground, children running around and playing in it. I saw one family building a snowman together. I saw another family making small forts and throwing snowballs at each other from behind them, before ducking down to make sure they didn't get hit. There was so much laughter and joy that it would be difficult to hold anything but a smile on your face. I turned away from the window when I saw my phone light up, I'd gotten a text from my sister. She asked if I had everything ready for Christmas. They weren't coming to my place, not with it looking the way it does right now. We were supposed to be going to her place for Christmas. I asked her about that, only to be told that she's having her place renovated and that someone else had already apparently confirmed it with me. I told her nobody had. She only told me to get my place ready for Christmas, she'll worry about the food. I hurried put as...