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Bad Case of the Writer's Block Blues
Well, it was bound to happen at some point. Just when I least expected it, I've kinda hit the wall. It's actually not that I have nothing to write about or nothing I care to discuss, but each time I have leapt forward with an idea in the past week, it has turned into a ten-paragraph monster that I don't care to hit the "save" button for or more likely, one you all probably wouldn't care to read either.
I mean I could just get all over the economy and how it is impacting the fire service, but there are plenty of bloggers out there beating that horse for me and I'm not sure I could do it much more justice. The whole two-hatter issue is being covered pretty sufficiently and I'm not sure I want to delve into the upcoming political situation as it affects the fire service either. I'd say that pretty much all the bases are covered right now.
I even started to discuss why I have re-titled my FFN blog "The Tao of Emergency Services Leadership", but if you are into that kind of thing, you can probably guess that trying to describe where I'm going there isn't going to get covered in a one-entry blog (something about that "undefinable, unlimited and unnamable" concept that doesn't translate well into this blogging format).
Maybe that's it, too. Maybe it's that everything to be said has been said. Or is it that everything's been said but nothing has been said. We certainly seem to have a lot of expertise batting around the same old problems, year after year.
If you said to me twenty years ago that we would be fighting the same battles in our business today, just in a different context, I'd tell you that you were crazy. Knowing now what I do know, you young bucks will be fighting the same stuff twenty years from today. We just can't seem to shake it, I guess. But maybe that's a problem with being human. Maybe Dave can set me straight. He is, after all, a visionary too.
Well, so now you know what I am up against. Don't worry, given a few days of talking with you all and my colleagues as well, something will pop up that I can work on and refine. But right now, it just isn't happening. I guess I'll go and play the "word association" game with the other four hundred or so. Maybe somebody will say something that will make me go running for the keyboard.
I mean I could just get all over the economy and how it is impacting the fire service, but there are plenty of bloggers out there beating that horse for me and I'm not sure I could do it much more justice. The whole two-hatter issue is being covered pretty sufficiently and I'm not sure I want to delve into the upcoming political situation as it affects the fire service either. I'd say that pretty much all the bases are covered right now.
I even started to discuss why I have re-titled my FFN blog "The Tao of Emergency Services Leadership", but if you are into that kind of thing, you can probably guess that trying to describe where I'm going there isn't going to get covered in a one-entry blog (something about that "undefinable, unlimited and unnamable" concept that doesn't translate well into this blogging format).
Maybe that's it, too. Maybe it's that everything to be said has been said. Or is it that everything's been said but nothing has been said. We certainly seem to have a lot of expertise batting around the same old problems, year after year.
If you said to me twenty years ago that we would be fighting the same battles in our business today, just in a different context, I'd tell you that you were crazy. Knowing now what I do know, you young bucks will be fighting the same stuff twenty years from today. We just can't seem to shake it, I guess. But maybe that's a problem with being human. Maybe Dave can set me straight. He is, after all, a visionary too.
Well, so now you know what I am up against. Don't worry, given a few days of talking with you all and my colleagues as well, something will pop up that I can work on and refine. But right now, it just isn't happening. I guess I'll go and play the "word association" game with the other four hundred or so. Maybe somebody will say something that will make me go running for the keyboard.
Add a Comment
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Comment by Mick Mayers on November 19, 2008 at 10:08pm
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Jeez- there's a book I haven't had out in a while. I just used a line from that today talking with a consultant. You know, the old "you may or may not get a dial tone...but pull the hook on the box and you know you will always get a firefighter"?
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Comment by ROOKIELZ on November 18, 2008 at 9:54pm
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I get my best ideas when I sit alone in the garage zoning out and smoking a cigarette.
All of a sudden, an idea or even a few will pop into my brain.
Then, I need to worry them over like a dog with a good bone.
Next thing I know, the idea is off and racing and the block is gone.
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Comment by Christopher J. Naum, SFPE on November 18, 2008 at 6:43pm
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Try decompressing with a good book......it'll shake off in no time...
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Comment by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on November 18, 2008 at 4:25pm
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Mick:
At least YOU have quiet.
The little guy in my head NEVER SHUTS UP!
I suppose if I were to get paid for what I write, the little bastard would suddenly go silent on me.
Are you like me; wishing that we could lead a normal life?
To own a cottage on the lake, cruise around in my sailboat, sipping wine, tying a crewneck sweater around my waist, exchanging stories with Chip and Babs, dinner by candlelight and then gathering around the piano and singing songs from our childhoods? Talking about the current events, plans for an exotic vacation, reviewing our investment portfolios, giving some time to the needy and going into the mountains for some solitude?
Naw; me neither!
TCSS.
Art
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Sorry, I even have block on comments. I'll go clean up after my kids. That might inspire something or enrage me, both of which might hit the spot.
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Thanks for the advice/ideas/sympathy.
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Comment by Jenny Holderby on November 18, 2008 at 4:12am
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I write, I delete. I seem to be on a roll with those who immediately find fault with anything I write lately.
I wondered what happened to Mick, nothing from Art so he must be blocked too. Owww - maybe its an epidemic.
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Comment by Tiger Schmittendorf on November 18, 2008 at 12:22am
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What's a Muse - is that like a Badge Bunny?
Who is this Muse chick you're referring to?
Does she have a profile on here?
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Comment by Mary Ellen Shea on November 17, 2008 at 11:39pm
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Mick,
I feel your pain. When my Muse in on duty, writing is sheer pleasure. It's what I do to feed my soul and calm the maelstrom in my brain.... and when I'm "on", the process is effortless; indeed, I have difficulty paring down once the fire is lit.
I've been rowing a similar boat lately in that I've been less than enamored with my efforts. I've posted a few pieces here and there, but they strike me as flat,colorless or insincere. I'm having trouble tapping into that essence.
Keep the faith. The Muse is fickle, but she always returns.
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Brother Mick -
Been there. Done that. Writer's block, that is.
Do what I do. Pick up a mag or a book, unrelated to what we do.
There's only one magazine I read cover-to-cover every month and it has nothing and everything to do with the fire service at the same time. It's called Fast Company (www.fastcompany.com) and it's a new age magazine about the business of people in business.
I always come away with something to think about and something to relate to the fire service - which typically leads to something to apply in the fire service and/or write about.
I'm also reading GX - The (National) Guard Experience Magazine cover-to-cover which is chock full of ideas of how to relate to today's generation of first responders.
If that doesn't work, try to attend some training you haven't had in the past. I spent Saturday in Tim Sendelbach's class and had dinner with him and Retired Dep. Chief Jim Smith of Philadelphia that night. I always come away informed and inspired.
Tim reminded me of a phrase I coined at the NFA this spring when I referred to the "Jackass Generation" of today's firefighters. I wasn't referring to their personalities but their affinity for hyper-activity and risk taking. He already wrote an editorial about it in Fire-Rescue Magazine. I might do that too.
Keep the faith. It will come to you.
If not, just drink to kill the pain.
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