By Peter Welmerink
Do you have writer's block?
Are you wondering why you do this thing called writing, called creating?
Have you felt you've lost your writing mojo? Saying, "Dang! What happened to those good ole days when I could just vomit forth lines and lines of adventurous words and create fabulous tales?"
Answer: if you have stuck with it (writing, creating) for this long, I can assure you...
YOU STILL HAVE THE MOJO.
You may just have to hook a chain around it, a tow strap, hook it up to your monster truck, and pull that SOB out and make him/her/it work.
And... !!!
IT CAN BE DONE.
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In my own life, I can't say exactly when the writing bug bit me. I grew up in a middle class family, working mom and dad, just me and one sibling. Folks got separated when I was in 4th or 5th grade. I went to a parochial school, paddled with a yardstick by the nuns. Living in a neighborhood close to downtown, the bustling metropolis of Grand Rapids. Lived IN THE CITY for sure as the family home was situated on one of the busiest east/westbound streets. There were woods near the house though for traipsing through. There was the John Ball Zoo a block away. More woodland (the boonies) further southwest, and the Grand River.
It's not like my mom or dad tossed a pencil and notepad at me and said GO WRITE. It was just something I did. School had some one-subject notebooks, wide rule lined paper. The blank page. The empty line. I just felt the need to... fill it, fill the line, fill the page and pages with whatever came to mind.
I wrote about my life as kind of a lonely boy growing up in the 70's. Lots of love songs played on the radio. Sweet Life by Paul Davis. Afternoon Delight by Starland Vocal Band. You're in my Heart by Rod Stewart. Sharing the Night Together by Dr. Hook. I typically wrote about LOVE or adventures in finding it.
I won't even get into the ROCK MUSIC or the movies I watched. (Foghat, Boston, BOC, Black Sabbath, Led Zep...and Planet of the Apes (Heston), Dirty Harry (Eastwood), Kelly's Heroes.)
Stir in reading Sgt. Rock comic books, GI Combat, Robert E Howard's Conan, Edgar Rice Burrough's John Carter of Mars...
Crazy mixed up kid.
Was that why I wrote? All that stuff sloshing around my brain.
I don't know.
I had friends. I wasn't that lonely. Yet, I would often squirrel myself away and write adventure stories. Stories of war. Stories of saving the girl. Stories of being the hero. Stories of superheroism. Adventure. Adventure. Adventure.
Whatever the reason, I kept writing, felt the need to fill the blank page, create, tell a story even if I was the only one reading it. I didn't care if I was the only one reading it, I simply HAD TO CREATE.
So, to stop my rambling, let me say to you this:
IF YOU HAVE BEEN WRITING FOR THIS LONG, YOU STILL CAN AND YOU STILL WILL.
Remember back to the day when you first started writing, when you first started creating. Do that again. Just let it go and let it flow. Just write. Write some silly yarn. Ramble freely and abandon all thought on doing it for publication or even having any of it make sense.
As the music artist Seal says: "We're never gonna survive unless we get a little crazy."
Go back to those early childhood times, let your mind go, and create.
Adventure! Adventure! Adventure!
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Peter Welmerink has been writing since he found a stash of notebooks in a hallway cabinet drawer in grade school and began to scribe incredible tales of adventure and mayhem. He writes Epic Fantasy and Military Adventure fiction. He can be found at peterwelmerink.com, grandrapidsaltered.blogspot.com and darkheroicfantasy.blogspot.com.
TRANSPORT, his fictional Military Post-Post Apoc Zombie Thriller series, is available now. The events of the tale are set in and around Grand Rapids, Michigan. Childhood dream of massive adventure in his hometown brought back to life and published. Bazinga! Dream it. Do it.
