Breaking the seal

It doesn't take much to get the ball rolling

As some of my readers know, I’ve been working on the publication of my first book this year. It’s nothing fancy, just a compilation of some of my favorite columns I’ve written since I began writing weekly editorials in The Daily-Chief Union almost three years ago.

But the part that has been difficult was my decision to add about 12 original columns to the book. I wanted to give regular newspaper readers who have already seen every one of my columns a reason to want to buy the book when it eventually comes out.

I brainstormed ideas for a while and eventually settled on 12 topics that I thought were important enough to add to the book. They ranged from humorous tales of some of my youthful misadventures to some deeply personal and vulnerable stories that I knew were going to be difficult to write about.

The biggest problem with writing these original columns is I kind of have my own system for writing my weekly column for the newspaper. Every week I usually start with an idea and I slowly add to it throughout the week, writing it in my head. It really solidifies over the weekend and then I come into the newspaper office on Monday and I pound away on my keyboard until it’s finished and ready for the Opinion Page of the Tuesday morning edition of the DC-U.

I don’t have that system for my original columns. Instead, I’ve kept trying to put myself in a creative headspace where I wanted to just sit down and write, but that’s not easy to do when you’re writing stories for your day job (I also write about the Cleveland Guardians and UFC as side gigs). I mean, who wants to write for fun when they’ve been writing for work all day?

I’ve had a blank page with the title of the most personal story of them all sitting in an open tab on my computer for about eight months now. It’s the worst form of writer’s block.

For the longest time, I didn’t even want to look at that blank page with its blinking cursor almost mocking me.

I’d spoken about my bookwriting issues with friends, family, co-workers and have received all kinds of advice with how to move forward. I’ve tried all different kinds of ideas and nothing has really taken hold. Not even my most recent inspiration to just barrel forward and “just do the dang thing” from my birthday weekend trip to Wisconsin.

But then this past week, I went to Traum Brewery and spoke about writing with a friend, who also is a writer. I discussed my difficulties about actually sitting down and working on some of those more personal stories. But then I started going into detail about the most personal column that I’ve been stuck on for months. When I explained what I had in mind, delving into some of the details, I could see tears welling in my friend’s eyes and I had to stop myself before we accidentally caused a scene.

It was at that moment that something stirred inside me and I realized that I’ve slowly been working on some of these stories all year in my head and it was time to start letting them out.

When I got home, the first thing I did was go straight to my computer and I opened that blank page. Instead of frustratingly staring at the screen, words just started pouring out me like a faucet. It was like I’d finally broken the seal of some fancy wine that I’d been saving up for a special occasion.

I didn’t finish all of my columns in one sitting, but I put one hell of a dent into them. Ever since that night, I keep getting new ideas for phrases to add to the story. I was in the middle of a rock concert this past weekend in Columbus watching the band Starset play some of their biggest hits and mid-song I was completely overwhelmed with emotion as my mind drifted to my writing and some perfect lines that would help finish off that most difficult of stories.

With nothing else at my disposal, I turned to my cell phone and just started writing the ideas down before they became foggy and slowly dispersed into forgotten memories. That’s been happening more and more often and it’s not slowing down as I enter the new workweek. When I’m not putting together stories for the upcoming Wyandot County Fair preview or preparing to cover city council meetings, my mind has been hammering away at me with new ideas to help finish my stories.

I know I still have work to do before completing the book, but for the first time this year, I’m actually hopeful that I’ll get it done, proofed and published before the end of the year.

Now if I could just settle on ideas for what to call it.