"Oh I just don't know where to begin..."

       You say you don’t know what you what you want to write about or don’t have anything to say? Put that down on the page and just start writing about it. What does it feel like? How long has it been going on? Does it make you frustrated, sad, angry? Does it remind you of anything? Does it make you think you’ll end up a loser like that guy from your college poetry class? You know the one I mean. It’s important to just start writing. To get into the habit of writing whether we think we have anything to say or not.
       I love catching writers in the act of working through their blocks. There are two songs on Armed Forces by Elvis Costello that I’m guessing he started without much idea where he was going: “Oliver’s Army” starts with the line “Don’t start me talking/ I could talk all night…” that sounds a lot to me like something I’d say when I didn’t know what else to say. But the real winner is the first line of ‘Accidents Will Happen,’ “Oh, I just don’t know where to begin…”