Sometimes I get extremely frustrated trying to find something to write about. It’s not that I don’t have ideas. I have plenty. The problem lies in picking a subject worth writing about from the plethora of random topics floating around my over-worked mind. I find it even more frustrating when trying to pinpoint a good topic while on the computer.

Maybe it’s the glare of whiteness from Word documents that sting my eyes into submission. Perhaps it’s the underlying knowledge that at any given moment something wonderful may be happening on Facebook. It could even be the pull of computerized Mah Jong games that I love so well keeping my focus away from where it needs to be. I don’t know. But lately I find it slightly more difficult to concentrate on a topic for prose and it seems like my computer is working against me.

I didn’t have this issue when I was younger. I would fill reams of notebooks, loose leaf paper, or even random napkins with short stories or random musings. All-nighters were frequent before I ever stepped foot in college because I always had something to say and my pens never seemed to run out of ink. No topic or idea was off limits nor was it ever a question of whether it was good enough to write about. I just wrote. And it was wonderful.

Needless to say, that was my epiphany: I need to cut back on writing solely on my laptop and whip out my good ole pen and paper. It’s functional, practical, and it doesn’t offer any opportunities for distraction, which is crucial for someone like me. I always said that after a while my attention span becomes like that of a squirrel with ADHD. Hence all the randomness.

I went to Barnes & Noble’s today and bought some lovely, overpriced but oh-so-smooth-writing pens and a thick journal with empty pages and a strong spine. It’s time for me to pour out.

It’s time for me to go back to basics. 

**And, yes, coffee is required.