Some Entries I Should Write
April 1, 2004
I am having a curious kind of writer’s block where I am convinced that I have wonderful ideas to write about but none of them are surfacing. And, then, when I go to write about something, and an idea finally comes to the surface, the idea really sucks. I am convinced, though, that at some point in the future, they will be great ideas again, so I am going to write a few of them down.
In no particular order:
- I should write about the ritual my friends and I have for choosing who gets to go to which Red Sox games when we split up our season tickets every year. It's almost as much fun as the games themselves, and the food is better.
- I should write about New York City and San Francisco, and why I love them as much as I do.
- I should write about the incredible, evocative power of the senses and memory. The sound of rain on the window today rocketed me back to my grandmother's living room, circa 1969, and a ferocious thunderstorm.
- I should write about some music that moves me, maybe Greg Brown or Bruce Springsteen. The challenge: write about popular music without being banal.
- I should write about the neighborhood of my youth, life among the double- and triple-deckers
- I should write about baseball.
- I should write about running.
- I should write about the small triumphs and countless challenges of being a father.
- I should write about the irony of so much time wasted longing for my absent father while never fully appreciating the mother who stayed right there.
- I should write more about modes of travel in my life—trains and planes especially.
- I should write about being 44 and preparing to turn 45.
- I should write about brothers.
- I should write about certain favorite photographs.
- I should write about—I kid you not—my lawn.
- I should write about my dog.
- I should write about the muscle cars I spent my teenage years in, drag racing, spinning out, and crashing. The vocabulary alone is worth it—Mopar, Hurst, Holley, cherry bombs, no go!
- I should write about some lost friends: Mike and Chucky and Derek.
- I should write about the titans of my childhood: Pops, Grandma, Unkie, Uncle Whip.
- I should write about Yaz!
- I should write more about playing hockey.
- I should write about that time surf-casting for bluefish, and having them strike every time I cast my line.
- I should write about hide-and-go-seek on a city street, reaching home that time leaping from the tree branch to the telephone pole.
- I should write about how incredibly fast I was as a kid.
- I should write about the few perfect plays I made in baseball, and the dozens of errors.
- I should write more about my mom.
- I should write about being the last person in New England to discover Cape Cod.
Posted by Bill Trippe at April 1, 2004 10:37 PM
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These are all worthy topics... instead of feeling the "should" of writing your personal story, how about taking one of these topics, the one that strikes you, and in the course of a week, wittle away at it. By the end of say, 10 weeks, you'll have written about some of them... what do you think?
Posted by Gala at April 25, 2004 4:51 PM