Lonely Cottage

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  “Among the few features of agricultural England which retain an appearance but little modified by the lapse of centuries, may be reckoned the high, grassy and furzy downs, coombs, or ewe-leases, as they are indifferently called, that fill a large area of certain counties in the south and south-west. If any mark of human occupation is met with hereon, it usually takes the form of the solitary cottage of some shepherd. Fifty years ago such a lonely cottage stood on such a down, and may possibly be standing there now. In spite of its loneliness, however, the spot, by actual measurement, was not more than five miles from a county-town. Yet that affected it little. Five miles of irregular upland, during the long inimical seasons, with their sleets, snows, rains, and mists, afford withdrawing space enough to isolate a Timon or a Nebuchadnezzar; much less, in fair weather, to please that less repellent tribe, the poets, philosophers, artists, and others who “conceive and meditate of ple...

10 Ways To Bust Writer’s Block

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  1. Get all your writing gear together.
  2. Find a comfortable writing spot.
  3. Put pen to paper and start writing.
  4. Write anything that comes to mind even if it’s nonsensical or gibberish later on. Your goal is to write, not edit. 
  5. Use creative writing exercises like top 10 lists, or writing only questions.
  6. As you write, look for themes, and focus on those. If more than one come to the surface make note of them and come back to them later.
  7. Write for you and you alone. 
  8. Take a reader on a virtual tour of what’s around you. Be as descriptive as possible.
  9. Write a letter to someone.
  10. Write about your day but instead of using “I” or “me”, write using “you” as if someone else were telling you what was going on. Example: “You could tell she was a Karen before she placed her coffee order but you already made up your mind that you were going to make her day.”

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