{"id":5981,"date":"2022-08-10T09:03:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-10T14:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/?p=5981"},"modified":"2024-09-22T13:57:55","modified_gmt":"2024-09-22T18:57:55","slug":"creative-outlet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/creative-outlet\/","title":{"rendered":"Creative Outlet"},"content":{"rendered":"

“I do not<\/strong> have writer’s block.”<\/p>\n

“Then why are you sitting there, struggling<\/span>, looking like you’re trying to bleed on paper through the pores in your forehead?”<\/p>\n

“Use your imagination<\/span>,” I snarled, nearly knocking the chair over as I pushed away from the desk to refill my coffee mug. “Maybe I’m just singularly lacking in creativity.<\/span>” I sighed, deflating my lungs to match my spirit.<\/p>\n

“I think you need an adventure<\/span>. Come on, change your clothes and let’s go for a nature<\/span> walk.”<\/p>\n

A little voice in my head whined, “Don’t wanna. You can’t make me.” Instead of giving it a voice, I downed the coffee – it was lukewarm, anyway, as the coffeemaker had shut off automatically an hour earlier. “Fine.” I put the mug on the counter and went to pull on some clean clothes.<\/p>\n

“Don’t forget water. It’s hot out there.”<\/p>\n

Hot enough to cook my brain. I filled the CamelBak with ice and water and slung the straps over my shoulders. “Okay, let’s get this over with.”<\/p>\n

As I trudged the well-worn path into the woods, the only sounds were birdsong and the sound of tiny twigs snapping under my hiking boots. I didn’t think. I’d been thinking<\/em> all morning. Might as well give my dysfunctional brain a rest instead of trying to beat it into submission. My legs and back muscles cried, “Freedom<\/span>!”<\/p>\n

A mile in, a sense of contentment<\/span> washed over me. I was curious<\/span>: did I have the resourcefulness<\/span> to survive in the quiet wilderness, alone? I daydreamed about a rustic log cabin, nestled into a clearing in the woods. Would Amazon drop firewood and food in the front yard?<\/em> I wondered. Maybe Amazon drone deliveries would prove useful, after all.<\/p>\n

My restless energy, given an outlet<\/span>, finally, gave way to myriad story ideas. As the sunlight’s rays grew golden and faint, I walked back home, contented<\/span>. Calm. Ready to write. I could hear the sound of laughter from my annoyingly persistent Muse.<\/p>\n

“Hush, you,” I whispered to the wind.<\/p>\n

\n

This story brought to you with inspiration from Creative Copy Challenge #674 | Writing Prompts – Creative Copy Challenge (wordpress.com)<\/a> and the words Struggle, Adventure, Nature, Curiosity, Creativity, Freedom, Resourcefulness, Imagination, Outlet, Contentment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This story brought to you with inspiration from Creative Copy Challenge #674 | Writing Prompts – Creative Copy Challenge (wordpress.com) and the words Struggle, Adventure, Nature, Curiosity, Creativity, Freedom, Resourcefulness, Imagination, Outlet, Contentment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5984,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_has_post_settings":[],"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"hashtags":[],"class_list":["post-5981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 12:55:14","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5981"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5988,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5981\/revisions\/5988"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5981"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=5981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}