LooseTalk: I cannot write!

Soldiers refusing to fight? Isn’t that weird? Aren’t soldiers supposed to fight? Doesn’t refusing to fight go against the very culture of the military in the first place? And what is it soldiers join the army for, but to fight? My friends with friends in military circles say it is called “insubordination”. “Cowardice”: This insubordination or cowardice happens after a soldier who is already on the frontline refuses to defend him/herself or others in a particular combat situation. Such a soldier can be charged with Neglect of Duty, Failure to Follow Orders, and Conduct Unbecoming of an Officer. Such a soldier is guilty of the biggest sin in military circles; that of cowardice. When a soldier refuses to fire his gun, it is called insubordination or cowardice, and do you want to know what fate awaits such a trooper? Even before we have answered that, what do we call this situation that I now find myself in, in which I have failed to come up with a decent topic to write loosely about? What life is this whereby a writer paid to write just can’t do it? Many times, I sit down on a machine, with absolutely no idea what to write about. And this time is one of them. I have no doubt in me that it is what is happening to me as I type this. I can think of absolutely nothing to say or write. Well, I have nothing that an editor worth his salt can put on the page. In the army, when a soldier refuses to fight, he is promptly charged with ‘cowardice’ and ‘insubordination’, which words I must admit sound like compliments. On the contrary, now that I have failed to come up with anything decent, I have no doubt in me that such unattractive tags like “lazy” and “unserious” and “slippery” will now be included among my names by an editor. Why would editors want to do such a thing? It is because most editors are not only inhuman and unappreciative, they have also never come across the words “writers’ block.” But isn’t writing supposed to come as second nature to a writer? Why should a writer experience problems writing at all? Of course usually I have no problem writing. Sometimes I’m out on the street, walking through traffic, and all of a sudden this great inspiration for an article pops into my head; usually, I sit down and bang the story out in just a few minutes. If I can’t access a machine right away, I will scribble it on my phone and save it as a draft. Boy, I love those times! Every writer does.