literature

WSoD

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WSoD

~

“I love writing but hate starting. The page is awfully white and it says, 'You may have fooled some of the people some of the time but those days are over, giftless. I'm not your agent and I'm not your mommy, I'm a white piece of paper, you wanna dance with me?' and I really, really don't. I don't want any trouble. I'll go peaceable-like."
-Aaron Sorkin

~


James flipped his lucky coin into the air and caught it without looking, because he was too busy staring at his most hated of enemies. Many a time had he and this foe met, but it never became any easier to achieve victory. For the enemy James fought was none other than the White Screen of Death!

Most people knew of the Blue Screen of Death, or the Black Screen of Death, and maybe even the extremely elusive Red Screen of Death, but those were all technical failure screens for the computer.  They plagued anyone who let too many viruses into their system or deleted important files because of ignorance. The White Screen of Death specifically targeted writers, and it was far too easy to run into it, because in order for a writer to use a computer to do his or her work he had to open a word document. And there it was, every time, without fail: the White Screen of Death! That dastardly blank white expanse containing no words or inspiration to type those words, merely despair and loneliness! And James, trying to write his latest school paper, was being badly beaten by it tonight.

He flipped his coin again and caught it. It was something he did to calm his nerves and to distract himself from the doom on his computer screen. He had to think of something to write, but what? He started flipping the coin faster, keeping track of what it landed on. Heads. Heads. Heads. Tails. Heads. Tails. Tails. Tails. Tails. Tails. Tails. Heads.

He stopped keeping track of the coin and just kept on flipping it, sighing. It probably looked silly, flipping a coin while staring at a blank screen. But it was either flip the coin or smash the computer, and he liked this computer. He’d paid for it himself, and it wouldn’t make very much sense to smash the thing he needed to do the work anyways.. So he kept flipping the coin.

He couldn’t come up with any ideas, so he started picking random items around his room and trying to come up with ideas. But he couldn’t find much inspiration in a fridge. Besides, there wasn’t anything in the darn thing. James looked at his coin again, trying to get something from it. Flip. Write about the acquisition of money? No, that sounded boring. Flip. Write about economic scandal? No, he didn’t know enough about the subject and didn’t have the time to research. Flip. Write about the poor, or the rich, or both, maybe something about the interaction between the two? No, wait, Frank had done something like that a month back. Darn. Flip. Stupid White Screen of Death . . . . . eureka! He should write about the eternal struggles of the White Screen of Death! Brilliant!

James flipped the coin one last time, caught it, and put it in his pocket. He smiled and clapped his hands a few times, delighted with the revelation. Then, he began typing. Once again James claimed victory as the White Screen of Death, at last, vanished to be replaced by the beginnings of a story.
If you're a writer, then it's almost inevitable that you'll run into the White Screen of Death! But one writer, caught in the trap of the WSoD, manages to turn the tables.
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