Author: Jackie Pick

Jackie Pick is a former teacher and current writer living in the Chicago area. She is a contributing author to multiple anthologies, including Multiples Illuminated, So Glad They Told Me: Women Get Real about Motherhood, Here in the Middle, as well as the and the literary magazines The Sun and Selfish. She received Honorable Mention from the Mark Twain House and Museum for her entry in the Royal Nonesuch Humor Writing Competition. Jackie is a contributing writer at Humor Outcasts, and her essays have been featured on various online sites including McSweeney's, Belladonna Comedy, Mamalode, The HerStories Project, and Scary Mommy. A graduate of the University of Chicago and Northwestern University, Jackie is co-creator and co-writer of the award-winning short film Fixed Up, and a proud member of the 2017 Chicago cast of Listen To Your Mother.

Blue Screens of Death

Jackie Pick's avatarJackie Pick

My computer just crashed. I got the blue screen of death after one of those “Oh, hey, you need to update your Windows 10” messages. It crashed as I was writing for this blog and it didn’t save. Does it ever? The computer took its time rebooting and gathering data. I had a choice between hitting my head on hard surfaces in frustration or putting away laundry. I chose the latter, despite the lure of the former.

It was not so long ago I suffered from terrible writer’s block. There are various theories about writer’s block: That it’s just fear. That it can be cured by writing. That it can be cured by not writing. None of it worked for me. I just had to ride that wave, and a long wave it was for this non-surfer.

Words trickle these days, but they are there and I am patient with…

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