I used to be able to write

I’m not saying I used to be a good writer. Only that I used to be able to do it without much fanfare. I even enjoyed it sometimes.

I could sit down with a pen and paper or at my computer and form thoughts that flowed together and built on one another and were organized in some kind of logical fashion.

Or maybe they didn’t exactly go together. Maybe it was just stream of consciousness. Who cares?

I could do it.

I could write when I wanted to, more or less.

Now?

I can’t remember the last time I sat down with some intention and just wrote something.

It got to the point where I honestly just stopped trying. Why bother? AI is coming and all that…and then years slipped off the calendar.

I saw somewhere the phrase creatively bankrupt.

Accounts overdrawn.

That feels about right to me as I examine my current situation.

My brain is depleted. Writing muscles have atrophied.

I think maybe it’s what happens when you consume more than you create and also outsource a lot of the tedium of writing to LLMs.

You can slide down the mountain rather quickly.

Anyway, it’s all good.

All is not lost.

Because this article editor I stumbled upon here on X.com has me doing it again.

Am I doing it well?

I doubt it.

But who cares?

No one will read this.

And like I said, I’m not claiming I used to be good at it.

Only that I used to do it with some regularity.

And you know what? I think I was happier and healthier in a lot of ways back then.

It’s good to remember what that feels like.