a cure for writer's block

making myself write again by recycling random lines from recent attempts to break said writer's block.

for some reason i paid for canva pro just to make this. it’s not even that good lol

One thing that Ohio’s Power of the Pen program, high school NaNoWriMo, a writing-heavy course load, and my current job have taught me is how to get words on paper. For me, writer’s block seldom looks like a blinking cursor on a word processor but instead like a bunch of bullshittttt that I don’t want to share with anyone.

I’ve wanted to bring back this little blog and keep it casual, but every time I write, I feel this pressure to make sweeping advice, be 1000% honest, and make a point no one else has never made ever, and then I never finish anything.

To combat the perfectionist itch, here are the best/funniest/most interesting sentences I’ve written on various topics in my Substack drafts and untitled Google docs this year, just to get something, even if unfinished, out there again.

On “The Social Reckoning” trailer, from a “The Social Network” obsessee (June 2026): Aaron Sorkin’s a bitch. You think that’s because his family changed their name from Syrkin or do you think it’s because all hacks are bitches? (this one could still come to fruition. i should just probably see the movie first)

Writing about trying to write about my OCD diagnosis (May-June 2026): It was a high school mental health essay complete with a dramatic reenactment of my first obsession (checking if numbers were multiples of threes, if you’re really that curious). What I’ve learned in my short time understanding my OCD is that, like most mental illnesses and disorders, it is very, very hard to understand if you don’t have it, and trying to describe them always ends up trite. (i hope woke 2 will bring back the classic mental health essay in Bustle. see also: a scrapped piece about having magical thinking ocd and then your team wins the Stanley Cup lol)

The novel idea of making mistakes when you are 24 (April 2026): I have suffered as a fool plenty this past year, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I will not start going on like a relationship blogger and say with a flaccid grin that my breakup was the best thing to ever happen to me, but I can say it gave me the room to become myself that almost nothing else has. (true but whateva…)

2026 Oscars predictions (February 2026): For my money, the Academy is by far the “hippest” awards body of the major players. The Grammys seem incapable of seeing past the Billboard Top 100 for its highest awards, only Broadway plays are eligible for the Tonys, and “independent television” isn’t quite real in 2026 (but prove me wrong!), so the Emmys get a pass. (channeling my former awards prediction blogging days…)

Canadian century of exaltation and honor (April 2026): As an American (boooo), I have a hard time conceptualizing how Canadians feel about their southern neighbor. Europeans make it very clear how annoying we are, and some Americans even lie about being Canadian when they go abroad. While Canada lacks the overwhelming international chokehold the US of A possesses, I have to imagine there’s some complicated feelings. (would have included recent Canadian media like “Blue Heron” dir. Sophy Romvari, “Something We All Got” by Cootie Catcher, “Mile End Kicks” dir. Chandler Levack, and my beloved hyperfixation, “Nirvanna The Band The Show”/The Movie.” girls trip to Toronto?????)

I’ve broken the seal! I can write again! I’m a real girl! Expect more from me this summer, especially if I can find a job that doesn’t suck every ounce of writing creativity out of me. xoxo — allie

media menu:

📚: “Kitchen Confidential” by Anthony Bourdain (related to my Matt Johnson hyperfixation, sorry. of a bygone era and very inspirational as someone writing about myself and also writing about food for work)
📚: “Famesick” by Lena Dunham (i might be a shosh the more i think about it. but i’m def a Lena)
📹: Meg Stalter performing “Prettiest Girl in America” at the Las Culturistas Culture Awards (who wants to go see Meg Stalter as Mary Todd Lincoln serious inquiries only!!!)
🛍️: kodak charmera!!!!! everyone take little pictures and videos now!!!
🎧: bitknot (album) by feeble little horse (come with me to Durham July 12??)
🎧: Rumspringa (album) by ear
📝: “I Found It: The Best Free Restaurant Bread in America” by Caity Weaver (if i can write anything half as good as this, my life will be complete. she gives one restaurant “negative 10 million stars” for its soda policy. “‘Fun article for people to read,’ I tell him glumly.” the end made me cry)
🎙️: Podcast about List: The Five Weeks of Benjamin Button (this is an excruciatingly Dude Pick but the idea of watching “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” in ten 10,000 second increments over five weeks is already the funniest thing in the world to me. so freaking stupid but really tickled me. i listened to all of this and still haven’t seen the movie)
📺: “Widow’s Bay” (just started but such a fun genre exercise! matthew rhys 😍)