Be Part of the Solution

"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem."

That's the old saying ... one I haven't been heeding of late.

Back in 2005 when Echoes on the Hardwood was published, my writing had quite a bit of momentum.  In addition to the new published work, I was turning out basketball articles for NDNation, had contributed to ND's 100 Seasons book, and had been offered (and declined) a position at Blue & Gold Illustrated.  Difficult as it had been, I had thoroughly enjoyed putting EotH together, and was anxious to put the lessons I'd learned the hard way into practice for the second book.  Charlie Weis was new to the ND campus, and I thought a comprehensive look behind the scenes at the things that went into putting on a Notre Dame football game from multiple perspectives (team, school, band, cheerleaders, media, etc.) would be my natural next step.

But I never took that step, and over the six months that followed, my writing regressed.  While I continued to blog for NDNation, it seemed more of a chore than it ever had before.  I turned in my home game credentials to the ND Sports Information office and stopped doing in-game coverage.  Even the annual Christmas newsletter fell by the wayside, as I felt more burned out than anything else.

Time away, I thought to myself.  That's what I need.  I won't force it, and when it's ready to come back, it will.

Months turned into years, and "it" remained elusive.  Other than the NDN contributions, I wasn't putting much on paper for anybody.  And I started to get frustrated.  What happened to the guy who was going to have three books to his credit by the start of the next decade?  Where was the fire, the need to put into practice the corrections of mistakes that had been made in the original effort?

Why wasn't I writing?

Then last weekend, it came to me.  If I wanted to write, I needed to write.  Whining about it wasn't getting anything done.  And whining is certainly not something Alan Shore would do.  So I decided to start WWASD in an effort to kick-start the frontal lobe and scrape the rust off my fingertips whilst engaging in some linguistic legerdemain.

OK, that was over the top.  Should have stretched first.

So watch this space in the coming weeks as I get back into typographic shape and feel out which way this is going to go.  Some of it's bound to be boring, and some undoubtedly in bad taste.  Some of it will talk about current events, some will talk about topics that interest me, some will refer to the people in my life.  Eventually, I may talk about the inspiration behind the name of this blog.

Regardless, it'll be me.  And that's bound to have its interesting moments.