because Cary, or the editors, or whoever chooses the letters, does not. Please no more letters about writers! At least for two weeks. Please, Cary or whoever, is two weeks without letters about writers too long? We have seen variations on the same theme over and over and over, and it is so tedious by now. Can we please hear more about neighbors parking in parking spaces or about too-short husbands or husbands who won't have sex with their wives? Please? Just for two weeks?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Salon originally aimed at writers?? In any case, writers, especially ones that stay home by themselves day after day, generally have a lot of issues so forgive us if we take up more of Cary's time and energy.

but we want to contribute anyway. So my advice is: take a long bath. Do some writing while in the tub, if you possibly can. See if this makes your writing "wetter". "Wetter" is the new "edgy".

Well this is a fine "fuck you" from Cary to all of us Friday who called for a moratorium on "writer" letters. Strangely, this LW missed the fact that most of us calling for a moratorium on these types of letters are... writers.

Cary has a tendency to do this-- it's an interesting personality trait.

But anyway. LW, I sure wish I had your problem. My problem in life is that I've got too many ideas and don't have time to get to all of them -- total and complete Adult ADD, I'm sure of it, and if I wasn't so busy running around trying to implement all my great ideas, and write all my great stories, novels, magazine pieces and investigative reports, I might have time to go get TREATED for ADD.

I would suggest maybe you're just in a rut in terms of your topics. I mean, why don't you start pursuing some of your passions in life -- whatever they may be -- and then write about those? This worked really well for me-- I left my day job at a newspaper and started freelancing and spending a lot of time/energy on my other interests and soon enough I had all kinds of jobs writing about these other interests. My work is much better than when I was , say, covering school board meetings or investigating fraud by some government official. Because I didn't really care about those things.

So, I don't know, go get involved in some activities.

The only way I know of to get ideas is to live. Taking walks may be enough to do it for some people, but it isn't doing it for you. You need to get more involved in your "specialized beat," whatever that is. If you yourself are doing interesting things, suddenly the people around you will be interesting.

ideas come from stories. true stories. made-up stories. other people's stories. your own stories.

i am the author of a published memoir and while it never made salon (*sigh*) it was well received for a lot of people who related to my life. i received hundreds of letters, from people who thanked me for being willing to break the silence, to tell my story.

your stories may not be about spirituality. or abuse. or telling secrets. but whatever they are, your stories are a part of all of our community, our lives, our humanity.

i've always believed the old adage: write what you know.

wow i do not think someone sould have to sell there ideas because this is cotradictory to my personal beleif that good ideas sell themselfs....., with this in mind what i think you need is to take a break and get some ideas first hand..., i as a reasonably level headed person would suggest trying cannabis if marijuana is avaliable in your area or possibly an other ethogen if you feel comfortable, i feel that ideas come frome your brain, people who use this sight and others use there brain, and know that basically all the cnn fox news is bull shit drugs do not have any short/long term effects if used in a correct setting...., im sorry but you remind me of a young me, a young confused writer trying to make it on his/her own but i think if you need inspiration try a RECREATIONAL substace besides alcohol tobacco crack coke or speed...., if your looking for inspiration try weed,lsd,mushrooms(prefeably of the psychedelic variety ),MESCALINE (especially) but yes along with ideas you will find questions and answers but most of all i garuntee if you do these things in a SMART contralled state/enviroment you will find what your looking for and much much more. INSPRIATION=Psychedelic

signed the educated_consumer

Ideas come when you've created some emotional space for them, either intentionally or unintentionally.

Sometimes emotional pain brings me ideas, or joy, or a current event or story that touched me. Sometimes I'm tickled about a concept and roll it around inside my head like a pinball until it falls into that little hole and sets off the bells and lights . . .

But in my case, I've never sat there and looked for an idea, or tried to power an idea out of my head. They come when I'm on the freeway lulled by the drone of the road, or in the shower, or at 3:00 a.m. when I can't get back to sleep.

I have the opposite problem from the LW. I have a zillion ideas, some works complete, some half done, outlines and notes, and haven't sold anything . . . My fondest dream is some time and emotional space to focus on writing, but I have to work for a living in the meantime, so the ideas fill up my head and clamber to be released.

Where ideas come from in my part of the universe is from everywhere, with only quiet time and space as obstacles to getting them down on paper.

"drugs do not have any short/long term effects if used in a correct setting...., im sorry but you remind me of a young me, a young confused writer trying to make it on his/her own but i think if you need inspiration try a RECREATIONAL substace besides alcohol tobacco crack coke or speed...., if your looking for inspiration try weed,lsd,mushrooms(prefeably of the psychedelic variety ),MESCALINE (especially) but yes along with ideas you will find questions and answers but most of all i garuntee if you do these things in a SMART contralled state/enviroment you will find what your looking for and much much more. INSPRIATION=Psychedelic"

I just had to repost this because it's cracking me up and has posed a chicken or the egg question for me. Did the educated consumer write mostly incoherent letters riddled with grammatical errors and misspellings before doing lots of drugs, or as result of the drugs?