I’m staring at a blank canvas for my thoughts. The vertical cursor bar continues to blink at the starting point. I have no idea where this is headed, the only thing on my mind is how I can convince you to read through this entire piece.

“ Was that a text? No, that’s the beeping noise for when my laundry is ready for drying. Or are my clothes dry and ready to be put away? Oh , it’s just the coffee maker.”

Some folks at Quora suggest that I attach a picture (horizontal preferred) to draw your attention and lure you in. That might work, but I still haven’t committed to an idea to write about, let alone a photo.

“Is this going to be a 2 minute read? 10? It doesn’t matter, I just need to keep them engaged.”

Medium’s designers sure did a hell of a job on this website.

The layout is minimalistic, yet it gives writers all of the tools needed to turn a blank canvas into their next masterpiece.

“Today’s the day! I’m up early, I already downed two cups of coffee and I’m writing the best damn thing my mind can produce!”

Anytime I opt to “Write a Story”, I find myself staring into the thousands of white pixels that are nested into this page’s space, before my mind wanders off once again to the next meaningless task. Another incomplete thought.

Alone.

Staring at my blank canvas.

“Everything worth writing about has been said by someone else. Quit regurgitating information and posting bad content.”

Shut up brain. This isn’t the time or place for your reason.

Actually, I’ve found this feeling of my fingertips pounding against the keyboard delightful. I could write about nothing and all and still have something to say.

“This space should be for important thoughts, not frivolous crap. How can you sit here and write about nothing when the world is falling apart due to war, disease, racism, and poverty?”

You’re right.

You’re right.

You’re right.

But we’ve been filled with dank memes and Donald Trump via the tiny televisions we have on us at all times, there’s so little room left for actual news.

The decay of the world’s attention span, anywhere between 8–12 seconds, is one of the most under-looked epidemics of all.

“Stop writing. You know damn well that you scroll through Medium posts, stop at pictures/highlighted text, and declare that you’ve ‘finished it’ all the time.”

Only sometimes! And I really do try, it’s not my fault if the author can’t do enough keep their audience engaged. Right?

“DING! DING! DING! DING!”

Kanye West is trending on Twitter again, I need to finish binge-watching ‘The West Wing’ before it’s off Netflix, and I’m tired of agonizing over the cursor that won’t change it’s position.

I’ll get around to this sooner or later.