When my friend Pete on Facebook announced several days before November 1st that he was ditching media for a month, I thought “Yeah- that”, and I messaged him that I would join him.

Media Break for the Month meant no social media, and no TV. Sure. It’s easy.

Well, Saturday was test day 1 of the break, really, because I was home, and I was faced with my daily compulsions to go online and check my regular few sites. Facebook. Twitter. Flickr. And whatever else I sit for an hour on and realize I have wasted that 60 minutes.

I will say that the non-TV part of the break was challenging on Saturday. Saturday is a sports day. College football beckoned. I love lazing for a few hours watching a movie (or two) as well.

But I resisted.

Any time I got on the laptop during the day, Facebook beckoned me as well. But I let the call go by me.

I struggled a bit realizing how much of a grip those compulsive visits have on me.

But when I didn’t spend 5 hours watching Saturday football or an hour and a half mindlessly wandering around on the internet, I finished two books this weekend that I had started in the past.

Not one, but two books.

That’s a pretty good trade-in for time usage.

I also spent some time at the library yesterday afternoon trying to do some research and flesh a little more out on a story that came to my mind while I was listening to a movie soundtrack at work on Thursday. I have been in such a big writing slump the last year or so, unmotivated and uninspired to write anything creatively, despite the strong desire within me to strive to write anyways.

Of all of the odd ideas to pass through my mind while I listened to a song, I saw for a brief moment the image of an angry man yelling at a mountain, and the thought went through my mind: “What would happen if a man tried to fight a mountain?” The music shaped the image and the mood around it, and then, for some ineffable reason, my mind said “Yeah- write that story.”

Talk about flash fiction. An image flashed through my mind, and I was then due to finish a story.

I continued to think about the image and the summary idea on Friday and Saturday and today, and in time a character name appeared, and the the place where the story is supposed to take place, and then a back story for the character’s family.

I have to say I don’t know how the story is going to start or end, but it has some bones.

I don’t know. I guess this is how creative writing is supposed to happen.

All I know is it is Sunday night and I am writing a blog post instead of watching the end of Sunday Night Football on TV, so there is something to doing this media blackout thing.

I guess I’ll see if I can “see” any more story elements for another half an hour before I hit the sack.