Have you ever had your head sat on in a swimming pool?

I have. It was terrifying. I was probably not much older than eight and my sister, who did the sitting, was probably around five. I can’t remember a lot about how or why it occured; all I remember was the sensation of being sat on, with only water around me, and being suddenly terrified of drowning.

I kicked and struggled but she wouldn’t budge. Suddenly, by instinct, I did the only thing I could think of that seemed like it might work.

I opened my mouth, taking in a bit of water in the process, and bit her. Right on the rump.

She screamed, but she leaped off me and I survived.

It sounds silly and maybe even a little funny in retrospect, but the fear I felt in those few moments was real enough. Believe me, it’s not funny when someone treats your head like one of her pool toys.

In this digital age in which we live, it’s important to have the right self defense products on hand to protect your computer (and thus your work) from outside threats.

That’s why I like Kapersky Antivirus, which I recently picked up from Best Buy. In the last couple years, I’d tried and been disappointed in both Norton and PC-cillan due to incidents both my wife and I have had with those products.

Kapersky’s different; while those products update maybe once a day, Kapersky updated pretty much every hour on the hour. As such, they respond more quickly to the viral threats that can take down your hard drive and thus subject you to losing a lot of your work.

Trust me, after having not just one, but TWO computers crash on me in the space of three months last year, I’ve gone through that pain. Twice. Now, in addition to backing up my work a LOT more often, Kapersky is one of the things that gives me peace of mind about my writing being secure on my hard drive. This isn’t an official review of their product… I just was thinking about how much I appreciate it and decided to share.

It’s more expensive than other solutions, but this is one case where you get what you pay for.

Blogs are a great tool for aspiring writers. It doesn’t cost much and with the correct digital signage, you can attract an instant audience. And it kind of takes the place of journaling in the practice of writing every day.

That’s kind of what I like about it. I was never big into journals and so most of my writing time was invested in novels and short stories that somehow, by and large, never found the right market to achieve publication. Journalism helped with the need for an instant-gratification outlet, but ultimately it’s not a personal form of expression.

That’s why blogging is such a godsend to writers like me. I can blog and blog until my mind’s clear of all the stray thoughts and refuse, and then I can dig in and really get into a groove with whatever creative project I’m currently working on.

When we are young and still expanding our volcabulary, a child’s mind can come up with some pretty creative images. I remember once, when my family went camping and stopped at a grocery store for supplies. We’d picked up just about everything we needed, save for napkins.

My mom asked me to go grab some napkins and pointed me in a general direction. Being young and naive, I went an aisle too far and searched up and down it for something that said “napkins.” Finally, my eyes fell on a teal-green package about the right size, so I grabbed them and returned to my mom in the checkout aisle, proud of my achievement.

It was my mom’s turn to change several shades of green; being too young to distinguish at the time, I didn’t realize the package that said “napkins” had another word in front of it.

“Feminine.”

It was a rather humiliating case of being mistaken and I remember I was angry at being wrong about what I had grabbed, even though I didn’t understand why it was the wrong thing.

Let’s not even venture into what my age four mind conjured up by a confusing phrase like bridal shower invitations.

Sometimes if you write too much about one topic, it can get to feel a bit stale. Let it go on like that long enough and it becomes completely uninspired drivel. (Kind of like most of Aaron Sorkin’s TV work.)

So how do you combat writing fatigue? The only answer I’ve found that works but keeps you writing is variety. Churning out a lot of screenplays? Take a day off and try some poetry. Grinding away on long fiction with no end in sight? Do a blog entry.

The point is to change it up, like an overweight person trying an Orovo regimine instead of the local deli’s all-you-can-eat special. Too much of just about anything can get a bit routine after a while. Keep writing – just write something different now and again.