Sean B. Fitzgerald It doesn’t go something like this, it goes exactly like this.

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To answer the hundreds dozens two e-mails I got as to why I am not writing as much lately, the answer is simple. Complete and utter writer's block. Usually, I have an opinion on everything sports related. If Tiger Woods just missed a putt or Michael Vick released a new brand of dog food, I should be there to provide some sort of insight and opinion. Not lately. I'm blank.

My mind works with the seasons. Right now, we're in the dog days of summer, a sports purgatory, if you will. Baseball is dragging on, football training camps just started, and the biggest college sports-related news was SEC Media Day, which provided the greatest piece of non-news ever. I guess the 'ol noggin' (taps head) is on a mental vacation. Take right now for instance. I am struggling to form words and string sentences together to articulate to you that fact that I am unable to be witty nor creative in any capacity. That last sentence alone took way too much out of me.

I've been reading a lot lately about the histories of two of my favorite television shows: The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live. And a majority of the books I've read have outlined the sheer genius attributed to the writers. Their ability to sit down and write entire episodes or sketches without even lifting up the pen was astounding. Granted, the writers of SNL had a little substance called cocaine to coax them along the writing process.

One of my favorite Simpsons writers is a man by the name of John Swartzwelder. He is arguably the most prolific writer in Simpsons history and has over 60 episodes credited to him. What makes him most interesting is his reclusiveness. In 1994, Swartzwelder was granted a special dispensation and allowed to no longer attend rewrite sessions with the rest of the writing staff, instead being allowed to send his drafts in from home so other writers could revise them. This was a direct result of his avid smoking habit coming in conflict with a newly implemented policy banning smoking in the writer's room.

He rarely, if ever, makes public appearances and refused to participate in any of the DVD commentaries on the first eleven The Simpsons DVD sets.

I just find it fascinating that someone with an obvious talent for connecting with audiences on a comedic level (A level that is purely social, if not emotional, I believe), is essentially a recluse. Which is why I find my situation even more maddening. Right now, I'm finding it difficult attempting to write for a blog that probably read by nine people.

I'll snap out of it. Sooner or...whatever word comes next.