Don't Surf Here

                                                                    Picture credit: Microsoft - free

I started contributing to More Than Writers in November 2022, so if my arithmetic is correct, this is my thirty-fourth input. I also try to read all the other submissions and comment when I can, so it has become a valued part of my routine. This month, though, that routine hit a bump in the road.

In keeping with the usual order of things, I opened More Than Writers on my laptop one morning only to find the anti-virus software doing what I pay it to do and warning me ‘not to surf here - suspicious site.’ I should hardly be surprised. ‘Suspicious’ is certainly one way of describing some of my efforts! Undeterred, I turned to my phone instead, only to receive the same result. MTW was a risk. Placed in quarantine for my protection. Out of bounds.

My limited technical know-how wasn’t enough for me to do anything about this. The FAQs told me I could raise a challenge by submitting a sample of the site for them to examine. It also told me not to enter the site, which left me in a classic ‘chicken and egg’ scenario. The only way to get a ‘sample’ was to enter the site and ... well, I’m sure you can see the problem!

The human mind is a curious thing. Sometimes it seems hard-wired to work against us. Our minds can turn ‘bumps in the road’ into mountains that exist only in our imagination.

After several days of being denied access to the site, my head was playing games with me. The game is called ‘whatifery.’ Have you heard of it? It goes something like this. ‘Oh, that’s odd, I can’t get onto MTW... what if I can’t get onto the site before the fifth... what if the problem’s bigger than it looks... what if evil agents from a corrupt overseas regime have hacked it... what if this is the end?’

Now look – I’m exaggerating here to make a point. I didn’t start imagining evil agents were involved, but, for a time, I certainly believed I wouldn’t be sharing my August musings. If you enjoy playing ‘whatifery’ yourself, I can heartily recommend its sister game, ‘whatsthepointery.’ The two games work excellently together for an evening of riotous fun for all the family. Having convinced yourself various ‘what ifs’ are bound to happen, it naturally follows you may as well give up now. Concluding that fixing my anti-virus problem was beyond me, my next train of thought was not to write a piece at all – after all, what would be the point?

How are ‘whatifery’ and ‘whatsthepointery’ playing out in your life? There are limitless possibilities, big and small, but let’s look at some writing examples. ‘What if I’m not good enough... what if no one’s interested in what I write... what if AI wipes authors off the face of the planet before I even get started... what’s the point in me bothering?’ Sound familiar?

As you can tell, my anti-virus sulked for a bit before changing its mind about MTW. We are on the nice list again. I know not why. It was a blip. A bump in the road, not a mountain, and, as you can see, it gave me something to reflect on and write about.

This month, in faith, I’m going to turn my ‘what ifs’ into ‘even ifs’. That game is much more fun. Who’s in?