Opening Up To The Flow

I'm sitting here at 2:20 in the morning, thinking of what to write about. I wasn't able to do any writing these past couple of days because of work.

I used to be able to draw inspiration from even the most trivial or mundane things. Of course, to creative types, nothing is too trivial or too mundane. I speak from the point of view of the pragmatically-involved layman, who might find the real world too engaging to spend a moment to reflect on things profound, like the sensuality of dew upon grass or the insights inspired by an old milk carton.

I'm trying to get back to that, to the creative flow. To be "in the mood of being in the mode."

There are many websites that are home to ideas wannabe writers can use to flex their creative writing muscles. They host numerous prompts and ideas and inspirations and all the writer has to do is take off from them. These springboards can be as simple as how you spent your day, to being as cliché as enumerating the five things you want to do before you die. But these are mostly blog-material prompts in my book. I dunno, call me choosy. (And, yes, beggars can't be choosers.)

To me, a really great writer is one who's able to make anything interesting. He or she can make boredom the most interesting thing in the world. That writer can make cellular mitosis deliciously involving.

So, for those writers who visit this blog, maybe you can help me out a bit. Maybe you can give your two cents to breaking down this dam I have in my brain. How would you include the following sentence in a three-hundred word vignette?

"He saw the milk carton in the trash bin, and couldn't help but smile."

In blogspeak, I guess this means I'm tagging you.