Words


Crane grumbled staring at the page. He looked at his pencil that refused to etch more. "Come on, brain. Write words!"

"You okay, over there buddy?" Said a friend of his. Crane looked up from the desk and glanced at a large panda, leaning back against the wall while reading a book. Crane sighed.

"Nothing, Po. I'm... I'm just having a hard time with this stupid assignment."

"The creative writing class?" the panda asked.

"Yeah. Usually, I don't have any problems, but right now it feels like nothing sounds right or good," Crane grumbled. "Maybe I'm just not cut out for Creative Writing."

"Hey, hey, hey. That's quitter talk."

"That's what I'm doing."

"Crane," Said another voice in the room, looking at a whiteboard with her multiple notes. "Don't be dramatic. It's just one assignment."

"It's not just that, Tigress," Crane replied. "I've been noticing my writing has gotten worse and worse."

"But you're still getting high grades," Po said.

"Yeah, because I'm on good terms with the teacher," Crane sighed. "I feel like my work isn't amounting to anything."

"Crane, you're making a big fuss over nothing," Tigress said, still staring at the whiteboard. "Maybe you're too focused on the writing assignment."

"I keep telling you guys, it's not just the writing assignment. It's just... it feels like all the ideas in my head are just... drying up. Every idea that comes out of my head just sounds... bad," Crane sighed. "Maybe you're right. Maybe I should just stop and give myself a break." The bird slowly placed his notes and pad into the backpack and groaned as he pulled out his next textbook. "Why does college suck the life out of you?"

"Okay, maybe you're being a little too dramatic, Crane," Po said.

"How?"

"What about your writing makes you think your life is being sucked out?"

"Because it is."

"I mean you're right," Po said, rolling his eyes, "But what about your writing makes you say that?"

"It's just... I don't know. Ever since I started taking this class, I feel like all those crazy and creative ideas that used to be in my head are all gone. It's like everything else is just... garbage."

"Hmm, maybe you need to get outside," Po mentioned. "We've been in this study room for a while." The panda glanced at Tigress. "If only someone would let us out."

Tigress sighed, "I told you, Po. You and I need to work on the business project for next week."

"I know, but we've been in here for an hour and a half. I think my brain is fried. Besides, your eyes look redder than mine."

"They aren't red."

"Actually, they are, Tigress," Crane said. Tigress pulled out her phone and immediately winced as her eyes stung from her blinks. Sighing, she pulled away from the whiteboard and sat down at the table.

"Okay, okay, maybe we need a break. I'll set a timer for five-"

"Twenty," Po and Crane said.

"That's way too long," Tigress protested.

"Tigress, we've been at this for two hours already, and your Pomodoro thing is good and all but it doesn't really help when we're struggling to see straight through our own eyes," Po said.

The tiger huffed and rolled her eyes. She had to rub them again because of the stinging pain of keeping them open. "Alright, alright. Fine. We'll take a twenty-minute break."

"Great," Po said, throwing the book onto the table. "I know the library's good for studying, but I was really getting tired of seeing page after page."

"Po, you haven't turned the page once," Crane said. Tigress snapped her head around. Po shrunk into his shoulders.

"Ooookay, so maybe I got distracted a bit."

"Ugh, alright. We'll just take a break. Stretch our legs," Tigress sighed.

"Yeah, maybe I'll finally write better after a small break."

"I don't think that's your problem, Crane," Po said. "I think you're just being way too hard on yourself."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, yeah sure you might know what is a good story and what isn't, but nothing is gonna survive the first draft if you're trying to spit out a masterpiece on the first try. You have to work with it. Make it exist first then make it effective and then efficient."

Crane rose his eyebrow before looking at Tigress. She only shrugged and nodded, but a silent understanding went between both of them. "How do you know so much about writing?"

"I dabble in some fanfic. Good ideas for some of my art," Po smiled.

"Rrrriiiigghht," Crane said doubtfully.

"But anyway, did you ever think that maybe since you know all of these tools about writing that maybe they're interfering with the process? I know that's what happens to me whenever I'm doing something in art class."

"Huh, I never thought about it like that."

"And that's why I chose business administration," Tigress sighed. "Very unlikely to get writer or artist's block."

"Uh huh," Po smirked. "How's that business plan coming along?"

"It's going fine."

"Really? Because I've noticed that you've been looking at that whiteboard for about thirty minutes without anything more to add to it."

Tigress grumbled under her breath as she stood up from the chair to stretch. "Alright, fine. So everyone can get a little blocked."

"My point," Po continued, "is that you can't evaluate your work before it's done. There's a saying: Write drunk, edit sober."

"I... I think I've heard that before."

"It works wonders," Po smiled. "It helped me a lot with drawing. Although it's much harder with drawing than writing. You kinda always edit while drawing. But the point is to just stop judging what you're writing and just write. Focus on getting everything that you want to get down on the page. Usually, it's much easier to edit things that are there than things that aren't there."

"So you just... throw yourself out there and fix things later?" Crane asked. Po nodded.

"Hmph," Tigress grunted. "Must be very easy for you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Po, you're able to figure out a social situation much faster than the two of us combined."

"I mean... that's not much," Crane muttered. Tigress glared at him. "I'm just saying that I'm not the most outgoing person and you're more ambitious than anything else. Which is just another way of saying... you know... you don't get out much. I mean, Po is the only reason why we know each other in the first place."

"Which is why I said what I said," Tigress murmured.

"Come on, Tigress. Just because I have social skills doesn't mean that I got like that overnight. It took time," Po said.

"Some people don't have that."

"What about you?" Po asked Tigress. "What's your excuse?"

"I got burned."

"Same as me."

"Then why are you the way you are?"

"You get better at staying away from flames and applying burn ointment. You learn. Get out of your comfort zone, little by little. Both of you," Po said gruffly. Crane and Tigress looked at each other. The bird awkwardly shrugged his shoulders with a nervous frown on his face. Tigress sighed. "I'm sorry," Po said before they said anything else, "Look. I get it. People have a hard time dealing with other people. It's okay. I'm just saying that if you're having a hard time, keep going. Little by little." Po sighed and leaned back into his chair. "Hmm. There's a lot more to life than just being scared about what could go wrong. Things can go wrong even if you plan. Might as well not care about what goes wrong. Just let it go wrong and learn."

"There are some... exceptions to that," Tigress said, "But I get it."

Beep Beep Beep

Crane yawned and stretched his wings. "Alright, I think I'll finally be able to write this stupid poem for her."

Po's eyes shot up. "Wait, your professor is a guy."

"Uhhh... yes?" Crane gulped.

"Then what did you mean by her?" Po smirked.

"Uhhhh... Ummm."

Tigress rolled her eyes with a small smirk while Po chuckled a bit. "You're writing a poem for Viper, aren't you?"

"I... yeah..."

"What about that assignment that you were talking about?"

"Oh I finished that ages ago. I was just... I wanted to try and make this the best I could, but... I think I just have to make it first before I can make it the best I can," Crane said.

"There's the spirit," Po smiled.

"Either way, I think that we should get back to work. I have some ideas now. And Po needs to get back to reading for our business project," Tigress sternly said.

"Aww come on, Tigress!"

Crane chuckled as the two bickered like a cute couple. He smiled and went back to writing, jotting down word after word, not caring if they even made sense.

He would figure that out later. Right now, he had to make words exist.

The End