‘What to write,’ Pondered the young authoress. ‘There are so many subjects, yet none come to mind when you need them most. Should I write about wars in distant universes? Or about true love? Or perhaps even the good ol’ ‘they all lived happily ever after’ thing?’

She shook her head.

‘No. None of it sounds appealing to me today. It probably wouldn’t tomorrow, either. I think… perhaps my inspiration has run dry? Perhaps my muses have decided that I need to go on vacation from writing? Perhaps… perhaps I’ve lost the ability to write?’ She cringed. ‘No, it can’t possibly have gone that wrong. But I do wonder… why would the imaginary well of inspiration give so little now? The only reason I can think of is that I possibly overused it – one can’t keep coming up with stories, you know. I’ve already written about distant universes, true love, and happy endings. What to write now?’ And then the little authoress sat in front of her typewriter and thought.

‘Let’s see… I could write a sort of ‘diary’ entry about yesterday – only nothing worth mentioning happened. Oh, then what about writing detailed explanations on mathematic calculations and diagrams? … No, that’s too technical.’

The authoress sighed in defeat.

‘I simply can’t com up with anything today… ah, but inspiration will not be the boss of me! I shall write something, inspiration or not!’

So the little authoress pondered some more. She actually got a few great ideas – alas, they were not to be written, but drawn instead. So when she’d taken a break and drawn several decent pictures, she returned to her typewriter.

‘Oh, still no ideas of what to write down. I fear I shall never be able to write a story again,’ the authoress thought sadly. Then an idea struck her.

‘Of course! I shall write about the fact that I can’t find anything to write about!’

It was a wonderful idea, she said to herself. And so she sat down and wrote the very page that you see before your eyes, with these very words printed on.