Self-flagellation (by someone else)

I tried writing, but could barely get beyond the first sentence. Or, at least, I wrote and rewrote the first sentence a few thousand times, before deleting it. Frustration is piling upon frustration. I don't know whether to call on Smyth for inspiration or to blame him for wrecking my writing.

- DS Hilton, Esq. Diary, 23.2.2010