Alex stared at the blinking cursor, which pulsed like a tiny heartbeat on the empty document. The deadline loomed over him like an executioner's axe. Three days left. Three thousand words to go. Zero inspiration. He had tried everything—pacing, caffeine, yelling into the void, sacrificing an old laptop to the gods of creativity (it had felt cathartic but wholly ineffective). His editor's last email was practically seared...