WRITER’S BLOCK, ESCAPE OR AFFLICTION?

Or, Woe Is Me.

Is Writer’s Block Hazardous to Your Health?

Most, if not all, writers have heard of writer’s block and know what it means or has an idea what it is i.e., it’s something that happens when our creative juices stop flowing and our inspiration seeps away. It keeps us from doing what we love doing. But, how many of us have actually experienced it? Some have the opinion this term only applies to professional writers. One wonders what they call it when we amateurs fall prey to this disability. Well, I can tell you, that opinion is a misconception, or to put it more bluntly; it’s a big fat lie. Maybe a professional writer i.e., someone who receives pay for her endeavors, feels its effects more severely than us peons. Let me interject here, these feelings are not one bit pleasant.

Writer’s block can happen anytime. One minute you’re feeling great sitting at your computer, fingers sailing smoothly over the keyboard, thoughts spilling from your brain faster than you can put them down.  Something happens. It could be any one of a hundred thousand different things. It’s as though someone threw a switch and everything goes blank, your jaw drops and you sit there stupefied. Or you could wake up one morning and all is going fine until you sit down at the computer and you cannot think of a solitary thing to type. As quick as that, you’re in Never Never Land. Never been there and never want to go back.

Writer’s block is disabling. You might as well be laid up with a broken leg. You feel depressed, smothered, laying at the bottom of a pool of water with a cement block on your chest. You don’t have the will to push the block off so you can float up for a breath of air. You mope around the house, sit down at the computer and get right back up. There’s nothing interesting on TV. You go to the store even though you don’t need anything. You lay in bed staring into darkness until exhaustion swallows you into hideous night mares. There’s no escape. You want to run down the street screaming obscenities.

Wipe that smile off your face. It’s not funny.

You are incapable of even figuring out what caused this inability to start a new project or to even continue the one you were in the midst of when this unholy monster dug its stifling claws into your gut. Your abilities as a writer take a leave of absence and you wonder how you ever managed to write anything in the past or if you will ever feel confident enough to create anything again.

Then, one day you wake up from a pleasant dream, walk to your computer and begin writing like nothing ever happened. You may or may not recall what sparked the whole ugly episode. But then your subconscious may suppress it to protect your delicate state. It may never happen again. Knock on wood. Fortunately my experience lasted only a week and I knew what triggered it; this I am embarrassed to divulge. Many writers are thin skinned and when it is pricked by something or someone, even though it is ridiculously silly, their response is to escape, run off and stick their head in the sand.

Don’t take writer’s block lightly. It is a serious affliction, and could be hazardous to your mental well being and is definitely detrimental to your writing career. It could last a day or a week, or it could go on for years or a lifetime. There are many stories out there relating these incidents. Some have even written novels using writers block as its premise.

What causes it? Who knows? It could range from not being able to sell your masterpiece to an agent e.g., you begin to feel as though your career is over before it starts, or as simple as your wife not kissing you when she leaves for work i.e., you sit and wonder what got up her skirt?

Writing your passion and toughening your skin tend to deter the effects of writer’s block. If it does manage to get hold of you, talk to someone about it. Don’t fester in it too long. Try some basic writing exercises you may have done when you first started writing e.g., silly things, anything that puts you in front of the dreaded screen. Better yet, scribble or doodle with pen and paper. You’re a writer damn it, get to it. Happy writing y’all.

 

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