Writer’s Block.

The answer is in the problem, in plain sight.

If you’ve ever written a short story, a term paper, dissertation or a novel, you have, at one time, been plagued with this stoppage in production. You got your notes, your outline and time set aside but once you plop in your chair – nothing. Blank. The more you try, the worse it becomes until, frustrated, you get up and go watch some television. Defeated. What makes it worse, if there’s a deadline, you’ve wasted valuable time.

Writer’s Block is when your mind goes blank or you can’t de-puzzle the ideas you have floating around in your head. No matter how hard you try (the harder you try the worse it becomes) you can’t get it together. You drink coffee, a glass of wine, eat some twizzlers or take a little break, which hours later, your computer screen is still blank. And it rarely lasts for one night, before you know it, a whole week has gone by.

I’m an avid reader in addition to writing so when I get “writer’s block,” I read. And within a few chapters, something within the pages I’ve just experienced will motivate me into resuming whatever I’m creating. For me it’s the inspiration I find in a finished piece of work. Knowing that that author themselves fought through whatever issues they may have had and ultimately persevered to achieve their goal of a completed manuscript. It’s as if their work is speaking to me, encouraging me to continue…

But not every writer is an avid reader. Fortunately, I have time, and can set some aside each day to enjoy reading, but some writers are mothers, fathers, real estate agents, cooks, etc. and they spend long hours at their day jobs and the minimal time they do have to write is extremely limited and valuable, so that problem of writer’s block is further heightened. So as I said initially, the answer to the problem is in plain sight.

Write.

You’re already a writer, or achieving to be, so write. First, writing, like most tasks, is technical and the more you do it, the better you’ll become. You’ll gain efficiency but mainly you’ll be developing your craft. Having had sat in front of a computer screen or notebook and hours later still have blankness staring you in the face is unacceptable.

“No word written is useless.”

So you may not be able to formulate what you sat down to accomplish but write something. Write about your frustrations. Write about your day. Write about how you can’t write or how you can’t piece together your thoughts. Write about nothing, or what you see around you (I’m quite sure you can make a short story about that). Just write. To me, ‘writer’s block’ can only exist when there’s no access to a computer or a writing instrument and something to write on. Other than that, there’s no excuse to not write.

So write!

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