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Perspective

Adversary- Writer’s Block

How often have you searched your mind for just the right word or phrase? How often have you approached your laptop, desktop, Surface Pro, old fashion type writer or just good old pen and paper? You put pen to pad or finger tip to keyboard and then…nothing. You try to compose the right words, the right sentence but it seems to evaporate as you sit down.

You’ve visualized this moment. Your imagination wanted it. You hurry back to your favorite chair or perhaps a desk or a bean bag. You grab your writing tools and then blank.

This is what my writing life has come to. A series of nothingness, followed by blanks. I’m sure you’ve experience this too for it is something that plagues all writers at some point or another. It is the dreaded writers’ block.

This block comes in many forms. It may start off a procrastination and the morph into this week-long (if I’m lucky) sometimes month long procrastination and while you procrastinating you may have thought about the stories you can tell. Your imagination was running wild and you knew that you had to put pen to paper, your creative juices begin to flow so you rush back and then can’t quite remember.  You wished that you wrote it down but it’s too late for that storyline in your head is gone.

You shake it off as a distraction; surely you can overcome this writer’s block with just a few chores. Maybe that will help clear your head.

I’m sure, I am not the only one that began folding towels, cleaning the bathroom, or washing the dishes to decrease the clutter in my mind. Focusing on mindless activities while being productive should open the flow of creativity. Right? When this does not work, maybe a little bit of television will stimulate the mind.

One episode of Law and Order turns into two, then into three and before you know it you are now watching a marathon. Addicted, I turn away from the television for hours have flown by but I had to keep watching, just one more episode. The night falls and my eyes grow heavy as I yearn for sleep. But I am committed! I must write at least one page, then that turns into at least one paragraph and finally I am reduce to swearing that I will write at least one sentence before I go to sleep. Then I wake up.