You sit down at your typewriter (or computer).
You stare blankly at the screen.
You roll your sleeves but soon enough you end up rolling your eyes like a mad animal. You think about all the bad things that have happened to you, all the people you like and dislike; what they said and what they didn’t say, all the foods that you must eat, all the shopping that must be done. You are still rolling your eyes. You think about what you wrote the last time you sat on the typewriter (or the computer). In another moment, you realize that you are going crazy, because there seems nothing to write about. The muse is the goddess that is not at all easy to please. And so you keep waiting for the muse to show up.
You feel as if your inspiration is like a mimosa flower, the moment you try to feel inspired, it detects your lazy vibration and turns away from you.
You think about the 86400 seconds in a day and how you seem to be wasting them, and you think about the 86400 billion neurons in your brain and how they too seem to be popping no new ideas or connections in your brain.
You feel that you need some rocket candy, so as soon as you eat it, your creativity gets launched as a rocket. You aspire to be like sodium, so soft that it can be cut with a butter knife, you aspire to be like helium which can travel through solids. You need to navigate your mindstream, which at present seems like a total solid to you. You feel creatively conspitated, and you need a mental laxative.
These are the symptoms of what is usually called as the ‘Writer’s Block’. Steven Pressfield, in his book The War of Art defines this process by the term “Resistance”. This is a state of mind where our mind is in a resistance. Ideas are there, so many ideas are there in the universe outside, but none of them seems to come to your mind when you need them the most.
Author Julia Cameron suggests that to overcome this, writers should write Morning Pages, which is a form of freewriting process. This is also called as ‘Stream of Consciousness writing’, which is not only beneficial for writing but also for self-discovery,
Newton's first law of motion states that, ‘Objects at rest tend to stay at rest. Objects in motion tend to stay in motion.’ When it comes to writing, the most important thing is to find a way to get started. Once you get started, it is much easier to stay in motion.
If you write only when you feel inspired, it is like waiting forever. Instead make writing your habit. Make a writing schedule.
Author Jodi Picoult says that “I don’t believe in writer’s block. Think about it — when you were blocked in college and had to write a paper, didn’t it always manage to fix itself the night before the paper was due? Writer’s block is having too much time on your hands.”
Another thing that I do is to write my way through the writer’s block. Write what a writer’s block is feeling to you. Describe what it is. Author and poet Charles Bukowski quotes,
“Writing about a writer’s block is better than not writing at all.”
Write about it.
Copy something and write it - article, song lyrics, poem, prose, essay, film or experiences.
Use writing prompts - colors, words, phrases, images, etc.
Change your writing tools – write with pen and paper instead of a computer
Read a book and write something about reading it.
Create a character and let it discover answers.
Practice another art form - painting, doodling, dancing, cooking.
Brew some coffee
Open your ears and eyes, and write about the ASMR experiences.
“The wonderful thing about writing is that there is always a blank page waiting. The terrifying thing about writing is that there is always a blank page waiting.” ― J.K. Rowling
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