You Too Can Block Writer’s Block
I just did it now. You can do it, too.
Your fingers twitch and your breathing quickens as you mentally crumple the Microsoft Words sheet staring so vacantly back at you. You combust in your own lack of coherent words.
“What is wrong with me?” You ask yourself but you’re not even sure that is the right question. You’ve had good sleep, you’ve had healthy meals, and made sure to stay hydrated, well-read, and inspired.
You followed all your writing rituals and yet it still feels like you’re watering plastic plants — nothing blossoms in that head of yours!
So where did all the inspiration go? To where did the Muse flee? And why does your mind feel so vacant, so light (but not in a good way), so boring?
“Well, maybe I should try again later.” Oh, how naive you are to think that you would actually try later when “later” comes. Procrastination becomes your second shadow. Your writer’s PTSD had already kicked in when you almost wrote Ums and Ahs and other fillers as chapter openers.
Nothing comes out of your fingertips as you mindlessly tap on the keyboard just like how nothing comes out of your brain no matter how much you squeeze and squeeze caffeine into your system.
You read online articles on how to “block writer’s block” or “how to write your way out of writer’s block” and you try to JUST DO IT. Still, nothing.
Oh geez, this feels more like an endless train wreck than a block! Make it stop, block the block, write more, think less. Read more, read, read, read.
The more you read, the better you write, right? Re-read your favorite book, your favorite poems, your favorite excerpts from the Iliad, or your favorite quotes from Harry Potter. Read something new. Read something old but new.
Open that laptop, sit down. Lock the door and, if you can, bind yourself to a chair, throw your phone out of the window, switch the lights off, light up a few candles, write.
Anything that can be written is worth writing at this rate. Write about the weather, write down your silliest, most cringe-worthy thoughts. Write the cliché-est, most nonsensical, most dramatic lines, write about your writer’s block! Allow yourself to make mistakes, vomit words and never wipe after yourself as you write your way out of your wordless hangover.
Breathe.
Write again and keep writing. Later is now and now is writing time. Do it, do it, do it. It will drive you insane but keep doing it. Be spartan with your procrastination.
When the sun rises again, you will hear a gentle tap on your window. “Wake up,” it whispers, “it’s your Muse.”
In short, read, write, read again, and dance around this loop until your mind is finally full with all but those fillers. But you know what the biggest irony is? Nothing scares writer’s block more than writing about it!
I did it just now… You can too!
