Writer's block—we all experience it. Some more than others, but no matter what, there's really no avoiding it. Whether you've got a big paper to write, you're just writing a short story or a poem, or even when you're trying to write an Odyssey article that's about 12 hours or so overdue—writer's block is real. It comes out of nowhere and it is not your friend. Writer's block and I have an interesting friendship, in fact—it's more of a love/hate type of thing. There are days when I write too much and it's nice to take a little break away from all of the rushing ideas in my head, and other times, there are days when I have so many good ideas...but can't find a way to write them down. So without further ado, I present to you, 8 stages of writer's block as an Odyssey writer.
Stage 1: Finding Your Idea
Maybe you've (sort of) got an outline of what you want to write or you've got a bunch of ideas written down in the back of your planner somewhere. All you need to do is skim through them and select the one that's going to be your golden ticket off of writers block island. This should be pretty easy.
Stage 2: Procrastination
Now that you've got your idea, you have nothing else to do but write it all down, put some heart into it and bam, you've got your article for the week. But wait, you never did finish that episode of "One Tree Hill" last night and it'll only take you 25 minutes. Besides, you need to know who Lucas chooses. Peyton or Brooke? Oh, what the heck, 25 minutes won't hurt—you'll start your article later. (Fun fact: after writing down the second stage, I probably spent 15 minutes on Netflix watching an episode of a show I've already finished... Oh the irony.)
Stage 3: Changing Your Idea
After the procrastination stage ends, you're left staring at your computer screen and watching the insertion point constantly blinking as if it's begging you to write something—anything! But no matter how hard you try, you can't figure out how to start writing about your great idea. So maybe this idea isn't as great as you thought it was. On to the next one!
Stage 4: Denial
And maybe this isn't quite working out as best as you thought it would. Stage four is where the panic starts to set in. You're on a time crunch, you can't seem to get any words typed onto your screen and yet you refuse to believe that everything is less than fine. You're convinced that this is only a small roadblock on your journey to something great...even if you've heavily considered throwing your computer against a wall once or twice.
Stage 5: Changing Your Idea...Again
OK, now maybe the second idea you had wasn't the best one either; in fact, you couldn't even think of anything to write! So what do you do now? Procrastinating is not an option, because then nothing would get done. Maybe the first idea was the best one after all, I mean, you at least had a small idea of what to write...oh well, here goes nothing.
Stage 6: A Miracle
Suddenly, you get a thought and you actually know how to type. Slowly but surely, your fingers start to move across the keyboard and there are actual words on your document! Not just blank white space, but real words! Now we're getting somewhere.
Stage 7: Override
Can't. Stop. Typing. Now. Must. Finish.
Stage 8: Success
It's done, it's finally done. You've managed to fight through the brick wall that is writer's block and there's nothing better than staring at the no longer blank document. The stress is over, you've completed the assignment. Through all the blood, sweat and tears...you've won the battle.
And yes, it is acceptable to blast David Glen Eisley's "Sweet Victory" on full blast.
