It's a beautiful April day. The sun is out, people are throwing frisbees and playing volleyball on the quad, there's even a few people who have set out blankets on the grass and hammocks for relaxing in the nice weather. Me? I'm inside, staring at the blinking cursor in my word processor and a handwritten note to myself that not so subtly reminds me "500 words by Friday!" The word count now shows zero. I have been staring at the screen for two hours. For the uninitiated, this is a rather severe case of writer's block.
I don't do it on purpose. It just happens sometimes that I sit down at my computer ready to write and...nothing. And I've never been able to figure out why it happens. It just does. Maybe there's some psychology behind why and how it happens, but I really don't want to do the research. Not only do I not have the time for that, but if I get distracted, I stay distracted. Three hours later, I'm watching a funny video likely featuring a cat when I'll have a sudden realization that "I have to write that article!" I close that window, go back to the unwritten article, and just stare at it, with ideas just not coming. The desk clock shows 11:30. That alone should be motivation enough to start mashing on the keyboard and hope something good comes out. But late nights don't faze me anymore. I continue to stare, trying to think of something to write.
But then, it happens! An idea! And a good one at that! And I'm off to the races, furiously typing on the keyboard, words effortlessly flowing onto the page as if I had known what I was doing for hours. I'm writing at a pace that most students could only dream of achieving if they were working on a paper this late. I keep writing, putting words onto the page, the word count racing higher and higher -- and then I just stop. A quick check of the word count—367—and I realize I'm just not there yet. What happened? My writer's block is clearly not going down without a fight. Now I'm wondering if sleep will jog an idea on how I could finish this article.
Then I realize I don't need sleep because an idea has come again. I continue my typing—at a reduced pace this time around, but still typing—and come closer to that 500 word mark. At this point, it would seem like that jog was all I needed to finish this article. So although my writer's block put up a good fight, I was able to come up with a good idea and I'm able to keep it at bay for another week. At least, until the next article is due and I repeat the process again.
