So I started off by selecting an idea that like several other thoughts jogged through my mind during a brainstorm session. I was excited to get my creative juices flowing, hoping they would run faster than the amount of words I am able to write per minute. I figured, “ This is it. I have a topic, and there is no end in sight.” But wait, I see something in the far distance. The object appears to be shapely, sort of similar to a stop sign, could it be? Just as fast as the thought came, I was hit right smack in the face with a cynical problem I had encountered before. Dang it writer’s block, why do you insist on torturing me ever so?
Frustration, anguish, longing, defeat - are the words that immediately come to mind when I think of the infamous disease we all know as writer’s block. We’ve all experienced it; we’ve lived through it and thought the battle was at once won just to later discover that the creature would return. I hope to not come off as too pretentious with my descriptions, but this is sincerely what dealing writer’s block feels like.
Looking back on my years as a scholarly writer (elementary school through recent college years) and as a writer by choice, I have dealt with this issue time after time; for the record each time was as excruciating as the last. Now you’re all probably wondering why I don’t just get to my point and explain how to overcome writer’s block so here goes. I am actually fighting my writer’s block issue with every word I type at this very moment. You see, from my experience I have discovered that the only way to break through the issue is to literally move beyond it by writing, whether you know what you want to say or not it will come to you as long as you jot down whatever comes to mind.
My greatest advice for anyone facing writer’s block whether you’re asked to write an essay or are writing for fun is simply to embrace the pain of not knowing how to say what you feel. By doing this one is forced to dig deep and in my opinion this creates the best work. Writing is all about feelings and opinions; writing is about taking a stand on something and presenting that to the world. My theory is that writer’s block definitely stems from an individual's failure to search within themselves to understand what it is they feel about the subject the wish to write about. We all just seriously have to stop being afraid of writing. Stop the fear, and you’ll feel it soon.
