This is a short segment on the dreaded and ultimately unavoidable writer's block.
There are some days when I sit in my car, lay on my bed, or mosey on down to the library to write an assignment, paper, or article. An hour passes and the ideas aren't flowing. Music is flowing through my ears, or I'm engulfed in a complete silence. Sometimes I may trail off to Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, or my ESPN fantasy hockey league.
There are also times like these when I lose focus for thirty minutes, and talk to my dad about hockey or the upcoming weekend, hoping that something sparks. Alas, nothing does. It's not that I'm not trying.
Having writer's block is like having a migraine. It doesn't go away for quite some time and it literally pains your head. Today, I'm experiencing it.
It's like my mind keeps grinding gears, but nothing comes out of that, except for overheating the machine and then going into cool down. I've thought about what I'll write for next week, but I can't put my finger on what to do for this week. It's the same as knowing the end of your story but not anything in the middle.
In the time that I've put down the keyboard and picked it back up hoping for some kind of spark, I've set up a tent, played a hockey game, gone shopping, and been stuck in traffic. Yet, the only idea for any sort of article is simply writing about having writer's block. Nothing is coming to my mind, and nothing is coming out either.
When you have writer's block, and you have an expectation for yourself, or a deadline, don't panic. Assure yourself that you're not alone. Ideas come, but not always at the right time. In fact, searching "writer's block" in the Google Images search engine, yielded the top three results from articles at Odyssey. Clearly, I'm not the only one struggling. Clearly, I'm not alone.
Some may think that writer's block is a sign of procrastination, but it isn't. Your mind and brain are hard at work, brainstorming at an exponential rate in order to find the perfect item to write about for that given time. The ideas may not be coming but there are little strands of ideas generated. Leads, if you will
Writer's block is named such because nothing gets in and nothing comes out. It is a case in which you can't proceed or make up your mind about what to write about, who to write for, or how you should write it. It is as if you are stuck in a vacuum.
It'll come though. It happens to all of us. Believe me when I say - writer's block happens to all of us - you're not alone.
