It happens to me often. A blank screen, a blank page, a blank brain. I have no idea what to write about and anything that does pop into my head is immediately shot down by a barrage of thoughts. "Everyone and their mother has already written about that" "I really don't know that much about that topic" "Can I really come up with 10 things to say and 10 cool gifs to go with it?" "I'm pretty sure someone else in your group is writing about that and is probably doing it better" "I should really get this done so no one badgers me" "But I still don't know what I'm doing" and on and on and on and on. Sometimes I'd rather just post 100 cat memes and be done with it, and sometimes I honestly think I can't write anyway and I should just quit.
Yet writing is an important tool. For the ancients, it was a new way to communicate and to spread information among people without talking. Even now, when writing a letter on paper seems rather old fashioned, writing is still an important communication technique and a way to preserve ideas and sentiments beyond the echo of someone's voice. Now social media is the main form of writing, where anyone can blog from Twitter or Tumblr and words can be screenshotted and deleted yet preserved forever. People have been talking and writing for a really long time. So why is it so darn hard to write an article, a paper, or even a letter sometimes?
To be completely honest, if I had a certain answer for this, I wouldn't still be sitting at my computer staring at this article. Many articles deal with ways to get rid of writers block and its relatives. Every writer of some sort has dealt with some kind of writer's block, whether it's trying to form a pithy tweet or putting the finishing touches on a full-length novel. Sometimes writers block is actually just not having your story fully fleshed out or being distracted by events outside of your writing topics. Other times, no matter how many tips and tricks I try, the page still remains blank.
Something I have noticed is this: the most sincere moments of movies, TV, and life, in general, have been wordless. There is no need for words because what is being felt so deeply has transcended them in a way. So perhaps the next time you find yourself staring at a blank page, gently close it, and find something that doesn't need words.
