Writer's Block is something everyone who writes deals with. For some, the block happens often. For others, the block happens rarely. For me, the block has hit this week.
It's not that I don't have any ideas of what to write this week. I have an entire list of topics written out of article ideas. It's the starting to write and thinking of content to fulfill the topic that is the problem.
When I write, I start with a topic and just write. I will already have some thoughts of what I want to include in the piece in terms of details in my head. But writing the details down on paper or typing the details into my computer can be hard. The transitions will be choppy and I won't be able to think of the words that will be able to best express what I am trying to say.
This week, I started to write an article at least 6 times. Each time I sat down to write, I wrote a total of about 4 sentences and immediately deleted what I had wrote. I was not happy with the direction my writing was taking me, but I didn't know how to change it. This situation happens to me quite a lot, but I usually am able to work through it relatively quickly. However, I wasn't. I couldn't adapt my "just write whatever comes to mind" and "go with the flow of thoughts" attitude that I usually apply to my writing this week.
The biggest reason that I have so much trouble with writer's block is my fear of putting my ideas down on paper and my perfectionism. I want what I write to be perfect, in my eyes, and it can be nothing less than that. If it is, I cringe, and usually have to start over writing whatever I just wrote.
The best way to get over writer's block? READ. Read anything you can get your hands on. Read novels, magazines, Odyssey articles. Read anything and everything. Chances are, you will become "inspired" by what you read. Something in the source will trigger a thought in your head, and you'll say "hey, I can write about this!" It could be as little as a word or as large as an entire book.
So, even though I struggled to write something this week, reading an article about writer's block inspired me to write this. Writer's block is something that effects every writer at some point or time. It's the when, not what, that is the question.
