Ever just sit at your desk with your drink and your snack all ready to go, only to stare at a blank Word document for what feels like an eternity? Yep, that takes up a huge part of my life. We all know what it is, a little something called writer's block.
Over the years, it seems like writer's block and I have become the absolute best of friends. Typically, it starts out with some procrastination. I mean, what is a good paper without putting it off until a few days, or even a few hours, before the deadline? After I finally get myself to sit down and focus, the next obstacle is right there to smack me in the face -- choosing a topic to write about.
You would think being given such a broad topic, like write whatever you think is interesting, would be easy but, no, it is not. It makes your mind race, and it gets your creative side flowing, but if you are anything like me, the broad range of possibilities is overwhelming. My next speed bump in the writing process comes from my surroundings. Once I get writing, I seem fine. I will crank out the paper and it is all smooth sailing. It seems like every time that happens, there is that one person sitting at the desk next to you being a distraction.
This person is usually doing the stereotypical annoying stuff, such as tapping their pen, swinging their feet, or obnoxiously chewing gum. Loud gum chewers are the absolute worst kind of people when you are trying to get work done. Once you know they are doing it, it bothers you ten times more. Yuck.
One of the biggest problems I face when writing is my losing train of thought. As I am writing, I will always think of future details I can add in, but forget to write them down right away. Then, I get to the part I was supposed to mention the detail in and I have forgotten what I wanted to say. It's actually happening to me right now. Figures.
Oh, wait, I got it. One of the worst complications of writing is having all the content in your paper only to realize it is too short. I sometimes feel like page lengths should not exist for the sole purpose that people add nonsense into their papers. I will be the first to confess that whenever my papers come up short of the requirement, I have to add in pointless details that I nor the reader will care about.
What I am trying to get at is that everyone has writer’s block at some point in their writing career. I see, now, as I re-read this, that I sort of lacked a solution to all of these problems. That's because I'm still trying to figure them out myself. Sometimes, the most difficult part of writing is the end, not the beginning.
