Pen, paper, laptop.. Everything is set. I have cleared myself of all errands, and I finally sit. The chair is comfy and the table is dust-free. There is enough room to write. Now all I need to do is to stop staring at the blank doc page and start typing. The only problem is, I can’t think of anything to write. My mind has zoned out. No words, nothing. My mind is staring into a void of nothingness.
‘Hey writers, sounds familiar?’ The dreaded block – ‘Writer’s Block’.
The act of writing is tricky and covered with blocks (mostly mental).It is far too easy to plot what you want to write than actually writing it. You are waiting for the slightest distraction to not do it. The second you hear a ping on your phone, you jump to open it. The minute you hear any sound, you move. You simply can’t stay put. If I am writing on my laptop, you can see multiple tabs on the browser which quietly beckon me. They seem to say, ‘remember that random thing you were thinking about the other day, why don’t you google it now?’ Because, writing can wait. Infact writing can wait all the time. Every other task seems enticing and urgent whenever you begin to write (even house chores). Take this article for instance. When I sat to write, I thought of listening to some ‘calm’ music to assist me with my writing. I turned on my music streaming app and saw that the ‘Scorpions’ had released their latest album. I mean come on, that was exciting and I thought two songs and nothing more. I ended up vibing with my headphones for almost an hour! Now, there was no way I could write after a rock escape. So, there went my writing time.
There is this sacred flow that is required to get going with the task of writing. Some writers believe that sitting to write everyday at a fixed place for a fixed time enables the flow. Some say, even if the place and time is unfixed, writing just about anything everyday, helps activate our brain cells. There is an interesting book by Stephen Guise called ‘Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results’ that talks about inculcating habits by setting mini daily goals for a particular task. By doing so, you’ll end up surpassing the set goal. For example, if you set a low goal of 50 words a day, once you begin writing you’ll automatically overachieve it. You’ll end up writing 100, 500 or sometimes even 1000 words. Knowing that we have to write less, will push us to start the task. Once begun, the flow is easy. So, they say…
I can tell you with 100% surety that I have tried every trick and principle there is to writing. I have found that there is no solid approach that can solve this problem. What works for a day fails the subsequent day. I have even found contradictory approaches that have worked for a brief period. A dry spell of no writing for days can lead to ideas and words as opposed to the trick of writing everyday. I have also realized that if I have not written for long and I put a month end deadline, I tend to blaze through my writing a day before the due date (observe my February article dates).
In short, the struggle is real. As a writer, you achieve numerous tiny accomplishments the moment you finish a piece. But, at the same time there would be equal days of despair, dejection and mind blocks. If you can embrace both, then you have truly accepted yourself as a writer. Cheers to us for choosing such a questionable creative path!
