So, the second thing that has been troubling me lately has been a severe case of writer's block. As a person who writes all the time for pleasure and for school, I've never been struck with writer's block before, shockingly. Yet, I was this year, for some reason. Last year I had a class with Prof. John Jablonski, a notoriously hard grader, and I wrote an extensively and exahustively researched final paper that was reviewed by other professors and students. Still, I didn't receive a grade that I felt was what my paper deserved, and I think this, along with some other events, might have contributed to my writer's block.
If you haven't suffered from this before, here is what happened to me. I would sit in front of the computer, unable to start anything. My mind would just swirl with anxieties: Am I really a good writer at all? Was all of my hope of doing this professionally just a joke? I don't know where to start! This is so important, I need to get on this! But I can't think of the perfect way to start!...and so on. I went online and researched ways to overcome writer's block, only to receive a ton of useless information and conflicting ideas. Some writers' sites went so far as to claim that writer's block doesn't even exist! Most of the advice consisted of things like, "Get up and stretch" "Take a break"....lame tips that were not helpful.
Obviously I've gotten over my writer's block, at least to a certain extent. I'm still having a little trouble here and there but I've found a way to get over it...but I'm not sure I like it. In order to get over my writer's block...well...to be honest, I got a little drunk. I poured myself a few glasses of wine, felt my head get a little buzzy, and suddenly, my anxieties/inhibitions about my writing had been lifted. This concerns me, I mean, I don't want to get all Charles Bukowski here...(don't get me wrong, I love the guy, but man...it's tough out there is all I'm sayin')
So, I am asking all of you, have you ever dealt with writer's block? Do you even think it exists? If you have felt it's clammy touch, how did you deal with it?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Writer's block. I will admit that I have felt it over the years, especially when I am writing something and then put it away for a while. The thoughts would creep into my brain: What am I doing? Will I ever finish a draft? Is it even possible for me to do this?
ReplyDeleteAnd sometimes, I would just delete the writing and start from scratch or do something else when my brain was completely blank and nothing came from my fingertips on a keyboard.
I just remind myself that writing makes me happy and I enjoy it, whether people think it's bad or good. Writing is just something that I do, and once I remind myself that, I can get back to what matters: the writing.