Writer's Block

Wow.

A blog post two consecutive weeks? I'm scaring myself.
Despite how accomplished I feel, when I think about writing this or anything else for that matter this is what I want to do...




If "writer's block" is real (which it is) and if it has a cause (which it does) I think we can trace it back to just that. Thinking.

Whenever I think about what I have to write it makes me sleepy. I don't know what it is: blog, book or paper, the instant I think of writing it I want to hit the hay.

What can I say, I'm a lazy person.

One of the only reasons I'm writing this now is because it's infinitely more appealing than whatever I should be doing at my job. (Tip: Private web browsers really ease my burdened conscience when I think about my employer reviewing my search history. I hope all the pictures and gifs i have saved under the file "Operation Incognito" isn't obvious...)

Anyway, writers block! Thinking about what to write is suffocating to me. I want to write it perfect the first time. I want it to be awesome, inspiring and earth shattering but the reality is it's never going to be like that. I end up thinking about what I should be writing way more than actually writing when i should be doing this:




Writing isn't hard. I LOVE writing, especially when I get going. It makes me feel so free and uninhibited, but my brain often gets in the way.

I recently had writers block for like 3 months. It was miserable. I didn't write anything. I'd been working on the same M.S for 3 years. I'd re-written it 3 times. And i mean RE-WRITTEN. The only thing that stayed the same were the characters, I changed literally everything else. I just couldn't get my characters to do what I wanted to do. They were being so stubborn!

Writing three different novels was great and while it was a wonderful learning experience I arrived at the conclusion that I should just drop the novel and start something new. (Well... "I" might be a bit much...one of my writer friends arrived at the conclusion for me.)

 I'd been working on it for way too long. I'd step away from it for months at time but always came back to that novel. Even though it was painfully obvious to her, when she told me i should write something else i was like:



The idea was invigorating. I got so excited right away. Writing something new...what a revolutionary idea (dripping with sarcasm).

My writers block wasn't instantly gone but I started to realize I'd been standing in the way of my own success.

I'd relate it to hiking. Hiking the same trail everyday gets pretty boring, you might even start to hate hiking. However, if you hike a new trail, bam! Hiking is awesome again! (I took this picture this weekend, pretty nice place.)

You can relate it to just about anything though...its pretty stupid that I didn't accept it before...monotony is unproductive and doesn't breed creativity. Want to cure your writers block? Maybe you could just use a change of scenery.

- B