What
is writer’s block?
For centuries, around the globe,
writers of all ilks have asked this question. It doesn’t matter if you are
jotting a note to a friend, writing a short story or in the middle of a novel,
penning a corporate paper, or trying to find just the right words for a stanza
of poetry, each and every one of us has experienced the debilitating syndrome
of writer’s block.
Unfortunately, no one is immune. Even the most seasoned writer has been
plagued by this troublesome condition. For some it will mean they never get
back to their writing. Others manage to work through this glitch in their
creativity and go on to produce excellent work.
How do they do that? How do they push through and come out the other
side stronger than ever? I don’t believe
there is a definitive answer. If there was, someone wiser than me would have
come up with it by now.
There are, however, many contributing factors—stress, loss of self
belief, illness, and the one I hear the most, too much to do and not enough
time. They all sound like excuses, don’t they? Yet they’re not. Each one,
whether true or perceived, is enough to stop the writer in his tracks. And,
once stopped, it’s hard to begin again.
For me writer’s block came about through serious illness in the family. I
had to stop thinking about myself and my passion for writing, and concentrate
on someone else. Characters I’d lovingly created, and who had grown to the
degree they were writing themselves—sometimes against what I had originally
planned for them—were tossed aside like an unwanted toy. It was no longer
important to finish chapter seven. I didn’t care if I never got to chapter
eight. My main characters were facing a crisis which needed solving. I was
facing my own crisis and didn’t have time to deal with theirs. My writing was
put on the back burner, I would return to it when and if I could. I haven’t.
Even though my life has now returned to as near to normal as its going
to get for a while, my writing is still suffering. I think about my characters
and my plot, I can write tomes in my mind but, when it comes to putting
something down on paper, words elude me. And, in what has now become the norm,
I can always find another task which demands my attention.
Overcoming writer’s block is never easy, and there is no simple answer. Belonging
to a writer’s group, surrounding myself with like minded people is, for me,
paramount. I may not be writing my novel, but that doesn’t mean I won’t. I am
determined one day I’ll find my passion again—it’s lost, not gone forever—and
when I do the words will once again find their way from my head to the paper.
And maybe that is the simple answer—determination, the will to keep trying
until something happens.
The American Indians have a saying,
‘dance until it rains,’ so that’s what I’ll do.
©
Julee Stillman – February, 2012
