Writer's block - real or fantasy?

What happens when your creative world has dried up? The words will not flow, the images cannot be formed. The blank page screams and you dread the beginning, like a trip to the dentist you sit down and face the void. Panic sets in. You know you have things to do, things to say - people are depending on you. You are depending on you to produce something, anything - just to start, because you know that when you start you will be able to continue. But that first stroke eludes you again.

Shaken you get up and pace the room, your words are worrying - "What happens now? What happens if it cannot be done? What if this is all there ever is in my world? How will I cope? Who will pay my bills? Am I forever going to be penniless and destitute?"

You sit down again and pick up the pen, the brush, the computer whirrs in protest at being woken from its slumber. Deep breath and your hands refuse to move. There is disconnect between your fingers and your brain. You want to scream and shout - "it's not fair, why me? why now when I have so much to do and so little time in which to do it?"

You berate yourself again for not starting sooner, and your creative energies fail and flounder in the sea of negativity in which you wallow.

We have infinite capacity to create. But our minds act like a brake rather than a catalyst. Why? Because we allow it to.

If you are truly stuck, then a change of scenery may help - but that is just another way of delaying the start. So pick up the tool of your creative choice and start with where you are now. Draw a line, draw a second. Join the dots. Write a shopping list. Procrastination yes, but a way of jump starting your recalcitrant mind. And when it is off chewing on something you have provided, you will find your creative side was there all along...waiting patiently.

Comments

[Merv Tolan]

I agree - to submit to the 'new scenery' urge is just a convenient way to reduce your productivity. Any words are better than none.