Writer’s Block: When an author loses the ability to produce new work.
I haven’t written in 3 weeks, this is going on the fourth, or maybe the fifth, I have lost track of time in general. This is Monday right?
Do I have writer’s block? I don’t know, I could, but I don’t think so as I am still thinking of things, still jotting down notes of scenarios and character ideas. Is that writer’s block?
If not, then what is wrong with me?
Could it be that life is just too much right now? Sounds like a lame excuse, everyone has heavy things going on in their lives, does this happen to other writers?
I am of the idea that I don’t have actual writer’s block, because I don’t think it’s a lack of ability to write, like I said, technically I am still writing. I think it is my lack of focus, (on everything, including dishes – Sunday I started them, walked into another room to get something, then completely forgot that I was doing the dishes in the first place) (P.S. I was not being forced at gun point to do the dishes, I simply wanted to make spinach dip and I needed a bowl.)
I can focus on it for short bursts, a few minutes of several jotted notes on scrap paper versus typing furiously on a lap top for hours and hours at a time. Does that constitute a block?
When I come home at night, all I want to do is veg out in front of the television and not think about anything, not about the heavy things, the stressful things, the worrisome things. I want to be numbed by entertainment. Is that still blockage?
Is this a normal thing for writers? When I started this whole writing thing I went at it at break neck speed, writing every night and on weekends. Pumping out two books, almost finishing a third and starting two more, all in just a few months time. Did I burn the candle too much and now I am left with only a snub of melted wax and a stubby ashy wick? Perhaps I need to invest in a lot more paraffin and a much longer wick. Maybe a nice lavender scent would be calming.
Or perhaps this is not any type of block at all. Perhaps I am just too much in my own head. I have been known to dwell there sometimes, and I have gotten lost before. It can be a very Wonderland of activity in there at times. Sometimes I am less Alice and more the Hatter.
Or am I just a normal person? Wouldn’t that be a twist in the plot that is my life?
M.L.
I'm sure it is just a momentary blip and you will have something in your head that you simply must write about very soon.
ReplyDeleteI find reading like a mad person helps :o)
ReplyDeleteHey -- we don't know each other, but I'm a fellow indie author (or trying to be one, anyway), and I found your blog while searching for more of my own kind.
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to say that not being able to write for a few weeks is VERY normal, at least in my experience. You sound like your experience it a little differently than I do, but for me, I'll usually get an idea, dwell on it for a week or so while I let the ideas develop, and then start writing in a great excitement. All will go well -- and then I'll hit a point where my brain will just forcibly slam on the brakes.
This is the point when said brain starts telling me that what I've written is trash and I've wasted all the potential my shiny idea had and no one will ever want to read it. At that point, I have to stop writing for a few days or even a couple of weeks in order to a.) figure out how much of what my brain is telling me is true and how much of it is irrational feawr, b.) correct the parts of the story that really ARE weak, and c.) regain my excitement in the narrative. I don't know about you, but when I'm excited about the story I'm telling, it always leads to a much better product.
So, the moral of the story is, don't worry about it. The spark will come back soon, in all likelihood. And if it doesn't, then put the projects you're working on aside for a while and come up with some new exciting ideas. Maybe write some things you have no intention of publishing, just for fun and to get the juices flowing.
So, while I'm not sure any writer could ever really be called "normal," writer's block hardly makes you ABnormal, whatever the reason.
Just my two cents.