If you experience one or more of the following symptoms, it is possible you may be suffering from Writer’s Block:
-Staring at your blank computer screen for hours on end
-Watching the clock count out every painful second of your non-productiveness, in a complete and total panic that you’re wasting your Writing Time
-Finally writing two sentences, only to delete them because they suck balls
-Gnashing your teeth
-Pulling out your hair
-Verbally abusing yourself and your skills as a writer
-Consuming lots of goodies including but not limited to nachos, chocolate, pastries, and wine, because you’re feeling bad for yourself and you deserve it
Yup, that’s writer’s block.
I’m sure most writers experience writer’s block to some degree on a fairly regular basis. Myself, having a full-time, non-writing job and a two-year-old son, my writing time is already very limited, so I used to find it especially painful when those precious hours were being wasted.
Hold up, did I just say USED TO????
Yes.
I still get writer’s block—don’t get me wrong—I just don’t stress about it like I used to. Now I’ve heard quite a bit of advice on beating the dreaded writer’s block: allowing yourself to write badly (which means worrying about editing later), brainstorming, asking ‘what if’ questions, talking out loud to yourself—all of which is GREAT advice—but you know what? Sometimes none of that stuff works, and you’re just STUCK. Which makes sense, right? Because it wouldn’t be a problem for so many writers if there was a simple solution.
But what finally made me stop stressing about writer’s block was realizing that I was the only person putting pressure on myself. Seriously, what was the big deal if I didn’t meet my word count quota for the day? I mean, goals are great, and I still regularly give myself a word count quota as a guide, but I do realize now that every once in a while I will need to take a step back and think about my plot.
This isn’t my excuse to be lazy, either—I KNOW YOU WERE THINKING IT, JERKFACES! (Wait, so you mean I can’t call my followers jerkfaces?) I do try to work my way out of a problem first, but I can usually tell when one of the aforementioned tactics at beating writer’s block will work given a little time and when I need a Plotting Day (which is what writer's block is now called for me :D ). But if Plotting Day it be, that's okay. It's me, and it's how I write. So I may not accomplush 2000 words that day--tomorrow I might write 3000, and all because of all the brilliant ideas I came up with after taking a break to think (and also harassing my sister and making her plot my book for me. Thanks, Brandy!)
So how about my writerly friends? How do you deal with the dreaded writer’s block?
