Writer's Block A Way to Look at It
The phenomenon (if it even is that) of so-called writer's block is referred to as if it's some kind of viral infection for which there's no antibiotic. It either runs its enervating course between plateaus of creativity or is terminal, no more inspired words ever finding the page for the remainder of a writer's life.
There's sad drama to WB. But isn't drama what writers create? Could the "inability" to write anymore be like negative space on a painter's canvas? Difference being that the latter is intended and the former not. One has meaning, while the other has..? Writer's block may be rooted in:
- A surfeit of personal disappointment (what's coming on paper or monitor is nothing but shit, shit, and more shit)
- A pervasive wave of loneliness (writing is, after all, a hermit-like enterprise)
- A plea for sympathy for either or both of the other two.
One thing for sure is loss of trust. That's T-R-U-S-T. Trust that no matter how much shit that's being produced, there will eventually be something worthy-maybe even germinated from a bit of that fecal matter. Trust that once past your seemingly endless dissatisfaction with what you're turning out, bleak loneliness will become merely the need for solitude. Trust that your muse will return-wants to return-will pad its floppy little feet up your back to once again perch on your shoulder.
Swallow a trust pill every morning with a dose of belief that this is antibiotic to the virus of writer's block.