So. Writers get Writer’s Block. (Or, if you want to be honest with yourself, writers Get Stuck And Go For A Long Walk.)
Lots of people know about Writer’s Block. I am prone to it occasionally (though when I was too young to know better, I assumed a Writer’s Block was something you used to lean on to stop yourself engraving your homework into your grandparents’ kitchen table).
Writer’s Block is only just the tip of the iceberg. Creative people of all types don’t just suffer from Block, they can have such strange diseases as:
THE SCRIBBLES: wanting to produce a masterpiece, but unable to think of any worthwhile subject, most illustrators, fine artists, and cartoonists suffering from this disease spend their final days doodling in margins and giving themselves tattoos. Death by ink poisoning may follow, or starvation/exhaustion, especially if the victim is also suffering from:
THE SHAKES: Symptoms appear if you haven’t eaten for more than four hours. Solution: eat a banana (but peel it first). Avoid dropping the skin, if you want to avoid accidents. Talking seriously about this though, one of the most common causes of Writer’s Block (or lack of motivation / inspiration) is lack of self-care. Put your pen / pencil / stick dipped in mud down and ask yourself — not out loud, if you’re in public — “When did I last eat some carbs?” and “Do I need a drink?” (Of water, that is) and “Am I warm enough / too hot?” “Does anything ache anywhere?” You can’t expect the mind to concentrate if the body is uncomfortable. Demanding things, bodies. Adjust environment / refuel and attempt to write afterwards.
BEING TOO COMFORTABLE, otherwise known as BOREDOM: Sometimes, if humans are too satisfied, there is nothing to reach for and the brain relaxes into a serotonin swamp. Causes include too many carbs, not enough exercise, and nothing to fight against. Concentration and motivation improves in the 30 minutes after you go for a walk or do some other kind of workout.
DISTRACTIONS: Another contributor to Writer’s Block (or anything Block) that may not necessarily be bodily. It can be excess noise and light, or stress of some kind. Make what alterations you can to remove stress. Some writers, if able to, leave home and spend a couple of weeks at a retreat targeted at writers. If you have the funds and the spare time to do this, go for it. If not, try and carve out a space that’s just for you to write in somewhere. It could be your garden shed, or the attic (if it’s safe and you have a sturdy ladder) or a desk somewhere in your local library, or a table at your favourite café. Try to eke out a particular time of day that you can be in that spot with no other demands on your attention. That way, there’s no excuse not to write. Unless you’re having problems with…
LACK OF DISTRACTIONS. Some writers swing the other way and produce better work if they’re multitasking and doing about five other things at once. You could be one of those. Experiment and see what works. If you’re the extroverted type and find peace and quiet grates on your nerves, try writing in front of something dull on TV (not your favourite programme, otherwise your brain will try to divide itself into two as it tries to give its full attention to the plot and characters of your story as well as the plot and characters on the screen.) Or write with the radio on in the background, or a podcast. Music is good, especially if it hasn’t any words, or any words you can understand. The trick with this is, you’re providing the mind with a distraction it can ignore just enough to do something else.
And lastly…
SUPPRESSION.
The reason you don’t feel inspired about what you’re writing, or what you’re trying to write, is that, somewhere in your subconscious, there’s something else you need to write about instead. People often use their creative skills to escape from a hard reality. That is fine and good, but if you do it too often and try to write about what you think other people want to read about, instead of expressing your own thoughts and emotions about particular issues in your life, eventually you will experience burnout. The brain has to purge itself of all the shhhh… rubbish that makes it miserable, before concentrating on the good stuff. It’s a survival mechanism we developed as hominids, as negative scenarios are more likely to lead to death in the wild and therefore have to be addressed first.
Solution: grab some scrap paper and a pencil or whatever writing implement is to hand, and perform verbal diarrhoea across the page. Put everything that’s bothering you and preying on your mind onto that bit of paper: financial problems, health issues, relationship problems, mental health battles, you name it, even just write about the frustration of not feeling able to write. Get rid of all the mulch so the flowers can grow.
So there we have it, the main causes of Writer’s Block / The Scribbles. (At least, this is from my personal experience.)
Nightwalks 