Doctor, Doctor I have Writer’s Block!

Yes I do see the irony and cliché in writing a blog about not being able to write, but to be honest it’s either this or a blank page. I have been plagued with this halt of inspiration for a few days now and my usual cure of vat loads of coffee has done little to relieve me (except in the bladder sense).

So what is writer’s block? A definition I found states “Writer’s block is a temporary psychological inability, associated with writing, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work. The condition varies widely in intensity. It can be trivial, a temporary difficulty in dealing with the task at hand. At the other extreme, some “blocked” writers have been unable to work for years on end, and some have even abandoned their careers.” Not a laughing matter if this spat is the latter type of writer’s block….

Writer’s block for me anyway comes in waves, as inspiration wavers, usually through little mental stimulation or nothing of note occurring. It feels as if my brain flicks from one idea to the next, one may appear to be a genius line of thinking, then suddenly it fades and I lack the motivation to pursue it. I end up with pages with just titles on the top with no clue how to fill the rest of the page. For the last few days I have gone to my usual temple of motivation, coffee shops, however, the only thing that marked the pages after hours of striving were coffee stains accompanied by odd looks from the people sitting near me as I swear at the pages for being empty.

So until this period of writer’s block alleviates, here are a few famous writers and their remedies:

Stephen Fry
“I have to get into a sort of zone. It has something to do with an inability to concentrate, which is the absolute bottom line of writing.”

Roy Blount, Jr
“I think writer’s block is simply the dread that you are going to write something horrible. But as a writer, I believe that if you sit down at the keys long enough, sooner or later something will come out.”

Merit Antares
“The only cure for writer’s block is insomnia.”

Ray Bradbury
“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.”