By 
How could I let this happen?
It’s twenty minutes before the time my weekly blog post is supposed to go up, and I’m sitting on the couch, staring at the devastatingly empty draft post on my laptop screen. My cursor blinks pitifully against the unforgiving expanse of blank space until I close out of the tab with a plaintive sigh.
Maybe I can touch up one of those posts I started writing a few months ago. Maybe the one about writer’s block, I tell myself. And for the tenth time that day, I click open my drafts folder and scroll futilely through the dozens of half thought-out blogging ideas that I began over a cup of coffee and then promptly abandoned once my self-doubt caught up with my eagerness.
But none of them speak to me, and the time slips away mercilessly. This is pointless.
I close my laptop in frustration and decide to skip this week. Again. I pick up my phone, open YouTube, and jump back into the numbingly comfortable pit of procrastination. My subconscious bitterly reminds me of all those years ago, when I swore off creative writing because of the suffocating, insurmountable hurdle that befell me every single time I picked up a pencil or opened an empty word-processor document…
Writer’s block. The term has become ubiquitous in the blogosphere and in the world of writing in general. But what does it really mean?
Is writer’s block the lack of ideas? The lack of energy? Is it correlated to burnout? How common is it, really? Could the act of labeling your lack of literary loquaciousness only serve to make it worse?
When I was younger, my friends and I would spend months waiting for what we unanimously called inspiration– the elusive and enthusiastic “feeling” that would catapult us into writing twenty pages of a new novel one Saturday morning. Inspiration never failed to dry up after a few days, though, and I was left with hundreds (yes, hundreds) of long-forgotten first chapters collecting figurative dust in cyberspace.
Eventually, I decided I wasn’t good at creative writing, and I haven’t tried to write anything creatively for probably three years. (I still haven’t regained the confidence — or the free time– to try my hand at creative writing, but it’s been in the back of my mind for a while.)
Regardless of the type of writing I focus on, though, I still haven’t changed. I mentioned in my last post that I have 68 draft posts sitting in my WordPress dashboard, and that wasn’t an exaggeration. Probably half of them only have a title and a few sentences. (It’s bad) The majority of my blog posts are written in one sitting, because I like to write them when the ideas are fresh in my mind. When I’m feeling passionate about what I have to say.
It’s kind of like “mood reading”– but that’s a discussion post for another day. The problem with this approach is that it’s really, really hard to write a blog post on a week when I’m not in a blogging mood. Multiply that with the huge workload I’ve brought upon myself and my perfectionism complex, and it becomes nearly impossible to post consistently.
I’ve been struggling with blogging burnout and writer’s block on and off since the fall, which coincidentally was when school started, and the main thing I’ve noticed is that my writer’s block rages the most when I’m feeling particularly overwhelmed. The worst and most paradoxical part, though, is that missing posts or being unable to write anything only makes me feel more stressed. I think it’s fair to claim that writer’s block can absolutely be related to burnout.
What I’m starting to wonder, though, is whether calling this problem writer’s block only makes it harder to overcome.
Has it become a self-fulfilling prophecy? A never-ending downward spiral into substance-less, parched prose?
The longer I think about it, the more I start to believe that the only practical way to deal with writer’s block, unless you’re willing to sit around for potential eons and wait for inspiration to strike you, is to just sit down and churn something out.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. This post has become a veritable river of rambling, but it is the product of me forcing myself to write something. Other times, I can’t seem to get past the ruthless mental block that tells me my daily allotted creativity has run out.
Do you ever experience writer’s block? How do you deal with it? Do you think wallowing in your writer’s block can cause a downward spiral?
Feel free to let me know in the comments, and thanks for reading today’s post!
Frappes and Fiction 
Like you, I have a ton of first chapters of these “brilliant” novels and it seems that every day I come up with more and more ideas but never sit down to write. Oh I blame this and that, “I’m too tired” “work was long” “oh i want to watch a movie” but I suppose you just have to say to yourself: “look, I am writing a page a day, I don’t care if it’s crap, just one page”…the creative writing i need to get back to, but I’ve been fairly consistent on my blogging, I hope to keep it up. If I am not mistaken, I think Stephen King said that he writes 3 chapters a day, he doesn’t care if he throws it all out by the end of the day, he still writes 3 chapters…that is dedication.
LikeLiked by 2 people
yes, it’s so hard to stick with one idea! I wish I had the discipline to write three chapters a day
LikeLiked by 1 person
this was such a relatable post, and i completely agree with all the points you’ve made!! i also feel like although i have all these ideas, i just never have the motivation to actually sit down and overcome the blank page!! i loved reading this post so much đź’–
LikeLiked by 1 person
thank you for reading! I agree, it can be so hard to sit down and blog when you are having a hard time getting motivated
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have experienced writer’s block at times. One thing that has helped me is to have several different projects going at various stages at the same time. If I feel blocked during one, I simply switch to anther one.
LikeLiked by 1 person
that’s a good idea
LikeLiked by 1 person
I get over it by choosing to put out the crappiest work I can. My aim is to get other writers to say: “Wow, this is bad.”
But then I hit the Publish button and it isn’t as bad as I thought it’d be. So then I do it again. It’s worked out pretty well for me.
LikeLiked by 1 person
yes, sometimes it’s good to not worry about being perfect and just writing something
LikeLike
Such a great post! I’ve experienced writer’s block for blogging before and school work! And it’s incredibly frustrating, especially when it’s for an essay that has a fast approaching due date!
LikeLiked by 1 person
oh yeah, it’s stressful enough writing a blog post as part of a hobby! I hate when I can’t think of something to write for a school project
LikeLiked by 1 person
I get that too… I’ve started trying to post on a weekly basis, but as I tried to balance my time with college, I ended up rummaging through my old high school drafts lol. But I think it really helps to write something short. Usually whenever I write something more than 400 words, I take literally forever to work on it until I’m satisfied. It can be super overwhelming to tackle on such a big task that you’d just never get it done, especially if you’re a perfectionist.
I know I also get ambitious to write long novels (that I never once finished), but I think if you practice writing shorter stories, it’s a more achievable goal. You don’t even have to finish the story if you’re out of ideas–Cause if it’s an enjoyable idea, it’ll still be an enjoyable read. It could be just a short scene or a little scenario, and you can always continue it if you get more ideas, but then you don’t have to. And then with more practice, it’ll get easier to write the longer pieces of creative writing you might want to write in the future 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
ooh, thanks for the advice! I can’t remember the last time I wrote a blog post under 700 words, and yes it can take forever for me to be satisfied with my work as well! The problem for me with short stories is trying to think of an idea that can be easily written as a short story. I always feel like I have to think of some sort of clever twist.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah yes I get what you mean. Well if you can’t think of a good twist, I actually think your writing voice is more interesting and important. But maybe if you start writing something, perhaps the idea would even come to you as you’re writing!
LikeLiked by 1 person
true!
LikeLike
Emily, thank you for this post. Writer’s block is awful and I also do suffer from it, I get what you mean by having to sit down all at once and finish writing something or else the ideas and “inspiration” will slip away. It is an interesting point that labelling the frustration and emptiness towards writing as writing block would further hinder it… and I do agree, one truly has to get out the procrastination and the notion of lack of “inspiration” and (i can’t find any better way to put it) just write it. Wishing you all the best!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you! I hope your writer’s block gets better as well
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think you have writer phobia. You are afraid of putting something out there. It is common. Before starting regularly again I had a dry spell too. I really only wrote for language practice. I also lost confidence after falling at academic writing. Give yourself permission totest.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re probably onto something! Thanks for the comment!
LikeLiked by 1 person