Writers Block: My Experience

I certainly wish I had the drive to just reach for a pen and some paper and jot down my ideas when they present themselves. Sometimes they are inspired by something I heard, something I saw, something I said and even something from my thoughts. I get excited, but that almost never seems translate into my getting off my bum to get pen and paper to write down the idea – and then it’s all lost.

Writers Block

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Writers Block is a pretty common occurrence among writers of all levels. People experience writers block for varying reasons. Some writers experience anxiety when they have a new writing project to start and when they have to come up with new topics. Sometimes a good topic or subject just seems elusive, and that can be very frustrating especially if there is a deadline to meet.

There’s No Writer’s Block They Say

I have heard it said that there is no such thing as a writer’s block, but I really beg to differ. I think my writer’s block comes in the form of “go get your pen and paper and jot your ideas down.” I really have a problem in that avenue, and that is what I consider to be my main writer’s block. Sometimes I get so excited about an idea that comes to me and I think seriously of writing it down, but that’s where the mobilization often ends. That’s just sad, because when I sit to write and try to remember stuff, nothing comes or it comes in confusing/disorganized bits and pieces. Either way, I spend a lot of time just trying to recapture the thought. Sometimes what comes to me at the time of writing is much better than those I failed to jot down, but oh so often I am left disappointed that I lost the initial thoughts.

So why don’t you just get up and do it?

Pausing my thoughts to get pen and paper is like tearing myself away from a great scene in a movie to go to the bathroom or get some water. I need to go, my throat is parched, but if I leave I will miss too much. You know the feeling.

I am a deep thinker, and as it is with deep thinkers I get some really inspirational thoughts. I have lost a myriad of them to my writers block. I tend to tell myself that the idea was so good there is no way that I could forget it – Big Mistake. Ever heard of the saying that the shortest pencil is better than the longest memory or something like that? It is indisputable true. Every so often I end up literally taking my brain down bit by bit with a mental hammer trying to find exactly where the great thought had gone to hide, only to come away empty-handed.

So Why Not Amend My Ways?

It is true that the best thing to do is to jot down ideas when they come. For me that can be so complex and inconvenient. Why? When I move the moment is lost, and sometimes so is the trend of thought. That magical moment gets broken, and even if I remember, it is just not the way it was when I initially had the thought. I get annoyed at that. So instead of getting up to get some material to jot down the idea I prefer to sit and complete the trend of thought.

There are other times when the ideas are inspired by something I saw or heard while I was out in the town or elsewhere. Naturally by the time I get home its lost or in shards. Maybe a figment of what I wanted to take note of still remains within the crevices of my mind, but I always note that they are hardly ever as good as the initial thought. Again I get frustrated and just can’t bother using what appears to be mediocre.

Like an artist who uses his spoiled piece of art work to create an alternative piece, I sometimes start working with what I now consider a mediocre bit of memory and create an even better piece of writing, but most times this is not the case. Sometimes the piece is so way off that I drop it all together.

I can’t figure out a way to get over my writer’s block so I just work with it.