When people tell you “you are good,” an invisible burden ironically ‘floats in’ from nowhere and rests on your shoulders. The burden being- always being good. As someone who likes penning down thoughts on an extremely random basis , I was jabbed with a writer’s worst low – The Block – for the longest two months of my life. Though many have tried to express in their own words, the actual feeling of being to the most popular vacation spot called the Writer’s Block, it’s still very hard to use words to describe it. Writers need motivation. Each writer has his own muse and his own idea of motivation. Each person is a writer- some are perpetually in a blocked mode; while some slip into it occasionally.
The first signs of hanging out in the Block:
- Every time somebody mentions your writing and your past works, your heart cringes and you sense the discomfort.
- You have opened MS word several times only to type “QWERTY” and backspace it.
- You desperately read through your old pieces seeking some sort of inspiration.
- You turn irritable when somebody reminds you that “it has been a while since the last one”
- You hate being inconsistent with quality. You are never too pleased with what you think or write.
In my case the worst sign was desperation. I turned so desperate that all through the day I tried spotting a feasible “blog post” idea. The bus, the loo, the mirror, the window- all enticed me into brainstorming for a possible cover for the blog. From the birth of this blogspot, posts and words have been effortless and free-flowing. For the first time, it was actually a pain to drag the post-string along (what I thought was) the right track. So I decided to do what they prescribe to block-hit writers.
I wrote a poem to shake away from the tangles of the Block
I want to write,
Get done with the fight,
between my pen and mind;
I told myself,
rake up the old shelf,
for the flash you will find;
No writer should sit;
without the bulb lit
for the muse will yawn in pain
For, to every boon
the writers swoon,
there’s the Block that marks the bane.
Writing about the Block itself is the first sign of recovery! :D
ReplyDeleteOh, and dude, don't worry about quality. I'm sure people would love to read about 'the bus, the loo, the mirror and the window.
Good one!
ReplyDeleteThe solution one finds to get over a writer's block may seem silly and amusing for the readers. For instance, I got over a rather long and irritating writer's block (stretching over a year) by abandoning my old blog for a new one. I blamed the writer's block on my old blog's name, 'shunyam.' :P
Good luck with writing! :)
An idea has to 'strike' and one ought to brood over it for some time for shaping it up as a good blogpost. Anything less will be a not-as-good outcome. That's my opinion.
ReplyDeleteSo, let the game come to you thank you chase it :)