So in this world of writing is a terror that many of us face on a semi-regular basis. That is the dreaded writers block. You sit down to write and suddenly nothing. A big fat load of snow in the brain. You know like TV's used to have after hours when station's weren't broadcasting anymore. If you haven't experienced it well it's a lot like foreplay with no follow through. A whole lot of build up only to feel an ego withering level of inability to produce. Ok so maybe it's more like ED but you get the idea.
When you're in school wracking you're brain trying to get work done it's a whole different animal. Generally you have a topic, guidelines etc. As a writer it's all on you. You have to come up with the topic, the guidelines, the name of the dog on page three et al. No performance anxiety there......(sarcasm).
Most of the time you don't know it's coming. You do your pre-writing routine and get in the groove, sit down with your pen and paper or computer start to write and blammo. The snow show's up. Only if it were real snow it might give you a plot bunny but this is like a wall of soundproofing that doesn't allow anything in the way of ideas into your brain.
For those of you who haven't had this happen before, breathe deep this too shall pass...eventually. For those of us that have lived it (many many times) It's like a tornado of silence. So we grab our coffee, wine and headphones turn up the music and try to squeeze our brain like a sponge. There has to be something in there right? When that doesn't work we take a walk around the house look at the laundry that needs doing and say screw-it and head back to work. We get settled in again and pretend the original vacuum of ideas never happened. Until we try to make the fingers produce something other than our own name and various smatterings of key strokes.
If you done this a lot of times you look at notes from previous brainstorms and find none of them bring forth anything that is worth speaking of. If you're anything like me when it's real bad you start through various images related to genre you write. I write romance and erotica. This can be problematic and distracting if you get my drift. ;)
Once you've reached this point you're ready to make a small sacrifice just for an idea that doesn't make you want to icepick your own brain.
The only reassurance I can offer is the writers block does eventually pass. Sometimes it just means walking away for a day, going and actually doing some laundry or for most of us taking a shower or going to sleep. If you haven't learned from my posts by now plot bunnies visit at the most inconvenient times, keep a notebook nearby.
Just remember writers write because our brains tell us we have too, that particular kind of crazy never really goes away......ever.
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