Writer's Block

Writer's block is the worst thing that can ever happen to me, and it happens to me all the time. When people think writer's block, though, I don't think they are thinking of exactly what I'm experiencing. Even when I think of writer's block, I picture something a lot more elevated and impressive than what I am going through.

Writer's block happens to writers who are in the throes of a beautiful composition, an impressive work of art that is about to become a novel of mythic proportions. The writing is going well, the story is flowing with ease, and suddenly the writer is stuck for a word, stuck for a statement, stuck for...something...that puts a hitch into the beautiful tale.

Yeah, writer's block isn't that glorious at all.

Writer's block, as I experience it, is a black out period. Sometimes the period lasts for an age, a whole portion of a lifetime. Writer's block is more than a missing turn of phrase, a hesitant description, a hazy thought that cannot materialize itself into words. Writer's block is, for me, a complete mental breakdown of writing frustration. I cannot write what I must write, I will not write what I must write, I can and will write anything else but writing that is productive and useful. I will write blog posts explaining writer's block, but I will not--no, I utterly refuse--to write my thesis. I cannot imagine writing that important document, cannot remember what it is about, cannot fathom what was so important about the topic, and do not even want to write about it, whatever it is. Writer's block makes me despair for my life, my hopes, my dreams--which are ever and always writing--and causes me to imagine that there is no life for me, after all, since writing is all that I do. When I say that I am suffering from writer's block, the word "suffering" is aptly chosen. Suffering is an understatement. And writer's block is an understatement.