Writer's Block is a chronic illness.

I hate Writer's Block. I loathe it. I wish it were a person so I could push him or her off a cliff. I wish it was an ant so I could stomp on it with my favorite boots. I wish it was something flammable so I could... I think you get the point. Writer's Block (or WB, as I'll now continue to call it) is the most cruel situation for any writer:  You want to write. You really want to write. Something. Anything. Just the thought of writing makes you so happy that you want to burst out into showtunes. (...Or am I the only one?)

So, what do you write about?

At this point, one of two things happens:  1. You are without any sort of creative ideas, or 2. You have an amazing idea... but you can't seem to do anything with it.

My situation is more along the lines of #2. I have a story idea. I've had a story idea for about 3 years now. It's up there, in my noggin, jumping on a trampoline, playing the banjo and making chocolate fondue simultaneously. I'm incredibly excited about writing it. So why can't I just write the damn thing?

Mr. Perfect (I hate him.)

That's where perfectionism comes into play. If I were to personify my perfectionism, he would look very much like the snobby man to the left. He would use an annoyingly posh English accent and would be sipping chardonnay while pointing out my meager attempts to be the next Charles Dickens or Jane Austen.

This is usually how it goes:  I begin to write. As I construct my very first paragraph, Mr. Perfect chimes in with variants of "How boring. Will anyone really want to read this?" and "What an awful word choice," and "Did you pass third grade?" and "Oh dear. How very sad."

Needless to say, we aren't very good friends. He crushes every attempt I make at productive writing. I can't seem to just shut him up. Everything I do is just wrong or boring or sloppy or unimpressive or blah. He constantly rains on my parade and makes me feel like such a hack.

Because I want to kick him out of my head, I've been doing some research about Writer's Block. There's so much information out there! It's actually sort of comforting to see other writers struggling with WB as well. It lets you know that WB can happen to anyone!


Something I found that I particularly enjoy is the following video:

She points out something that I never thought about before:  If you keep saying that you have Writer's Block, you'll continue to have it. Unless you put WB out of your mind and stop being a victim of it, it'll never go away. Basically, you create your own Writer's Block by identifying it as such!

So, we have to stop letting Writer's Block exist. We have to erase it from the writing world. Unless we leave it behind, it'll continue to pop up in our lives and prevent us from achieving our writing goals.


(But I'll leave you with one last WB-related comic:)