You're laying there on your bed, or perhaps sitting on a table or even typing on a phone. Your eyes stare at the bright screen of your electronic device burning your pupils with their bright glare. You have been in this position for the past hour, a hell of your own creation, where your mind is not equipped to do the very things and knows full well and needs to do. The stress is unbearable your writing is suffering, you have been typing and retyping the same exact sentence in different phrasings again, and again, trying to find the one configuration that is just right. But it feels like trying to find a needle in a haystack. As your mind strains, you begin to reach the point where you care more about finishing it rather than doing it well. You force yourself through all barriers of quality, not by jumping over them but smashing through with brutish force. And then you finish it, you just collapse on the bed, the act of writing feels punishing. And when you look back at the work you made, it all feels like a waste. What I just described as my personal experience with writer's block, the be all end all wall of artistic creation. It never feels good. Because having writer's block is more than just not wanting to write; that's called the motivation. writer's block is that feeling you experience when you have all the willpower and desire to go through with your creation, but your mind is simply not up to the task. The feeling that accompanies it is one of abject helplessness and helps one understand that artistic creation is not just about having the passion and the desire to write, one can have both, many writers do so in space and yet they are still affected by writer's block. It's frustrating and trying to push yourself through the writer's block by force- much like the act of pushing yourself through a brick wall by force- is more likely to actively hurt you than help. It is a proven fact that when someone doesn't have the mindset to do something, trying to force them to do it anyway can often make them hate it even more. This is why writer's block manifesting during crunch deadlines can often be the worst of all since there is no option but then to try to push through. It may sound like a bit of a dumb solution, but a lot of the time the best way to solve the wall that is this feeling is by simply going around it. Like I said before, unless you have an iron will trying to force yourself to write in spite of this block will only serve to frustrate and annoy, resulting in work that you will definitely not be proud of. There is of course always value in bad work when it comes to writing. But if the act of making that work isn't enjoyable, then in my experience, it can often result in burnout and the feeling of inferiority. So please stand up from the bed, pull the chair back, turn off your electronic screen and stand back from the act of writing. Go out for a walk, distract yourself and make a mental reset. You will be able to continue in your back. No matter how bad your writer's block is. As long as you have the desire and the passion. It will always pass. There is always a way around that wall. Away
