Those who write with a writer’s perception often collide with a phenomenon called ‘writer’s block’ or ‘muse apnea’. Writer’s block is a monster that all writers dread but encounter some time or the other. The monster was chasing me for a long time now and I was just sick and tired of running from it. The irony of the matter is that there is no amount of running that can take us away from this monster. Au contraire!
Running away might give the monster more power and ferocity, which is bound to incapacitate us for a longer time than it should. A few writers have found an easier way to shoo it away. My mind goes vacant when I am under the spell of this brute. No amount of reading helps my mind from reaping any creative topic to write about. I am still trying to engineer my way out of this spell. And in that endeavor I am considering this my first step- analyzing the character of the monster and taking it by the horns. So, I decided to write about the same monster that tries to debilitate me from time to time.
What gives birth to ‘writer’s block’? Many things in my opinion, and one of the most important one might just be saturation of our brains. I think a writer just likes to go on and on without taking enough breaks. That gives rise to an unmanageable clutter in our brains, which disallows the creative juices to flow out on the paper. To remain clutter free we have to leave our mind for some rest. Getting out in the nature and absorb the freshness might clear up the clutter effectively. Or watching some mindless show on TV. In essence, doing some exercises that would not involve deep thinking. For me cooking has worked and so has watching a movies and talking to a friend on the phone.
There is one more reason for that clutter to accumulate. Human beings are collectors they don’t like to throw out things that they have collected over the years. As a result the clutter in our houses can clutter our brains too. In similar terms a writer, a human being, gives birth to ideas (writing ideas) and collects them in his brain little by little. He makes a mental list of all the ideas on which he should write about. It doesn’t occur to him that some ideas may not expand into anything readable. But he is a collector and he hates to throw those ideas out of his mind. The clutter just keeps getting bigger often reaching to an overwhelming size. The best thing to do than making and keeping a mental list is to make a physical one. Put the ideas on a paper as soon as possible. There are two things that can happen from this exercise. One- when we put the ideas on paper our mind can rest aside the fear of forgetting those ideas. And it will give us a chance to evaluate those ideas later, for their solidity. We will think harder on how to expand those ideas and start our homework research and exploration of knowledge.
Lack of ideas is another reason that writer’s block kicks in. Inspiration is all around us, inscribed with stories that remain untold or not narrated rightly. But writers are not magnates and the strewn ideas are not iron pieces that would automatically get attracted to a writer. And yet a writer who loves to write has to keep finding new ideas to explore and expand. Still, sometimes writers find it difficult for an idea to stick so that they can finally develop it to an article or a story. Encountering this kind of blockage is even worse than the one that occurred due to the clutter. The reason here is just the opposite- emptiness or more aptly a vacuum. But only if we can understand the mechanism of such a situation to occur we can probably deal it with much ease.
We cannot be jack of all trades, irrespective of the invention of that phrase. We all are masters of a few, though. What I mean is that we like to write about a few genres and we can be good in them with enough practice. I, for example, like to write stories and essays that involve women, social, familial, and some other issues similar to those. But one fine day I decided to try something new. “Let me start a mystery thriller,” I told myself convincingly. So I sat down to write a suspense story where the protagonist, a woman, kills her lover. I had the basic idea of the plot. But I had no idea on how to proceed to make it a mystery. After many efforts the story that evolved was more of a psychological profiling of the protagonist her difficult childhood, and her chaotic relationship with men. So in the end I could only write the story with an angle which I am more comfortable with. The story is still a work-in-progress and its genre is woman-issue. I have realized my limits as a writer. We have to know our limits and try to expand them but not break them. Of course, some of us can write about any topic under the sun, but most of us are limited by our own personalities. If we stay true to ourselves we decrease the likelihood of writer’s block striking us by one count.
I have found that freewriting works wonderfully at times. It is unstructured in style, content, and purpose. It is professed by many writing instructors to have helped the student-writers find a personal voice through unrestrained expression. I think it is a wonderful idea to exercise our writing with freewriting for various reasons. One explanation is that freewriting can break the writer's block much more easily than any other exercise. The other advantage of this exercise is that it lets the idea flow smoothly on the paper, because the freewriting rule is to write continuously with no attention to spelling or grammar mistakes or if the writing is disconnected. Freewriting allows us to write down our scattered thoughts in one place. They become like dots, which we can connect later. Amazingly the dots can connect to make a beautiful graph of a story/essay. Even if that doesn't happen, this particular exercise helps in purging of the mind, which is essential for any writer to practice. A freewriting exercise on a daily basis develops a healthy writing aptitude in a writer and helps him/her evolve into a better writer.
In conclusion, there are many ways that will identify the upsurge of writer’s block in us. But there are as many ways to tackle and break that block also. In summary the points are as follows:
- Taking ample rests between writings- a restful mind is a good ground for new ideas to grow.
- Un-cluttering the mind- a restful mind can remove some clutter from our thinking process. However, if the help from that step doesn’t achieve breakage of writer’s block, taking the ideas from the mind and putting them in a physical list often is a great idea.
- Identifying our voice- As much as it is important for any writer to explore his limits it is also important to write in a voice that is completely his own. With time and experience a writer can find new tones in his voice. However, writing in what his present knowledge and understanding demands from him is the best idea to keep the pen flowing and the mind going.
- And last but not the least, a few exercises, like freewriting, can keep the creative juices of a writer flowing.
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