It is not that I have nothing to write. It is that I have too much to write. I start and go down one path then another then another. My head is swimming in thoughts and some connect, some don’t. Probably some on a subconscious level do and don’t connect, confusing all other conscious thoughts.
I used to think that I got writer’s block. I don’t think I do. In some ways, I don’t think it exists. Maybe it does for some people, but it manifests itself in different ways. I never run out of things to write about, I simply run into something else that blocks my creativity.
I get a thing I call perfectionism block. Where my mind shuts off when it discovers I can’t do something perfectly. As soon as it thinks through all the possibilities and the idea that I might have missed or perspectives or thoughts, then it stops working. Stops outputting any useful information.
No matter what I do to try to finish writing something, I keep freezing. Panicking. And the feelings are worse than the writing so I stop writing.
If I wanted to keep writing, I could. There are always words to type. However, those perfectionism tendencies start messing with my creative process, and then it feels like I have writer’s block. When in fact, I’m just stuck thinking I am not good enough. If I changed my thoughts, changed my belief about the situation, and believed that I could figure it out and could find a good enough way to say something, then I would keep writing.
What do you think? Is writer’s block a real thing? Or simply an excuse we use to stop writing when we believe lies about ourselves?
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