Writer’s block is a deadly disease. Oh, no, it’s not like catching a cold or having a runny nose. But once you are struck by it, voila! Your brain shuts down automatically. No matter how hard you try booting back, it just won’t tick!
If you think sleep is your medicine, then I’m pretty sure that it is a tough road to trudge on. An ever-blinking cursor or sheets of paper rolled up into balls in the corner of the room are all symptoms of this malady. If you are down with this syndrome and want to know a cure for it, feel free to skip this article.
Stage 1: That one ‘Idea’
Either thinking about how I am just an article old on GT, or on how my river of creativity is drying up, forces me to take the pen and paper (to be more precise, open up a word doc). Naturally, one hopes for their creativity to pour out an eclectic mix of things to write about, which is a devastating illusion.
“If writing is hard, then searching for an idea to write about is worse.”
Picking out one good golden egg of a topic, out of the gazillion curated in the head, is no less than a herculean task. By the time it gets approved by the council in my head (like everyone, I have a council in my head, that presides over everything I choose; pleasing that council is my life’s motive), I realize I’m drained of words to write. Time seems to move slower than usual. The cursor seems to be blinking it’s life out. Everything seems to zone me out completely.
Stage 2: That one ‘Paragraph’
Sometimes, I do manage to put in a few words and make ONE COMPLETE SENTENCE. It definitely feels like pushing Mount Everest. Add a few more and a paragraph pops to life! I suddenly feel worthy of a Pulitzer or a Nobel (yes, there is one for literature) and relish my beginner’s luck. I re-read this minuscule and coveted work of art till my eyes wear out only to find it tasteless and bland in the end. Swifty, the cursor pulls itself to the beginning of the page.
Stage 3: That one after stage 2
Very few of the many times, I do pass this stage of one paragraph, to write a few more (it is definitely not a smooth ride). Meanwhile, the council in my head presides over things like humour quotient, the complexity of the words used in the article and a million issues (it’s too hard to please the council). Every time something isn’t right, the cursor free-falls to the beginning. A miracle occurs a few times, and I proceed to stage 4 or the inevitable Exit stage.
Stage 4: That one ‘article’
After some brain numbing toil, I fall into a fourth of writing. After running my own marathon, I feel relieved to have put in a few paragraphs to whip up an article. (The council in my head still seems to be indecisive, but I ignore them completely!) Without further ado, I submit the article thinking of how painstaking I have made the work of the editor.
Exit stage: That one time I tried to write an article
I close the doc and start watching cat videos on YouTube with zero remorse about that one time, I tried writing an article!
P.S. This article is purely a product of writer’s block.
