Writer's Block

A Story by J.m. Burt

My understanding of writer's block

Writer's block is gazing into at a black screen as though it is cryptic crystal ball that will incite your fingers to raise the pen or assault the keyboard to produce beautiful, whimsical words that will enthrall everyone who comes across. Then as your mind has filled up with ideas you feel will be your best work ever, you leave. Frustrated that you have so many ideas that cannot be put into words yet are so wonderful in your head. You convince yourself that you will come back to the work once your mind has organized itself from abstract to rational to physical manifestation on paper or screen. Yet that is never what happens. Staring at the screen, walking away, then coming back to destroy the computer or crumple up the paper doesn't produce the writing.

Or, perhaps, you're greatest inspiration has come in a dream or walking down the asphalt. And you try to grab the elusive thought. Holding on to it to write or type it. But as you try to put the words down, they are not as genius as they were in the mental space. And now you feel defeated and either give up the task or place your finger on the keyboard and let the screen fill up with nonsense letters. If you've chosen the former route repeatedly , then you've come to understand how easy it is to give yourself to frustration and self doubt. In the destructive or physical movements ( crumpling the paper, destroying the computer, or letting the the space of the screen fill with something), you just created your inspiration. You can write a poem on the chaotic ridges of a crumpled piece of paper, a descriptive essay on your computers's utter violation or in seeing the letters fill the white void you can decode something in your mind and create something totally unexpected.