Ever felt like you needed to write and you started out with a few good ideas, only to find you have written a few paragraphs into your post and realize you can’t get your points in order, or you got lost in a mess of words, maybe some sentences you may have repeated twice while trying to derive your conclusion? Or having incomplete sentences, open ended without a full stop to add at the end, while you try to find the right words to express your thoughts?
Maybe you started writing something but mid-way through you ran out of fuel or steam, to keep the train of thoughts chugging on.
I am experiencing this right now. It’s called writer’s block.
I am stuck, in the middle of a potentially good topic with a good message to readers. But I am going in circles, starting sentences and paragraphs and not ending them well.
Write, delete, write, delete.
Writing starts once more with a clearer direction, but now I stop to rethink, then click enter to start a new paragraph on a whole different angle on the topic. Ah, stuck again.
Back in the old days, I imagine it would be type, type, type on a ‘clackety’ typewriter, stop and stare in frustration, proceeds to remove paper from the typewriter and scrunch it up, and throw it around your office for dramatic effect. Repeat 10 times to create an ‘artistic’ view of scrunch-up paper balls on the floor around your desk, those that you tried to toss into the waste paper basket. Right, a dustbin that only can contain ‘paper’. Sounds pretty impractical today.
I’m taking a breather now in between writing, and hopefully, after my break I can re-structure my points and rephrase my words, to make them readable and most importantly to conclude on a point.
Maybe I can keep this as a draft and start on another topic. But wait, upon my latest check I have 46 open incomplete written drafts already in my personal blog. So no, let’s complete one draft and publish it, and reduce this number of written drafts down to 45.
It could be that my mind is weary at this hour, fatigue from work and parenting young children, maybe the weather is too humid, maybe I’m uninspired, and maybe I’m procrastinating. Maybe, I should go to sleep.
What? I’ve only written 414 words? I must make it to 500 words. Write something, Becca. Finish one post. Complete it.
It makes me wonder, how do regular writers do this?
I am writing as a hobby and as a small side hustle, not as a job. I have the option of writing at my pace and in my free time. This does help me feel less ‘forced’ in my writing.
But still, writer’s block is not fun. I will review my incomplete post again tomorrow, hopefully with a different approach and a fresher mind.
Oh hey, I’ve reached 494 word count.
Seven more words do not matter at this point, I’m just making you read more.
Huzzah! 514 final word count.