I was tempted to post a blank entry with this as a title. It would be accurate.
I’ve found that for me, writing bandwidth vastly varies with what is going on in the Real World, so to speak. This is common, I’m sure, and the mark of a professional is that they can keep going despite interruptions and these life stresses. This is not (yet) the case for me, so I fall silent, desperately wanting to write but feeling the blank page as a heavy weight every time I look at it.
So, here I will write about that instead. More specifically, how I try to break free from them. (Them, plural, because they are in fact a regular occurrence, and will probably continue to be for the foreseeable future.)
One attempt to break out of a writer’s block, for me, is to surround myself with true creativity in various forms. Even if it isn’t mine, often it sparks something in me. Lately, I have been watching fantastically creative television series, reviewing beautiful artwork online, and even sparking my own mind by playing a computer game that always brings out at least some creativity – Minecraft. The stress is still there, and threatens to overwhelm at any moment, but at least I can keep the creative atrophy at bay by imagining other worlds.
Another way is to work on small prompts, tiny scenes that don’t take much effort but are a window into various worlds. Some of those escape from me and become larger works (like a few I can mention here that still need their last chapters), but some stay compact and cute and light.
Dreams are another way, but that’s an entry for later. (I refer mainly to the barometer of dreams as a mark of creative thought – as in, having “story” dreams as opposed to “anxious” dreams. But those also aren’t very controllable, so they don’t get to be in this entry.)
Back to the grind (for now), but hopefully back soon…
~selah
