Stop Trying to Write Your Way Out of Writer’s Block
Try this instead
Over the past few weeks, I’ve struggled with my writing practice. There’s no one problem or issue that causes me difficulty—it varies from day to day. On Monday, I sit down in front of my laptop and find that I have no ideas. The typically ceaseless stream of ideas in my mind is now bone dry, leaving a deafening silence in its wake. On Wednesday, the ideas run rampant, but the energy to realize them doesn’t. I can’t count how often I’ve fallen asleep on my laptop as I try to push past this exhaustion. And come Friday, the words refuse to work. Everything I type feels like bleeding a stone as words crash and splinter, refusing to work together to communicate the ideas in my head.
I try to follow the advice of my fellow Medium writers: “Don’t rely on the muse,” “just show up and write,” “treat writing as a job—be disciplined!” but staring at my laptop for hours while I fight with words isn’t working for me. (Sidebar: Is the “just show up and write” method of beating writer’s block working for any of you? Be honest; I truly want to know.) Maybe it’s my neurodiverse brain or maybe I’m just not good at sitting still, but no matter how long I dutifully sit in front of a screen, if the words aren’t coming the words aren’t coming.
