When afflicted with writer's block, one does not merely feel a lack of inspiration. A piece of yourself becomes misplaced, and no matter how hard you look, you realize scrambling only worsens it. It's like when your car keys fall into a dark corner or when you're missing the matching sock of your favorite pair. You could tear your whole room apart to no avail, and disappointment and anxiety will only grow in its absence. Sometimes you need to step away for a while, gain some perspective, and put a pause on searching. Ironically, the universe has a funny way of presenting this once-buried piece of treasure only if you are willing to stop trying so hard to find it, as if a ray of light was waiting for ages to enter the room to finally uncover what you couldn't live without.
Unlike my socks analogy, after 27 days of not writing, I realized personal intervention would be necessary to solve my problem. I’m not one to take breaks. The cheesy Tom Cochrane song, “Life is a Highway,” applies to my life only in the sense that I am constantly moving a hundred miles an hour. My “life is a highway,” lacking stop signs and red lights. However, villainizing time off is not the answer either. Nothing pains me more than losing passion for what I love. This rut has felt like a failure on my behalf. My lack of inspiration was seeping into my everyday life, affecting my concentration in class, my motivation in my extracurriculars, and of course, my ability to sit down and write something I could be proud of. Even as I type right now, I feel like the words are sitting in my mind, but they are in a language foreign to me. There is no Google translate for your own thoughts. Through this experience, I have realized that while time off alone will not solve my writer's block, it has made me miss and appreciate my Charming Chatter safe haven all the more. Basically, a “distance makes the heart grow fonder” type of situation.
While my idea train is still rusty, I am eager to discover new ways to find inspiration. Life is always throwing obstacles in your path that will either deter you from your journey or force you to adapt and find new ways to process change. I am beginning to accept that my absence is not a failure. I am merely navigating a rotten case of writer's block. I received sound advice on how to snap out of a creative dry spell. Watch movies and good television. Take a walk, go for a drive. I haven’t been inspired yet; maybe I have poor taste in movies. Instead, I embraced my love for cooking and baking to supplement the flavor lacking in other areas of my life. While I would love to hide behind a plate of cookies forever, I forced myself to write just to see what would come from it. The biggest hurdle is silencing the voice inside you that says, “Maybe you just aren’t good enough.” I could only imagine how many dreams have been crushed by self-sabotage, and I refuse to be a victim of self-doubt. My question to my readers is this: how do you pull yourself out of burnout and dwindling inspiration?
How do you reawaken your creativity?
watch a movie
read a book
go on an adventure
hang out with friends and family
The irony here is that, in so eloquently reflecting upon your own bout of writer's block, you've composed your finest work. There is a much larger audience unknowingly awaiting what you have to say and the precociously brilliant way you express it. Words are our most powerful tool and writer's block is proof-positive that you respect that fact. Wonderful post.
Such a natural with putting words together creating something beautiful every time 💗
Always gives reader a positive outlook on life and gives motivation.