Can’t…Find…Blog…Idea…

Ugh. Writer’s block. Having trouble working on the sermon for next Sunday. Having trouble posting here.

So when a writer’s got block, what does he write about? You guessed it!

A few reasons for writer’s block:

1. Lack of inspiration.
2. Inadequacy to complete the project
3. Depression
4. Distraction
5. Illness
6. Fear

Of these, the second and last are the most damaging. Freewriting exercises can overcome the first issue. Anything from prayer to push-ups to Prozac can cure number three.  Distraction is serious, but you can train yourself out of it. Illnesses pass, or don’t. If the latter, writing may be the least of your worries.

But if you have block because you’re in over your head, it can quickly kill a project. Example: please provide a thirty-page outline for a fantasy epic that embraces Zen Buddhism with Norse mythology. Make it compelling and finish it by tonight.  Inadequacy I used to call “writing myself into a corner.”

The cure is simply to write more. If it’s in a dissertation you’ve written yourself into a corner, your only choice is to go back and do some remodeling so that corner doesn’t exists anymore. If you can work on other things, then after <del>months</del> years of wood-shedding you might be ready to re-tackle the 1000-page epic romance of like in 19th Century Tunisia after all.

Fear is another beast. Fear of failure or success is hard to overcome. The only weapon against this is faith and love. Perfect love casts it out, but I’m not sure how, exactly.

In other words, if fear is the source of your writer’s block, I’m afraid I have nothing to write.

Possibly Related posts:

1. Is It Paranoia if They Are out to Get You?
2. Do You Fear Success?
3. On Anonymity and Pseudonymity (II)
4. Outlining and Writing
5. Busy Times and the Disease of Busyness