I am sure every writer goes through this. It is like you are unable to write or in my case do not have the mood to write. During this time every writer has varying thoughts as to the list of the things that he/she would write about. In my case, these are the things which I have mentioned that I will write and somethings(or topics) which come to my mind while traveling,walking or even observing people. Writing as we know is an art of expressing what you think, what you believe and what you want to convey.
When that communication aspect stops, even though the writer’s mind might be full of thoughts he/she wishes to express but is someway unable to express. This in my view is the writer’s block. Dictionary provides us with the definition that
A usually temporary psychological inability to begin or continue work on a piece of writing.
I have even read that it is the inability to get inspired, possibly that might be true for some people. I however can assure reader, I donot have such problem. Therefore, should I conclude that it is just plan laziness and too much dependance on the dopamine in my mind (some people have fixation for such things) ?
The writer’s job as such is to get inspired, read stuff and create something which inspires others, preferably the future generations.
Writers to take a note of :
- Leo Tolstoy (Morals guy)
- Rumi (Sufi)
- Mark Twain (A true teacher and an American literary great)
- J.K.Rowling (ain’t she a pretty one)
- Gabriel García Márquez (what ever books I have read of his I am impressed)
- Orhan Pamuk
- Ayn Rand (The one initiated the philosophy of Objectivism)
- Aristotle (Teacher of Alexander the Great)
- Charles Dickens
- Will Durant ( Civilizations all the way)
- Premchand (moral wielder)
- Jean-Paul Sartre
- Jack London
- Enid Blyton (Read alot of her books)
- Nikolai Gogol
- Maya Angelou
- Noam Chomsky
- VS Naipaul
- Emily Dickinson
- Homer (Inspirational stuff)
- Vyasa (Author of Mahabharat)
- Kabir (sufi)
- Bulleh Shah (sufi)
- Ghalib
- Khan Abdul Ghani Khan (A pashtun nationalist)
- William Wordsworth (Born on 7 April 1770, awesome poet)
- Shakespear
- Christopher Hitchens (electrifying)
- Bhagat Singh ( Some may contest him being mentioned a writer, he died young at 23 but whatever he wrote till that age is still inspirational stuff for a lot of people in south-Asia)
- Allama Iqbal ( A great poet respected in South-Asia)
- Faiz ahmed Faiz
- Khalil Gibran (American Lebanese writer, Prophet is awesome piece)
The above writers in their own ways have tried to make stories or poems which would inspire people, inculcate values in them, make then question things and norms. I however wonder how these men and women did when they went through writer’s block. I read that few writers just use to fill their pages with gibberish (even though those words might be full of spelling errors 🙂 ) and some go into wild antics which can be termed plain crazy stuff. However when these guys bounce back they put in inspirational stuff, so is their NOT writing a part of writing good, a silence before the storm.
The best quote I found while thinking about it was by Charles Bukowski , who states
“writing about a writer’s block is better than not writing at all” .
Though I found another one, very interesting but maybe not much appropriate for high-nose polished beings.
Stated by the great Hank Moody that when you are not able to write anything,just say
Madafakaaaaa.
.
Even I write about writers block but in my scrap log because too myriad stuff comes out at such exercises. I think now your block has been demolished.
Yes I hope too, I have a lot of pending work to do. Especially on Mahabharata
Have you heard of the book “Write from the Heart?” In it, he has a daily writing exercise where you write for 15 minutes about what’s going on around you. For example, if you can hear a train whistle in the distance, you would include that, or even writing about how you’re writing and looking outside into the backyard, etc. Found the exercise to be very helpful! Another great way I’ve found to break free from writer’s block is to get in motion and/or have an adventure. Some of my best ideas come to me in transit (bike, train, plane, running, etc.) and a new experience is always fuel for the imagination. Hope some of these ideas help and that you’re back at it again in no time! 😉
thank you for mentioning that, I will surely read it. Sounds like the perfect book for me. 🙂 The real problem for me is to document them down while having them and I prefer PC/Laptop for that. May be I need to spend more quality time with my laptop on writing they ideas down too.
I always carry a moleskin and regularly use my notes and voice recording apps on my phone! It’s a great way to get ideas down while they’re fresh and have a central location to go back to when I’m ready to write about them! 🙂