Getting rid of writers block
So here I am sitting at my desk and I am having a hard time finding what to write. I decided to make a promise to myself to work on writing my thoughts, at least get the thoughts out of my head and on to paper.
Let me start by describing myself and my writing background. I am 39, separated, have 2 kids, debts that keep me drowning, have never been truly happy in life, and have found myself bouncing from job to job, face constant depression, and I have Asperger’s Syndrome (extremely high functioning). It isn’t pretty, but I am not looking for glamour. I am on a constant search for truth, knowledge and enlightenment.
Flash back to my high school years, around 1994–1997.
I wasn’t the brightest around. I would often skip classes and be found either in the library or the art class. If you look at my English writing skills & comprehension, I would fall on the low scale of any aptitude test. Writing scared me. It stressed me. As a matter of fact, it still does. To a great degree I must add.
English reading and writing was such a stress at a young age that I often wrote only a few paragraphs when it came to handing in term papers, essays, thesis papers and exams. It was probably my worst course in high school. The stress was so bad that during a final exam I pissed my pants handing in my English paper to my grade 11 teacher. She even refused to let me go to the bathroom prior for fear that I would cheat on the exam. Hah. Cheat on a writing exam. If you figure out how to do that, let me know. I would like to know how to write better prose and write things that would draw you in, holding on to every word, wanting to read more. “How does it end?” or “what happens next” is what I would want the reader to think as they were reading a piece of text that I wrote. Yet, I never figured out how to do that.
Where was I going with this? Oh yah. I was so bad at English and writing, that I don’t recall ever passing my English courses with a grade higher than a 70%. My final year of school, I had to repeat the course a total of 5 times.
You read that right. I received 3 did not complete marks, took it in summer school, failed that, and then again one last time. I decided at that point, I don’t care at this point. I will just finish it with whatever I could get.
Don’t think I am dumb. I know I am not. I was actually good in school. I fast tracked and completed all my credits by the time I was 17. At the time the average was to get all high school credits by the age of 18-19.
I was just never great at English and writing.
Flash forward to the present. I often read “To become a better author/writer is simple. You just need to practice writing.”
Well hell. If that isn’t a cop out if I have ever heard one I don’t know what is.
Isn’t that the case with almost everything in life? Practice? Keep doing it? Keep grinding? It reminds me of that movie “Marley and Me.” (Great movie by the way. Tugs at your heart strings!) Spoiler alert: The main character gets a job at a local news paper as a editorial writer. He didn’t know how to write either. Nor did he know what to write. So he wrote from the heart.
I read that a lot, “write from the heart”, in the writing forums and blogs I stumble across on the internet. (I prefer writing “internet” as opposed to the “cloud”.)
Writing from the heart is supposed to draw people in. It is supposed to come out as if you are talking to a friend. Caveat, I have Asperger’s. I barely have friends, have poor communication with the ones that I do, and have a hard time keeping new ones, let alone the existing ones. I do have constant thoughts running through my head. The best way to get those thoughts out is to just write.
Let the words flow. Let them come out naturally.
Sure. sure. Easier said than done right? Right. Writer’s block. The topic of this article. Well, I have written all of this so far. Maybe it is easier to write what is in your head and what is personal to you than writing something that you have to make up. Pull it out of thin air. But when you write from the heart, you don’t think about making it pretty. You make it truthful. Or at least that is just the way that it comes out.
This isn’t always the case when you are writing for work because you have a set objective. Sometimes you have to be neutral in the content you write. Objective. Maybe it is a research paper and you are meant to bring out the points. Organizing your thoughts into something cohesive as opposed to just writing your thoughts, or your opinions is much, much more difficult than anyone can imagine. My hat goes off to you that can.
Hopefully you made it this far.
So back at my desk. I have to write an article on technical stuff. My issue with writing is that I always feel like I take more time than it should. Then again, I would rather take the time it takes and write a few lines that will move mountains than write pages of pages that will put you into a coma.
My task? I have to write about stuff that may not be interesting to the average person and make it interesting. I have to take technical papers and make them interesting for the lay person. Not only that, I have to write this in a way that it can be used as a selling tool. Doesn’t make sense to me. But it is what I get paid for. I kind of hate that to be honest. But maybe I have found a way to channel my thoughts into something useful and help others see what I see in this company. Maybe I can get someone interested in something what others would consider boring.
Maybe. But for now. Clearing the writers block by ending this entry and going back to work as I feel that I have got my brain in the write zone for writing.
Maybe that is all it takes to curing writers block. Just write. It doesn’t matter what it is. Just write. But remember, writer’s block doesn’t go away when you are stressed. It becomes worse. So write anything. Writing should feel like meditation to a point. It should come naturally. This is coming from a guy who personally thinks he isn’t fantastic at writing.
Good luck.
