I want to know how writers handle blocks.
There is a slew of topics on my mind I will like to write about but that appropriate phrase that heralds in the story has been evasive.
Many drafts have been scribbled but every time I take a second look, I struggle to see the coherence and message they should bear.
I don’t subscribe to those who say to just write anything. I am a believer of the saying that you don’t talk (or write) just to talk but only when something needs to be said and even at that, we have a responsibility to ensure what we say is put in weighted words so as not to convey the wrong message. Several write-ups betray the spirit of the latter.
I ravenously gulped a post recently where it was prescribed that at times like this, a writer should pick any random topic and just write. The end-goal is for the writer not to be idle like going through a blank season is all that bad for a writer.
As much as I admire such desire for making writing a second nature for the writer, I strongly feel it’s a disservice to whoever reads such work. Why? Writing, as I see it, is a service to the reader first and foremost. We write to heal, correct, entertain, guide, accompany and many more. When one writes without a ‘soul’ or an ‘essence’, it is done in the interest of the writer solely.
This is not bad in itself! Writing should help both the writer and the reader. My stand is just that the writer should come first, mostly.
Back to the thrust. How can one deal with blocks?
Should we wait for our muse even if it takes longer than we want or go to it like searching for any random topic and just pouring out our thoughts on it? For a platform like Medium, you tend to lose followers for being inactive. I noticed there are plethora of posts which were churned out because the writer has been caught in the web of ‘I have to post something’. They run the risk of sounding banal or having similar stories overtold.
Can’t blocks just be what they are? Be a block from action. Push us to embrace nothingness; peer into the abyss and sit with our uselessness in the moment? Must we always run from blocks? Do we lose ourselves when we don’t write for a long time?
How do we handle blocks? Should they be handled?
