When Writer’s Block Hits You Straight in Your Face, Hard
Just a rant — or maybe a rant with a lesson
I have a love-hate relationship with Medium. And with writing online too.
That is not to say Medium is bad or algorithm is a grim monster that terrifies me every day. No.
It’s me.
At this point, I don’t know if I should even call it writer’s block. Maybe it’s not.
Maybe I like writing like this. Writing non-stop some days and totally distance myself from platforms on others. Why this can’t be the case and the new normal for me?
Maybe it was me
It feels good when you are able to punch a thousand words every day, doesn’t it? The sheer feeling of pressing Ctrl+A and seeing 1,314 on the left-hand side of the screen is so motivating.
You deserve a sound sleep, you think. It’s wonderful.
Then comes the rainy days. And you don’t have umbrellas or raincoats. All you can do is wait for the rain to stop.
The last two-three days were my sunny days. A month before that was monsoon. Did you know we had a bad harvesting season because of flooding?
Let’s cut to the chase. I was an advocate for writing daily, no matter what. Then I realised the flaws of that process.
But for a reason that is alien to me, I still think it is the ideal state of being. At least for a digital writer. It’s unlikely to change.
I’m the Queen of Hearts, my baby
The feeling of writing every day is so magical; it’s borderline addictive. A gush of dopamine engulfs you.
It’s anyway better than staring at the stats page or scrolling Reels. But that doesn’t make it any less addictive.
The only thing that makes it different is that this habit is not sustainable. It comes and goes.
Writing daily is definitely the queen of hearts. And it is subjective if you want to chase it.
Lesson I learnt
I have learnt one big lesson that I plan to hold close to me for the rest of my life:
“Doing something slowly is 100x better than quitting it altogether when you lose motivation.”
It is not the first time this lesson showed up; it just came up to reiterate its presence.
I think it’s high time to get to work. With work, I mean to improve by at least 1% every day. And that I think is the lesson for all of us.
How are you all doing? Is there anything I am missing from Medium?
I found this amazing article by the wonderful Jasmine Abriel that can help you if you have also started to procrastinate on your writing goals.
I will try to resume writing on Medium and Substack. Wish me luck.
