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Coming To Terms with Disorder
How my writers block came & went thanks to Joan Didion’s Inspiration
If anyone would scroll through my previous stories, they might notice gaps in time. I pretended it would just look like I was working on other pieces elsewhere. Although I was doing heaps of “research for future pieces” (the classic writers’ procrastination trick), that was literally not the whole story. The truth was that I had writers’ block. Despite teaching others how to fix their writers’ block, I’d hit one myself.
My first reaction was shame and self-loathing. Writers’ block, pathetic; what a first world problem. I looked for advice from other writers. They said it boiled down to getting a life, obviously not having anything to say, or ‘just writing’ to get over yourself.
Somehow I couldn’t. Or wouldn’t.
To be kind, I was in a period of rediscovering my voice after several big life changes. But who isn’t in this crazy epoch? Besides, aren’t we always and forever rediscovering and developing our voices? Isn’t that why you write? Isn’t that what you should use your writing for? Wouldn’t you use your writing to get clarity about what you think?
I discussed all of this with myself and sometimes on the page (secret diary, morning pages). But it didn’t make a difference.
