It is an ailment with no known cure and no one-fits-all treatment. Symptoms include lethargy, loss of motivation, and a lack of creative spark. As far as we know, it is not contagious, the only true positive feature of the condition. If YOU think you have come down with "Writer's Block", contact a fellow writer immediately for moral support and just the right amount of pity.
Ok, writer's block isn't that serious, but it is extremely frustrating, whether you know what's brought it on or not. For me, bouts of "the block" often arise from burnout, discouragement, and sometimes the relentless "hobby rotation" (the best example of this for me is playing the Sims habitually for a month and then not touching it again for a year).
While the cause is fairly predictable for me, fixing it usually proves elusive. In times past, my block has ended somewhat at random, not helpful when it's lasted for months or even years. My most recent block followed my first (and so far only) query attempts back in 2021. Yep, it was a super bad block. Although I went into the querying process with low hopes, I was still very discouraged at receiving generic declines and silence.
In the early days of 2024, I decided it was time to get out of my block and the way I was going to do that was by editing my book again. Some of my most recent rounds of edits had been curtailed by the dauntless activity of scrolling endlessly through a Pages document. It was so frustrating trying to find passages I knew I wanted to change and looking at the whole book as one big chunk was very intimidating. I decided it was time to give writing software a try, and boy am I ever glad that I did.
I had downloaded Papyrus Author in the past, but I was at an unmotivated stage in the writing process and ended up deleting it in order to make space on my computer. I decided to give it another go and it has been an absolute game-changer. I do not subscribe to the full version of the program, but the lite version has all that I need right now, and that is predominantly the ability to easily hop between chapters. My writing club has since pointed out to me that GoogleDocs has this ability as well, but this matters not! I have uncovered the secret to solving this round of writer's block and it feels bloody fantastic.
What's the longest stretch of writer's block that you've experienced? Do you have any methods for breaking free of its chains?
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