The Writer's Craft - How You Know It's Writer's Block

Writer's block happens when it's time to take a break and connect to other parts of your life. You may even consider writer's block as a voice that's speaking to you in the form of a deafening silence.

Engaging in the kind of mental work that goes into writing is a work-out for the brain. After some time, the brain finally starts to shut down. You start doing dumb things, and can't seem to put two and two together. Dumb words show up out of sequence. When you go back to proofread, you may even wonder who wrote the piece you are viewing.

Here are some definite signs that you've got writer's block:

1.) you get to the point where your brain is short-circuiting

2.) you've been wearing the same clothes for a week

3.) you have been pasted to the computer for so long that your eyes are watering

4.) you can't move your legs anymore

5.) you are one step short of the need to strap a feedbag around your neck

6.) you wake up disoriented with keypad shapes imprinted on your forehead

Your discipline efforts may need to go towards removing yourself from the computer.

All joking aside, the idea of forcing writing or any other work of art is ludicrous. The quality of the work will fall short for one thing. If you need to do so many corrections due to awkward word placement, spelling and punctuation mistakes, you are already wasting your time.

When you work and rework a piece, it comes off with a stilted feeling. Then what have you accomplished? What you have is an overworked, stiff, and uninspired product. The writer's block voice won't shut up just because of a few words you've moved around or corrected.

Your whole body is supposed to work in synchronicity. If your sum total of movement takes place in your fingertips, you are not getting circulation to the rest of the body. The brain, being almost an extremity will be one of the first parts to suffer. When the brain sputters out so does the quality of the work. This is a sign that the writer's block voice is trying to get a message through.

More than this, however, the stuff of life that comprises experience outside of the writer's craft is what supplies fodder for ideas. There are the moments spent with kids, or grandkids that have tickled the tender places of your heart. Time spent in a garden wakes up the senses with textures, colors, and scents. Taking a walk, or just looking at clouds going by is the kind of necessary activity that goes into stimulating the brain.

As per recommendations in the 'Dead Poet's Society,' stand on top of the desk. Change your perspective, and then cease the day. Listen to that little voice that that tells you it's time for a break. If you don't listen to your own voice telling you about writer's block, no one else will hear you either.