WHEN THE WORDS STOP

(With a nod of gratitude to Writer’s Row on YouTube for making me think)

Does Writer’s Block exist?

You’ll get more argument over this topic than I expected, especially among the writer’s community online. You’ll hear that it’s very, very real, and then you’ll hear that it doesn’t exist. It’s just fear. It’s just lack of self-confidence.

Every theory, every definition, is right.

I went eight years without writing a word save for what my teachers assigned (and what I turned in to them was bad — very bad.) Was I afraid? Yes. Did I suffer from a lack of self-confidence? I still do.

What the naysayers are missing is this — the words stop coming. People going through it sit down to write, and nothing happens. Yes, it’s fear. Yes, it’s low self-esteem. Yes, it’s lack of self-confidence. But when you’re locked in it, when the words won’t come. We call it “Writer’s Block” because we can’t think of anything else.

It’s real, friends and neighbors. If you hear a writer say they’re suffering from writer’s block, don’t blow them off and say it doesn’t exist, that they can just sit down and write and it’ll be all better. Talk to them. Listen to them. Eventually, what’s stopping them from writing will come out. And the block will fall.

Thank you for indulging in one of my rant posts. There will be more.