Is Writers Block A Figment Of Your Imagination?

I don’t know whether what I’m experiencing is a block. I only realised it when I wrote the title to this post.

I gave it that name, but is it really what I think it is?

Enough of this!

If you’ll excuse me, I am going to give myself – and perhaps you, the reader and fellow creative person – a pep talk.

I’m disproving it right now.

I’m writing now so there is no hard evidence of a block. Not in general terms, anyway.

I am only blocked with the thing I really want to write at this very moment. Perhaps what I desire is too great.

Maybe I’m just trying too hard.

I have sketched out most of the next book I’m working on, but I’m kind of stuck.

In the beginning it was fun.

I was just wildly typing away without a care in the world. Now I feel like I’ve typed myself into a corner. I don’t know what comes next. Or perhaps I’m worried that what I think should come next, will not be right.

It’s a hole I have to climb out of.

The term for this manner of writing is called being a “pantser”. Or in other words, writing by the seat of your pants.

It’s a risky strategy.

The risk is if you go in without a plan, and get stranded, then you will have nowhere to turn.

I have invented everything which has happened in the story up to now.

I wasn’t concerned about what I was saying then, so why should I now? Things keep changing in the story anyway. That’s actually the joy of writing – making new discoveries as you go.

In the beginning I had heaps of ideas. I was creating a world, a fabulous fantasy-world drawn from my imagination.

Now I am going against the rules of that world. Rules which I created.

Maybe that’s the problem, I have hemmed myself in. The world is my creation, so I can break it. I can change my invented world. It doesn’t have to be static.

Standing still is not good anyway.

There has to be some form of momentum. The story has to keep moving forward.

It’s pure fear. That is the blocking mechanism. Resistance rearing it’s ugly head once again.

You, the creator, are in control. Never forget that.

I am just reminding myself. I am also reminding you – the reader and fellow creative.

Are you reading this? Good.

Go on. Forge ahead.

Don’t stop until you’re finished. Keep at it.

Break it if you must. You can always repair it later.

There is no one judging you except yourself. Tell the judge to shut up. There is no contempt of court in the writers world.

Let your fictitious world swallow you up and just go with it.

Write the goddam next scene!!

Just like your invention on the page, writers block is also a figment of your imagination.