Writer’s Block: A sudden loss of willpower

As a humanities and screenwriting student, I’m currently overwhelmed with a series of writing deadlines. Sometimes a good idea only gets you so far until the inertia kicks in and the inspiration stops flowing. Writer’s block provides a stiff barrier to inspiration and simultaneously sequesters self doubt into the writer. Writer’s block isn’t limited to writing. Any creative act reaches a dull point, a point where the ideas stop flowing and the artist isn’t sure how to proceed. As I am currently battling writer’s block in order to complete my creative assignments for the term, I thought it would be fun to share some thoughts I’ve had about this universal problem, and some strategies and philosophies I have developed to combat it.

To begin, I’d like to quote something a friend recently told me. Writer’s block isn’t a loss of inspiration, rather, it is a loss of willpower. How can you be uninspired when you have a whole lifetime of experiences, and an entire world to engage with? Inspiration is always waiting around the corner, but sometimes, taking those extra steps forward become daunting. So the next question to ask is, what causes us to lose our willpower? And what can we do to get it back?

I think the biggest thing that holds us back from our creative pursuits is fear. Fear of not being good enough. Fear that the words I write on the page are flawed, that whatever I produce will not live up to the literary giants that I inspired me to follow in their footsteps. This fear is paralyzing. It is also, ultimately, quite foolish. No one got it right the first time. Many established authors say they weren’t proud of a draft they produced until the tenth rewrite. What does this tell us? Imperfection should not be feared or avoided, but instead accepted as inevitable. Because only through a wholehearted embrace of the imperfections in our work can we gain clarity, understand the flaws in our vision, and enhance our artistic shortcomings in order to become perfectly, uniquely imperfect.

I believe this mindset is essential to overcoming writer’s block. Knowing that I’m going to mess up takes alleviates the pressure to always be at the top of my game. I don’t wait for inspiration to find me, I find inspiration through uncompromising, persistent work. And I remember that first and foremost, I’m doing this because I enjoy it, not because there’s any pressure to be great. So I write every day for a couple of hours, I have a time of day I like best (for me, it’s either late night or early morning), designated spots to work at (my room, full of inspiring posters), and sometimes, a writing buddy – someone to stop me from packing up early when I feel like quitting early.

On a day when I don’t feel like writing, I trick myself into doing it anyway. I read over something I’ve already written or drawn, planning to revise rather than create. But revising is just another part of the creative process, and this inevitably leads to a couple of hours of work. So, the point is, don’t check out. Don’t give up. And most importantly, don’t be afraid to fail. Everyone fails. Everyone writes something bad. Writing something bad is the first step to writing something good.