Writer's Block

A Story by Shadow

Just a small piece about writer's block.

Writer’s block. The bane of writers everywhere. It especially loves to prey on those who love writing. One can be flowing with wonderful ideas, writing nonstop on a roll. Then writer’s block slams down in their path, an impeding force blocking any forward movement, forcing the writer to work hard to break it down in order to continue. This force can push writers to such frustration that they pull out their own hair. Goodness knows I’ve come close to that point many times in the past. Yes, writer’s block and I have gotten to know each other pretty well over the years. I know it better than even the equally annoying artist’s block. Writer’s block and I have battled since I was in the second grade, when I first learned the joy of writing. Some of our battles it won, stamping on my dreams and laughing in my face. Other times, I got the last laugh, victoriously crushing it into dust.

I have, unfortunately, lost the fight to writer’s block more than I care to count. Most often is when it comes to one of my life’s goals, to write a novel. Every time I have tried since late Junior High to write one, writer’s block comes stands sturdily in my path, taunting me. And no matter how good the idea is, it decides to stand there, obstructing my path. It stands so firm that I have such difficulty getting around it that I lose interest in the story and no longer want to write it. In those cases it almost always wins. It is a truly formidable foe.

However, for as many times as it has broken me down and defeated me, I have beaten it down and pushed it to the side just as often. And I enjoy rubbing these successes in its face. I can remember two specific cases where I beat it down hard.

In high school, I was in the advanced English classes. On day in the ninth grade, my teacher assigned us all to do two-page, typed, story that included all of the “smiley-face” tricks (techniques to help improve writing, such full circle endings and repetition) she had taught us. I got out of having to type it because I didn’t have access to a computer at the time. Our topics were given to us randomly and I ended up with “The Ten Worst Possible Things That Could Happen On The Way To Work/School”. At first thought it would be easy, as I already had some ideas. Then, not even five minutes later, writer’s block decides that this would be the perfect time to come for a visit and get in the way, before I even had anything more than a list of ideas. For the rest of the class period it would not leave and I didn’t get a single thing done. Luckily for me, it was a Friday, and the paper wasn’t due until Monday. Also luckily, at the end of the day, I had no homework except for that and some math that I could get out of the way quickly. Unluckily, however, writer’s block had decided that it had wanted to stay for the weekend. I could not think of a thing. By Sunday morning I was at my wits end, close to tearing my hair out. Then suddenly I was randomly inspired. I picked up a notebook and began writing for hours, stopping only for brief periods to rest my hand. Multiple times during this period, writer’s block tried to bother me, but I ignored it. By the time I wrote “The End” my right hand was in pain and I couldn’t move it for almost an hour, during which I took a break. Afterwards, I looked through the paper and numbered the pages. What I noticed shocked me (and later my teacher and fellow classmates). The teacher had told us to write two typed pages, and most students were pretty close to that mark. My paper, however, was twenty-two handwritten pages. And it should be noted that at this time, my handwriting was fairly small, so it probably would have been longer if it had been typed. Needless to say, I got a perfect score on the paper and the teacher from that point on gave us a maximum number of pages as well a minimum.

The other case where I beat writer’s block into submission was also, oddly enough, in high school. However, it had nothing to do with my classes. I was in my high school’s writing club, which is a competitive club where a couple of schools meet up at a predetermined location to write essays based on a predetermined topic, with the exception of the poetry competition. The group from each school decides on four papers to write in pen and submit to be judged. All of this occurring within a time limit. During my senior year in high school, all of the competitions were held at my school. Anyway, the week of the second competition, writer’s block figured it would stay for an extended visit. It was beginning to drive me insane. I felt screwed the day of the competition because I couldn’t write anything that wasn’t clearly laid out for me, like short answer questions. When my group entered our room to work on our papers, we read our subject out loud. The subject of our essays was to write about our feelings for a season of our choice. I was immediately inspired, and I grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil and just began to write. Writer’s block began to protest, but I just shoved it roughly out of my way and continued to write my paper. After I had finished, I waited a moment for a couple of others to complete their works. We then went over all of our papers to decide which four we were going to submit. Everyone else had written about their favorite season and what they enjoyed about it. I, however, wrote about winter, the season I hate the most. I wrote about how I hated the arctic cold, the disenchanting howl of the wind, and the demonic waltz of the snowfall. My group was impressed by my different approach to the subject, and mine was one of the ones chosen to be submitted to the judges. At that time I had smugly smirked at writer’s block in my mind. A few weeks later, however, I laughed outright in its face. My school had gotten second place in the competition, and my paper got scores in the high nineties from all of the judges. It was one of my more satisfying victories.

If there is one thing I’ve learned about writer’s block from my many battles with it, it is this: it is one persistent little b*****d. Writer’s block will never give up a fight. If one ever encounters it, they better be willing to fight tooth and nail to get past it, because it will not give easy. However, just like it doesn’t always win, it’s not always useless either. After all, it certainly makes an interesting topic.

Sorry writer’s block, but it looks like I’ve won again.