I have loved writing since childhood, when my stories consisted of misspelled sentences and adjoining crayon drawn pictures. Were most of my stories slightly if not completely plagiarized versions of my favorite children’s books at the time? Maybe, but I adored those stories and recreating them in a different font came naturally. I was immune to writer’s block if I spent my morning reading the Ramona Quimby series and the afternoon with printer paper and a pack of crayons by my side.
As you get older, you become more self-critical. Writer’s block tends to happen more often because it’s easy to fall into a hole of thinking your writing is horrible. Especially when you write fiction, it can also be simple to slip into a creative rut. The only way I have been able to get out of a fictional writing slump is by writing something else. Although writing other genres can be a great way to grow as a writer, it can be annoying to have to remove yourself from a writing project you want so badly to keep working on.
Some might argue that writer’s block does not exist. How hard is it to sit down and write? Sure, it’s true. Everyone can open a laptop, everyone can grab a pen and a notebook and write something down. Despite this, I still choose to be a type of writer who blames my times of apathy toward my writing with writer’s block. It puts a name to an infuriating experience, and I appreciate that.
Thankfully, writer’s block is not permanent and it typically does not last too long. Sometimes you just have to ramble about a topic for a little while to get yourself into the habit of writing again. Actually, ranting about the enemy itself writer’s block seemed to work out pretty well in my case.