As I sit here at my desk, attempting to write as I usually do when doing assignments or articles for my internship and in my spare time, my brain feels foggy and the waterfall of ideas that usually floods my mind has now run dry.
Every little thing, unlike usual, is now becoming a distraction. The number of incoming texts that are visible on my MacBook continues to grow; the things I must do other than write start to pile up in my mind; and I keep picking up my phone to distract myself from the abyss of my ideas. The music and action of Gunsmoke, a show that my dad is currently watching, is swaying me away from my screen, and each time I press the keys of my keyboard, my hands feel heavy. Not even a change of scenery around the house can relieve the constraint that I’m working through.
This feeling is something that I’m sure everyone can relate to—the mental drought that is writer’s block. Who hasn’t felt the exhausting feeling of having nothing left in the tank after metaphorically going 100 miles per hour in everything you do? This isn’t the first time it has ever happened to me.
Who else has gone through stretches where you’ve written about everything you’ve wanted to, yet factors like schoolwork or extracurricular activities require more of you? I know that most of us have been there as well.
While going through writer’s block is a struggle and draining for me now, I’m still comforted in knowing it is temporary. This struggle is fleeting and eventually, ideas will fill my encephalon.
An aspect of life that we fail to realize is that it doesn’t matter how down and out we are in a certain instance because things aren’t over until they’re over.
Writer’s block is in no way, shape or form comparable to more catastrophic events that can occur in one’s life, but it does prove that better is on the horizon if you work through it. I know some of my best ideas have come after I’ve dealt with periods of writer’s block.
Overall, we never know when our next great idea will come. Even though it’s discouraging to feel as if you have nothing you’d like to address, it’s important to be prepared and stay ready for when you do. Even now, I feel like I’m on the cusp of a breakthrough. However, I’m still stumped and there’s always other factors at play when I can’t think of anything important that I want to discuss such as the stresses from school, financial worries, thoughts of the future, relationships and aspects of family life.
One aspect of my mind that is unwavering, no matter the mental block(s) that I’m having, are my analogies. My writer’s block is something that I would best compare to the iconic block that LeBron James made in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals.
I feel like I’m in the shoes of Warriors’ Andre Iguodala attempting to break the 89-89 tie, which represents my mental breakthrough, in Game 7. However, like James in this game, my brain is going up for the rejection that inhibits my creative process. Nonetheless, I hope that I bounce back like the 2017 Golden State Warriors did in the Finals a year after.
