Writer's block and the writer

 Written by Sarah Acham 

Writer's block has become a song in the lips of every writer. It is normal to experience writer's block but don't make it part of your daily life. Try hard to avoid circumstances that lead you to it.

When I had just began writing, I didn't know what it was really about for all I had to do is write down a few pieces of poetry and let my neighbor in class smile; what else would  a 17-year-old do. But soon I started feeling; practically when I started writing plays; apart from coming up with attractive names for my characters, I didn't know what should happen or what they should even say next and so pieces of my books stayed in the case but with tender care; that's probably when the calling to be a librarian began. 

Now let's stop the me , my play manuscript story and point out the causes of writer's block 

1. We don't point out the techniques we are going to use.

Techniques are methods we use for writing a book. Without them it's a whole mess

Every writer must note down the techniques to use. Don't be like the 17-year-old me who wrote her first play without thinking of techniques. Techniques help in creating chapters , and paragraphs and a whole lot. If Joseph is our first person in the book and we are stuck on what he should do next after he has entered his bed, then we should make him dream about being in his favorite bar in town drinking Champagne. Why would we do that? because we earlier on listed dreams as one of our techniques. If another of the techniques is biblical allusion, then we shall say that " The enticing taste of the champagne made Joseph regret why he woke up and yet giving up alcohol was one of his yearly goals. "A little wine is good for your health" he spoke to himself, got up and went to the bar 

2. We don't put ourselves in the shoes of the characters.

 Have you heard one of the writing phrases " you must enter in the book" When you put yourself in the shoes of the characters, you easily come up with scenes because you imagined it was you and at the end you come up with solutions to wat to do next. Most of us don't put ourselves in the shoes of our characters, we just write , write, write about Susan and the pet and end up getting stuck.

3. We are driven by emotions. 

This is an actual reality. So many writers have had a bad past and writing about a topic related to that is just a whole mess. Have you come across someone whose son committed suicide and writing about death is a problem. Every time the person attempts to write down a chapter, tears roll. A reason why manuscripts rot in garages , end up in dustbins

4. Writing at the wrong time. 

When we talk about time being wrong, we have to know that every body has a wrong and  right writing time because brains actually differ. I actually write best around 4a.m or evening hours, that time doesn't work for every one, some people dread it, they prefer afternoon yet afternoons are worse for people like me. I actually switch off at midday. 

When we write at the time when our brains get demand, we end up getting stuck over and over again because our brains can't process the right information

5. We are just demoralized

As writers we are bound to come across so many obstacles in life. Sometimes low book sales are a cause, other times it's lack of encouragement from the people we love and a lot more. Why wouldn't some one whose book didn't sell fail to write the next chapter

6. We edit our work while writing

When you write and edit at the same time before completing, you just jumble it up by all means; because you will be coming up with new beautiful ideas which disorganize the whole plot.

7. We are anxious

Anxiety can be part of writing especially for first time writers who just can't wait to see their book put up on Amazon. At the end of the day being stuck is the daily meal because less thought is given while writing

8. We are mixing writing styles 

Let's do it this way " I wanted to feel the breeze for my life had been a mess over the past years. Mary had really suffered a lot" What do you think about that sentence? Those are two writing styles . There is first person and then second and the whole sentence doesn't really make sense. It makes us believe we are talking about two people yet it's one person. At the end of the day we are stuck 

9. We haven't even done enough research.

This one mainly goes to writers of text books , articles etc. Most subjects need research. By the way I respect text book writers a lot because they use a lot of brain energy. If you don't do research on " the French revolution" you will end up being stuck on the French revolution

10. We are not fine 

Mental health is a key element in writing. Imagine being depressed and you are writing or probably having OCD and you are writing. Do you think you will come up with something good. 

There are a lot of causes of writer's block but those are just a few. Come back again next time so we can identify the solutions to the writer's night mare, writer's block. 

#writer' block