{"id":1763,"date":"2021-07-14T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-14T04:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.iimun.in\/blog\/?p=1763"},"modified":"2021-07-13T14:43:12","modified_gmt":"2021-07-13T09:13:12","slug":"the-tired-tirades-of-a-blocked-writer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iimun.in\/blog\/others\/the-tired-tirades-of-a-blocked-writer\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tired Tirades of a Blocked Writer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Merriam Webster<\/em> defines it as \u201ca psychological inhibition that prevents a writer from moving ahead with a piece.\u201d <em>Cambridge<\/em>, in a pleasant surprise, dumbs it down by calling it a \u201ccondition of being unable to create a piece of written work because something in your mind prevents you from doing it.\u201d It is the ridiculously detailed Google Calendar full of unfulfilled promises, and the meticulously anxious handwriting jotting down pending tasks in a picture-perfect notebook that says \u201cplanner\u201d on top in curlicue, as if it is any different than the twenty-something GSM notebooks bought in bulk because they were five bucks a pop, as if the name \u201cplanner\u201d is supposed to magically catapult its master into everlasting productivity, which unceremoniously reveals that I am deep, deep down this rabbit hole that they call the \u2018writers\u2019 block\u2019.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A <em>Psychology Today <\/em>article traces the origins of this dreaded predicament back to the 19th-century poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, known for his work \u2018The Rime of the Ancient Mariner\u2019, written when he was about twenty-five years old. In fact, Coleridge wrote a majority of his most well-known pieces before the age of thirty. After that, he was faced with every writer\u2019s worst nightmare: an inability to produce, or in his one words, \u201can indefinite indescribable terror\u201d. The miserable poet still managed to churn out a great deal of literary criticism in his later years, but in his mind, the scarlet letter on his chest had already proclaimed his disability. The era of the Romantics appropriated (perhaps that is an unfair term, for who are we to say what external forces might put a damper on one\u2019s creative juices?) his illness, as their poetry was not a result of mankind\u2019s intention, but rather a product of an impalpable and enigmatic wind playing at their inked feathers, printing the words if nurture wills it so. This sentiment was soon picked up by the French as well, and perhaps also struck the tragic genius of Arthur Rimbaud, who notoriously stopped writing after entering his twenties.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Perhaps it was a notion not of random poetic whim but a matter of age and maturity that got these great writers to halt their craft. But the fact remains that writers\u2019 block is a very real, very widespread, and yet still, a very invisible phenomenon faced by persons in all walks of life.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many psychologists debunk the psychological origins of writers\u2019 block. It is no disease; perhaps it is more romantic to think of it as one. It is more likely a manifestation of all the hurdles a writer faces in her path. The act of writing, whether fiction or not, requires a great deal of mental expenditure, leading to the common struggle faced by writers in all walks of life. Along with the sheer amount of energy required, writers almost always thrive in an unfortunate predicament composed of fear, self-doubt, and a pressing and unattainable urge for perfectionism. They are most often their own worst critics. It is a distressing combination of comparing their work with others, never believing that their work is the best it can be, and the fear that no future piece of writing can ever be as good as the standard they have held themself up to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is in no one\u2019s best interest to deny the existence of writers\u2019 block, even if it means that a minor hiccup in a writer\u2019s unquestionably long process, or the resultant creative vacuum of my binge-watching weekend, is excused to this invisible pandemic. The intention of this writer is neither to invalidate the struggles of millions of those infected over the centuries, nor to compare hers to Renaissance legend\u2019s, but merely to lay down a historical justification for the affliction that has been haranguing her for quite some time. She only wonders now, how many others like her have found solace in writing about this very indisposition?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Merriam Webster defines it as \u201ca psychological inhibition that prevents a writer from moving ahead with a piece.\u201d Cambridge, in a pleasant surprise, dumbs it down by calling it a \u201ccondition of being unable to create a piece of written work because something in your mind prevents you from doing it.\u201d It is the ridiculously [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":1766,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-others"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/iimun.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/research-writers-block-e1626167383942.jpg?fit=516%2C288&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iimun.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iimun.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iimun.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iimun.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iimun.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1763"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/iimun.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1765,"href":"https:\/\/iimun.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1763\/revisions\/1765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iimun.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iimun.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iimun.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iimun.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1763"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iimun.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}