Overcoming Writer’s Block

I usually have no trouble writing.  I just sit down and let my fingers do the thinking either on a keyword or with a pen in hand.  I love writing.  It is like breathing to me.  It makes possible my thoughts in print.  Only then do they become real and remembered.

This week, I sat down wrote, but what I wrote was too personal for a public blog, so I put that piece of writing aside for another time and space, and I began to think about what I could write about.  I read some.  I looked at magazines, photos, and gazed out the window.  Nothing came to mind.  I realized I was having a mild case of writer’s block. I worried a bit but then remembered that worrying would only make it worse.

I scrolled the Internet for ideas. Nothing. Then, I came across a website about visual frameworks.  I had never heard of them before, so I familiarized myself with the simple black and white stick-figure pictures. They are simple line drawings that represent an idea or concept. Because they are simple representations, they allow the viewer to expand on ideas and find new insights.  I decided to create my own visual framework for writer’s block and then wrote a poem to illustrate the idea.

As I constructed the poem, I wrote six stanzas with six line each.  The format made a six-by-six square or a block poem.  I liked the idea of poem about writer’s block having the dimensions of a real-life cube.

Overcoming Writer’s Block

First things first,
Make myself a cup of tea,
Hot and steaming,
Pour it into my favorite cup,
The one with the heart-shaped handle,
a student gave me long ago.

Then sit down in a sunlight space,
Open my laptop and
set my timer for thirty minutes.
Surely, I can write for thirty minutes,
Thirty minutes shouldn’t be too hard,
Ready, set, go --- write.

Next, I listen for the timer to ding
but keep on writing,
write anything that comes to mind,
make it up, make it wild,
make it sad... funny… sweet –
make it interesting, keep writing.

After the timer goes off,
I sit back and relax.
take a long, slow breath.
I am done for now.
Read my words aloud,
Enjoy what I've accomplished.

Don’t worry, it’s okay if it’s not perfect.
Remind myself writing is a process,
one idea at a time,
one little word followed by another.
Let the words grow and string along
like a wild, rushing river.

In the end, it will take me
skipping along the current,
over the rapids and the rocks
into the wide expanse of the ocean,
on my way to another
brand-new adventure, keep writing.