Writer’s block – A Year of Time

First Attempt – mindfulness at Dr Neil’s Garden.

I haven’t really been on WordPress, which means I have fallen behind on the wonderful blogs I follow – I have missed reading peoples work, thoughts and seeing their creative endeavors. Other peoples creativity is inspiring.

Anyway … tonight I report back to Janet and Shabs on my attempts to counter my writers block. I was tasked to undertake something new. I really struggled with this. I felt like I should do something massive, perhaps bungee jumping or skydiving. But lets face it, those things are not me.

So I started with mindfulness. Again something that isn’t me. Like many people I have a racing mind and I struggle just to be. So I set off to Dr Neil’s Garden which is close to my house and is often pretty quiet. I found myself a bench with a view over Duddingston Loch, put a ten minute timer on my phone then hid in my bag.

It was a drab day, but the view made up for that. It took me a while to settle, but I did in the end. Its such a peaceful spot, not even ruined by the hum of cars in the distance. I loved watching a heron flying past (I associate herons with my dad) and I enjoyed the wren who was hopping around. When my timer went off I was surprised by how quickly the ten minutes had gone by.

I headed home, made a cup of tea and actually cracked on with some writing, adding another couple of thousand words to a longer piece I have on the go.

So mindfulness gets a thumbs up from me, though I think in reality I would struggle to do this regularly … especially with the colder months setting in. But who knows!

Next I allowed myself to do what I wanted … not to force myself to sit at the desk, but to just go with my mood. This was a far less successful strategy and it turned out to be expensive. On the plus side I made a cute ghost, got lots of lovely new books to read, finally had tasty food from Toast & Tea at 63 Holyrood Road **total yum alert** and I got a betta fish. I loved setting up his tank, filling it with plants and I’ve always wanted one, so Wren joined the family. For the sake of my bank account … this is not the go to strategy for me, I have little self control.

My third attempt was by far the most successful. This week the Scottish weather decided to give us all a break from the endless grey! So I abandoned my desk and just enjoyed some much needed vitamin D. Running has always been a great way for me to overcome a writing hurdle, it clears my mind. Walking also works wonders, with and without my dogs. I took them out into the woods and fields near us, we sat in the meadow just enjoying the sunshine. Then I went walking without them, wandering through the Edinburgh Old Town, before sitting at the parliament and listening to music. It was blissful. I felt much better in myself just for taking some downtime, I came back to my writing in a much better state of mind.

I can’t say I definitively found a method to cure my writers block. However I think just taking a break from berating myself about my lack of creativity, allowing myself to enjoy simple things like the sun and being less harsh on myself helped. I am keen to find out how Janet and Shabs fared!!

Distraction jumped to her feet and Can’t Get in the Zone followed her lead. They paced the room, poking in draws, and flicking through books on the shelves. Great Idea grumped, annoyed that they were once again dominating. Inner Critic rolled her eyes and got up to join them, she was pretty sure Great Idea had floundered again.

‘Ignore them,’ Inspiration urged. She was sat in the corner, surrounded by notebooks, postcards, and magazine clippings. Distraction drifted over to join her; they had a natural chemistry but were a bad influence on each other. Within minutes Inspiration had her phone out and was spiraling down a black hole with Distraction.

Research started to get angsty, she and Inspiration had been going steady lately, but she knew Distraction was a threat to their budding relationship. Rightly threatened she marched across the room, and tapped Diligence on the shoulder, ‘Have you seen what those two are up to?’

‘Again,’ Diligence groaned and hurried to break the pair up. Research smiled smugly and went to sit with Creativity, who was doing a plot puzzle. Research immediately found a missing link.

‘We’ve been here for ages,’ Stuck in the Middle moaned. She felt trapped and she sensed that they were going nowhere, she was anxious.

‘Yeah, I don’t think Productivity is coming back,’ Inner Critic gloated.

The room fell silent, and a creeping sense of panic settled on everyone.

Distraction abandoned Inspiration and started to make the bed. She pulled the covers back and there was Fear of Exposure, curled up in a ball. Fear of Exposure grabbed at the blankets and tried to bury herself again, but Diligence pounced and wrestled her out of her hiding place.

Forced into the open Fear of Exposure scuttled across the room to join Perfectionism. Immediately they set about reworking the rooms latest short story. Inner Critic rushed to join them she had a lot to say about that piece and wanted to make sure her opinions were heard.

Can’t Get in the Zone headed to the record collection, maybe the right music would help. Distraction and Inspiration joined her and before Productivity and Diligence could get a handle on things the tunes were pumping.

Tag: Writer’s block

Experiments in Writers Block Techniques Part 2

The Writers Room