I went through something of a writers‘ block a couple of months ago and it was the first time that it has ever really happened to me. I’ve had days where I couldn’t quite fire up the brain, but generally speaking I would always just write nonsense until things were once again working well. This recent bout however proved to be a nightmare and it took me a good couple of weeks to get out of the funk.
What eventually brought me out of the block was actually a misunderstanding with a friend of mine, one of life’s beautifully serendipitous moments, about having room to write.
Physical
What my friend was referring to when she told me that I needed room to write was to create a room in the house which I could then use to get some space, get away from the rest of the home and have some place in which I could sit, relax and get through my word count. Unfortunately however, this was not exactly how I took it, but once my friend and I had finished laughing at the misunderstanding, I did create that room, and it has brought me so much more inspiration.
Spiritual
Now what I took my friend’s comments to mean were to create some room in my head, and in my life, to get the freedom which I needed in order to be creative. I ran with this fr a couple of days and this idea of mental space was something which really made sense to me. I remember an old manager I once had who spoke about the mind being like a goldfish bowl, and the more rocks that you put in it the less likely you were to have water, and eventually a fish. The key is to slowly deal with those rocks by passing them off to someone else, or solving the issue. I considered that fish to be my creativity and began ‘removing rocks’ such as small stresses, responsibilities and things which I perceived to be preventing me from writing well.
My friend set me straight just under a week after the comment, and it was then that it really dawned on me the true benefit of clearing the mind and having this personal, physical space which I could use for my writing work. The result of this miscommunication has not only been that I was able to cure that pesky writer’s block and get into my groove, but having this additional physical and emotional space, has greatly helped me to broaden my horizons and I would actually go as far to say that it has made me a much better writer.
Whether you have writer’s block or not, I would wholeheartedly recommend that you look to create a room, and some room, to allow your creativity to flow.
