Terry Pratchett said that there is no such thing as writer’s block. If so, how should we define the moments when it seems that our bucket of ideas is empty? How do we put words where it seems to be nothing but darkness? And moreover, how we decide which words to use when no words seem to be required?
I don’t know if it counts as writer’s block or not, but sometimes writing is hard. And not because there is nothing to say, but because it doesn’t seem important enough to crawl deep into our souls to search for those good words we keep aside for emergency purposes. Who knows when you need that brilliant phrase you don’t even know you have in there?
There are countless written words out there. Countless! Trillions phrases coming from millions writers that can’t wait to make an impact. With such richness in words, nothing seems to be important enough anymore. Everything seems to be written already. Maybe this is writer’s block. Maybe the words already written are so scary to face that nothing can beat that fear.
In my opinion, this can be overcome by emotion. When I think about what makes me scared or what makes me joyful, I can find words to write because I don’t care anymore about what’s already written. I only care about expressing my emotions and when I have this in mind, the words come. They always do. All the words are there, inside ourselves, locked until the right emotional key comes.
Which emotional key unlocks your best words?