Plenty of (Blank) Paper

   

Writer's block is a terrible thing. It can be so stressful staring at a blank page, feeling the urge to write, yet unable to find the words to put down. It's as though no matter what you do, you can't come up with anything satisfying to say. Anything you think of sounds silly and you're embarrassed to see it on your screen (or in your notebook.) Or worse yet, you just draw a total blank.

   I wish I could give you an answer as to how to deal with writer's block, but the truth is, I'm not so sure how to deal with it myself. Because dealing with writer's block is often a little depressing, and when I'm down in the dumps, I don't feel like doing anything. But I guess together we can explore a few possibilities as to how to deal with this dreaded plague.

   I suppose one possible way is to just write something, even if it seems silly and pointless. Maybe typing out lyrics to a favorite song can help inspire a new project. Or sometimes just writing about the weather or something that's on your mind could help. One such example would be:

   "Last night I dreamt about the goats my grandma used to have. One was a brown Nubin goat named Ginger and the other was a white Pygmy named Cheerio. Cheerio was a little stand-offish and shy, but Ginger was always a very friendly goat. In my dream I had to feed them and while I was pouring their food in their bowls, they ran out of their pen. They were climbing on all of my grandpa's old, rusty cars, baying, happy to run around free. I tried to usher them back into their pen where their food was, yet each time I'd reach them, they ran away. The dream came out of nowhere; it's been seven months since the goats went to a new home. I guess I've just been missing the goats lately. I hope they're happy with their new owners."

   So I just wrote about a dream I had last night. It wasn't an insightful dream, there wasn't some enlightening vision that helped me unlock a door in my future, leading to ultimate success. It was just a dream, but I wrote it out. And it feels good to write something, because even though at times it can be stressful because of writer's block, I find writing to generally be a very calming thing for me. It's probably one of the only times I can focus on something completely, blocking out the worries of the day, and I actually feel myself relax, my body less tense.

   I still don't know which of my current projects is going to be my next published work. But I know that eventually I'll figure it out. In the meantime, I can just work here and there on some of the top contenders as well as blog posts, and just write something fun and pointless when all else fails. Who knows, maybe I'll write a book about growing up with goats. It would probably be a pretty fun book to write.

   So there's one way to deal with writer's block. If you have any ideas on how to work this stuff out, please, let us know in the comments. We're all dying to know!

-Miranda Atchley