Author: Amita Raj
We are all writers of different sorts and mindsets. We are constantly writing anything from shopping lists, letters, emails, texts to articles, blogs, stories and poems. Putting thoughts and emotions in words is as natural as breathing.
It is when especially in the act of creative writing, when the mind suddenly feels directionless, when meaningful words refuse to flow that we experience writer’s block! The example of my evening walks comes instantly to mind, evoking my dreamy journeys through beautiful scenic lanes, where endless flowering trees await me. Suddenly I face a dreaded dead end, a nowhere place blocking this lush path.
That is exactly what writer’s block feels to me, a dreamless place where no pen, paper or beautiful ambiance will stimulate the flow of words and ideas. The feeling is awful and frustrating! I’ve tried forcing myself to write then through sheer will power, but that fails very badly, and the dead end feels even more resistant than ever! It is obvious to me then that the creative mind won’t budge one step further!
So in my experience, the way to resolve this predicament is through the path of least resistance. Here are a few tools that I have found useful.
The first is taking a break from writing and putting one’s energies on other activities like laundry, cooking, office work or dancing, singing, gardening, or simply enjoying the pleasure of wearing a beautiful sari and sauntering to the local art museum.
Next, listening to calm music and getting adequate sleep is to me invaluable as the mind and body restore themselves.
Meditation also helps relieve anxiety, a state that aggravates writer’s block Also listening to mellow music or watching an entertaining movie are also ways to give the creative mind the respite and recovery it needs.
Finally and surprisingly, reading works by other writers, whether a short story, article or even a news feature has somehow often lit up my own creative fires.
Then suddenly a spark is kindled from within and that lamp of creativity is lit again, illuminating new words the gush like crystalline fountains on to the page!
About the Author
Amita Raj has always loved creating imaginatively rich stories through the melody and colours of language. Her writing talent was sparked off in her childhood at age eight in a classroom assignment where she wrote the autobiography of a pen. Since then, she has been enchanted with writing, also reading and enjoying the works of Rabindranath Tagore, Satyajit Ray, Shakespeare and Edgar Allan Poe. She has been a contributing writer to Deccan Herald, India Currents, Twist&Twain magazine, and of late regularly to Story Scrapers, ArtoonsInn Poetry Parlour and Soul Craft. She looks forward to her ongoing lyrical journey, writing and sharing with the world many more of her short stories, poems and novellas.
