Not Blocked but Bothered

Juggling multiple projects can be "blocking"

When it comes to writing, I am never out of ideas and never far from the urge to write. I don’t get “writer’s block” because the anxiety that drives people into blockages is actually my muse. Instead, I get stalled when I’m bothered.

It’s not just for writers

Writer’s block, or "artist’s block” as it may more broadly be known, is simply when the drive to produce one’s art is greater than the effort involved.

Google Bard had a nice little report:

According to writing expert Mike Rose, writer's block is the inability to start or continue writing for reasons other than a lack of basic skill or commitment. 

According to Psychology Today, the main causes of writer's block are physiological, such as stress, intense emotions, or illness. 

Writer's block is not a diagnosable mental health condition, but it can be connected to symptoms of common conditions such as anxiety.

There are a lot of people out there who talk about how it is rooted in self-doubt, and I’m sure that is the case for a lot of people. But not me. I am in that wonderful age of “I don’t give a puck” and if my writing sucks, so be it. I’ll be proud to have my words on the page, while [you, judgy other] have none.

Written words can always be fixed. Unwritten words are just ideas, and ideas can’t be published.

So what do I mean by “bothered?”

I don’t really ever stop. I am just faced with choices. Right now, I can write this newsletter, or I can write the next chapter (or any chapter) in my novel, or I can work on my second non-fiction reference book (which is outlined).

I am bothered (frozen, stuck, demotivated, etc.) about which one to do RIGHT NOW.

The choices are endless, but the anxiety of where to start is real. I read a book for 3 hours today instead of sitting down at my computer to write because I don’t know which thing to tackle…

…and as the time ticks away, I realize how much time I’m wasting by not starting something.

The neuro-divergent way

First, let me just say that, as a neuro-divergent brain, I struggle with choice. What’s for dinner? Don’t care, just put food out. Which book to read? Don’t care, just open one. Choose from a menu? I’ll probably just choose whatever I had last time to avoid the overwhelming struggle of making a choice from so many options.

I can manage 50 simultaneous projects at lightning speed and get them all done on time—after I overcome the overwhelming feeling of having to start any of them.

So what do i do?

Everyone will have their own methods of getting out of writer’s block (or writer’s bother). Some people struggle because they can’t get the right words out. Some struggle because they don’t have anything to say. And so on. What an artist chooses to do is highly personal, so I can’t even say any of my methods would work for someone else.

• I procrastinate. Here I am, writing this newsletter article.

• I find something else to do. Wait, that’s the same as above.

• I just write. Yes, I just write. Anything. Good or bad. Related to my story or not. Don’t care. Just write.

• I might start a scene and not like where it’s going, so I just throw something random and stupid and painful in there and see how the characters deal with it. I learn a lot about my characters and how they will respond to other things that way. And rarely are those scenes wasted—sometimes they end up in other stories or elsewhere in the same story.

• Research, as a type of procrastinating.

Maybe that’s not helpful, but the key is to just keep writing.

And just like that, after writing this newsletter, I am ready to tackle one of my projects! All I needed was this warm-up, and somehow the choice was made for me.

Keep writing!

May all your stories come to life in books or art.

Cheers!
~ Ingrid