Writers face plenty of challenges when working on their craft. Among those that range from minor to severe, the worst of all is by far writer's block. It can happen for any number of reasons. Sometimes, a writer himself won't know the exact cause. The real issue is lacking the mental capacity to create new work. Those of us who have been dedicated to the written word have all faced it. The ideas suddenly run dry, it's uncertain where to start, or we know what we want to write, but can't. It's a terrible feeling for the serious wordsmith. This is especially true for people whose livelihood is writing.
How do we cure it? The answer is not clear. That's like asking how to cure mental illness or addiction. There is no easy fix. It takes serious thought and determination to change the situation. Getting up after being down is a relieving experience. It shows us that no matter what kind of problems we face, we can get over them.
In many cases, people who think they have writer's block are simply going through a period of laziness. I've been guilty of that so many times that I don't know the count. It comes and goes. Even if I was set for life financially, I doubt I could spend everyday consistently getting out large chunks of writing. Maybe I don't have enough discipline. Besides, there so much to life. We can't keep sitting and typing out work nonstop. Like most good things, it comes in spurts. Plenty of time in between involves being idle and thinking about ideas until they can be transmitted into written words.
Writing is neither easy nor hard. To be good at it means to accept our own faults, put considerable thought into our ideas, and just write without worrying about judgement. That will happen when the completed work is read. During that process of creation, the writer is the master and commander. Writer's block can't be allowed to ruin us.
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