Blocked
I’m blocked!
It’s not quite writer’s block but more of a quarantine based block. Instead of having no ideas at all you just have no motivation to put those ideas together in a coherent manner.
Now, I could go the easy route of self-doubt and say that maybe the ideas I have are actually not as good as I thought they were which is why I’m not feeling motivated to create anything from them. Or I could blame my own lazy and procrastinating nature for not pushing myself to write even when I’m not feeling it in the hopes of working through the block.
But I know that neither of those things are true. I’m super excited about some topics I’ve thought up but right now just doesn’t feel like the right time to dive into them. And I’m most definitely lazy and a procrastinator extraordinaire but I’m not going to put out garbage just to prove I can get it done.
I’ve lost my inspiration and motivation to sit and write and I blame it all on this pandemic, which I can do because four months later and IT’S STILL HAPPENING.
I know I’m not alone with the problem, the internet is full of tweets and comics mimicking the same sentiment. And how surprising is it really? We’re spending our energy every day just trying to survive in a world where we can’t pay our bills, we can’t go out with friends, and we can’t trust our fellow citizens to do the right thing (wear a mask/stay home) to help it come to an end sooner.
Last week, I had every intention of putting out a post. I had a topic I was excited about, and might still use in the future, but I hated everything I put out every time I sat down to write it. I can’t tell you how many different versions I started and erased. It was frustrating and exhausting and it prompted me to just call it for the week instead of making myself crazy from writing in circles.
So for this week, I decided to face my motivation issues head on by getting hella meta with this post and laying my struggles out in front of ya’ll with the hopes that by being honest about my current problem this motive block will finally be busted. Kinda like in books and movies when you beat the baddie by confronting it and therefore taking its power away. That works in real life too, right?
I’ve even decided to joined the Illuminate writing community, hosted by the wonderful women who run The Kindred Voice, in an effort to give myself new topics, new inspirations, and new exercises to help me fight the block.
Who’s to say any of my newfound strategies will be the hero I need to get my motivation back on track, but admitting there’s a problem is the first step, right? And actively finding solutions is the next. So even though this pandemic appears to be FAAAAAAR from over and it’s taken so much from us already, I’m determined to not let it steal my creative outlet too!
What do you folks think? Have you been blocked lately? Is the pandemic draining the motivation from you too or do you think that’s just an excuse for laziness? What do you do to find your motivation and inspiration again? Share your suggestions with us in the comments below!