All writers whether they are keen amateurs, or professionals, sometimes get that despondent feeling that their work is useless, they can't write any more and they have no more ideas. This is writers' block in its most serious form. It isn't easy to get rid of, but it's more common than you might think.

Milder attacks may consist of hunting for hours on end for a particular word. It has to be that exact word to express an idea and the writer knows it exists, but just can't find it. There are millions of other words that almost come up to standard but that special one just refuses to be found. Scrambling through dictionaries and consulting an on-line thesaurus reveals long lists of possibilities but doesn't solve the problem.

Severe sufferers of this condition may even find all kinds of excuses for not doing what they know they love to do more than anything else in the world.

'I just don't have time,' is the usual one and it can sound quite convincing if you tell it to yourself often enough.

So, what can you do to get through writers' block?

First of all it's necessary to get through the 'Poor Me' stage. This isn't as easy as it seems. You build yourself a really solid excuse why you can't write. You convince yourself that you don't want to do it any more because you just don't like doing it. You try to force yourself to write and resent the pressure. Then you start feeling a failure and your self image takes a knock. This gives rise to even more 'Poor me'.

Recovering your 'writing urge' and letting the words flow out again often takes a sudden jolt. This might come after a life changing incident, or even through something less dramatic like the words of a song, a piece of music, or something you see on TV. Whatever it is you will know when it hits you.

When that happens you won't want to wait. You'll be there at your keyboard trying to write as quickly as you can to get it all written down before the flood stops.

All writers get a block every now and then, go with it until something triggers the flow of words again. Writers' Block is just a temporary condition.

Copyright: Louie Jerome 2008

Louie Jerome is a UK writer, editor and publisher.
Writer Soup is a monthly internet magazine for writers and readers.
http://www.writersoup.co.uk