Mental Roadblock

Writer’s block: Anyone who’s tried to knock out a story, or a paper for school, or a proposal for work, or even a diary entry has experienced this phenomenon at one time or another.

I know this foe of old… and it’s been hitting me recently, as well. Hence the lack of updates here recently. Well, that, plus some illness issues… and I’ve been punching deck on another project that I can’t really talk about yet, but should be totally awesome when it comes to light.

Yes, that’s right, Faithful Readers, not even mystery spasm-inducing ailments that the doctor claims is just a slipped C5-C6 disc lovingly brushing against my spinal cord can keep the ideas from flowing.

See, the problem I have with writing isn’t a lack of ideas. I have plenty of ideas bouncing around in my noggin, trust me. It’s getting these ideas out onto paper or pixel that is often the issue, and when it’s not that, it’s a lack of time or motivation. Picture a puzzle where you have to use one of those eraser-stub mouse controls from a laptop to align a circle or square in the middle of a triangle… and make the control scheme’s response so loose as to be sloppy.

That’s what it’s like, sometimes. When I can get all of those factors to lock into place though, it’s a grand thing. I’ll tuck myself in front of the keyboard, or hunker down in the armchair with notebook and pen for a few hours, completely unaware of the passage of time.

So how does one circumvent this roadblock? Well… I imagine it’s different for everyone. I find it’s easiest for me if I remove myself from familiar comforts and distractions. Carting the laptop to a coffee shop or a bookstore frequently works rather well, and if I can’t do that, I slap the headphones on, and go downstairs, away from my gaming computer, and put on some instrumental music, usually suited to the piece I’m working on.

Of course, until we get my dearly beloved’s desktop machine built, she’s kind of got possession of my careworn and heavily-used Powerbook, so I kind of have to use the gaming computer to get any writing work done… which is convenient, I guess. If the well runs dry, I can amuse myself for a few minutes or an hour, then get back to it.

Speaking of getting back to it… back to working for $COMPANY, Wage Monkey! HYAH!