Do you have Writers Block or Life Block?
65I actually had something else in mind today, but I began my morning by reading a humorous piece one of my fellow writers had posted recently. It's by Mark Ewbie and is titled "What should I write about today?". You should go read it now if you'd like to lighten up a bit. I'll wait here.
Oh, you are back? Good. The author of that had his tongue firmly wedged in his cheek, but he was also expressing a real fear that is common to many writers. It's what's called "Writers block" by many, or "lack of inspiration". For those writers who like to keep some regularity of output, it's the panicky voice inside crying "What am I going to write about TODAY?"
There have been many, many articles written about that little voice. I've done so myself at my "How to Write Unique Content or at least stop worrying about it so much and conquer Writer's Block forever", but today I want to approach it from a slightly different angle.
"I didn’t actually do anything useful today"
If you did read Mark's piece, you might remember that little phrase. It was part of his humorous rant about ironing a dog and other things.
His point, in case you haven't gone there just yet, is that while some people seem to be chock full of interesting ideas, the mundane world that most of us live in is too dull to provide much inspiration.
This is something I hear frequently and some people seem to really struggle with it. Where can you find inspiration while ironing shirts?
A typical bit of advice is to go out and learn about something new. Go research a subject you know nothing about and write about that. I've said before that this method can produce really interesting results. Your fresh view of the subject matter can highlight things a jaded expert might ignore and detailing your confusions and mistaken impressions while they are still fresh in your mind can be very valuable to another seeker of knowledge. It's good advice.
However, there is something lurking beneath that I forgot to mention. It was Mark's "I didn’t actually do anything useful today" comment that reminded me of it.
Why didn't you?
Why didn't you do anything useful today?
Did that question annoy you? It should, because unless you spent today lying on the couch groaning about your writer's block, you almost certainly did do some useful things today and if you did not today, you will tomorrow. You'll iron or clean or prepare a meal or do whatever else you do as you make your way through your allotted three score and ten.
Of course you did useful things. What you really meant is "I didn’t actually do anything today that was interesting enough to write about". That's the problem. You did a bunch of typical crap and there's nothing to write about there, is there?
That may indeed be true sometimes. Our lives are filled with a lot of trivia. Few of us spend our days exploring the wilds of Borneo or engaged in high level meetings with the movers and shakers of the world.
However, if it's true that your life is dull most or all of the time, you don't have a writing problem: you have a living problem. You are wasting away your life not doing anything interesting and honestly, that's a lot more serious than any "writers block".
Life is now
Life isn't someday. Living isn't something to do someday, if and when you have enough money to retire. Life is what you are doing right now and if you aren't doing something to make it interesting, you have a serious problem.
If your life isn't interesting to you, then why are you living it that way?
Stop. It's all too easy to blow that off. You have a job, you have responsibilities, you have no time to be "exciting". That all may be true, but this is such an important question that I can't let you skate away from it that easily.
If your life isn't interesting to you, then why are you living it that way?
There. Does it help to see it in bold? Are you thinking about it now?
It's your life
I'm not going to presume to tell you how to make your life interesting. I'm only going to tell you that it is important that you do so. No, not because of "writers block", but because otherwise you will open your eyes someday and find some wizened old creature staring back from the mirror and a different question will pop into your head. This is one you'll want to have a really good answer for, so you need to get working on it now. The question?
"Where the hell did it all go?"
Yeah, THAT question. Get ready to answer that question and you'll never have to worry about writers block again.
Note that I'm not promising you success. You may still be a lousy writer and be boring everyone else right out of their chairs to the point of cringing on the floor whimpering "Please don't make me read any more!". That's always possible. But you'll be interesting to yourself, and unless and until that is true, you really have no hope of being interesting to anyone else.
Go start being interesting. Interesting to your own self. NOW!
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Well, heck, Mark: you are already interesting! Why do you think I keep reading your stuff?
Remember too, that just because something seems ridiculously boring doesn't mean it can't be made interesting. That's what writers do. My best performing hub is about a trip to a grocery store. It gets almost no google traffic, but when it is found it is almost always shared and reshared on facebook.
My rambling point is it's not always the amount of excitement you have in your life, sometimes it's the way you see the mundane with fresh eyes (and voice)
Great inspirational post. I have found that you don't really have to do anything different to have life be interesting. Sometimes a different point of view is simply enough. I walk the dog usually in the same place at the same time every day. It's a boring place, a field with a track around it, but the place looks different each day. When I take my camera, I am amazed that I can find something fresh to photograph every single walk.
Um. I spent my life in a lot of places and doing a lot of things. Only I didn't notice because I was so worried about what to do tomorrow... :)
Now there's a good hub. When tomorrow robs you of today...
I don't suffer from Writer's Block or Life Block, but that's me. I consider myself an interesting person, and people are always trying to figure me out. But it depends on the person. Attitude is everything. Too many times, people try too hard. As a writer, you have to figure out what makes you different and go from there. I've always wanted to know what makes an individual "tick". Also, when you write, you've got to know how to approach a subject from a different slant or POV. It's like trying to tell someone what you do with a sheet of BOUNCE. It's not just for the dryer, you know.
Right you are, folks: the mundane CAN be interesting. You make of it whatever you want, but if it isn't interesting to YOU, you have a problem.
I will NOT have a PROBLEM if you will be lining my Paypal account because of my writing.
Ahh, Arlene, but that is beyond my powers. I can't tell you how to make money. I can't even tell you how you will best answer that old face in the mirror. I can only tell you that you had better have a good answer.
Hahahaha. You're killing me, on a Sunday morning, Pcunix! Being retired, I've had more fun chasing the writing than I did when I was paid for it as a job. You've gotta love writing--you know that. I don't have problems with the chase. I get my freelance assignments and go with the it. That's all you can do. Let me tell you, I've written about some boring places in the United States that I've never been to. But you still have to dig until you come up with something. Mundane is nothing. As an online writer, you can easily be replaced if you don't produce. THINK of SOMETHING. QUICK!!!
Yes, you have to love it. If you don't, well, what's the point? Your answer to the mirror becomes "It went because I was doing things I didn't like to do". That should make the face in the mirror give you a raspberry!
Excellent point...I do love my life (except for the challenging and mundane parts...like bills to be paid and dishes to wash and discomfort to overcome) but every once in awhile slip into a rut.
The real 'block' I hit is in trying to put an interesting spin on things so others might be interested in what I have to say. :P
We all have ruts. It's the canyons we need to worry about. The ones so deep and long that they blot out the sun and we have no idea where we are going. Ruts don't matter much.
Let's say it one more time because it really is important. Everybody look at me and we'll say it together so that the ones who were not listening can hear it:
"If your life isn't interesting to you, then why are you living it that way?"
Uh, o-k-a-y. This is where I say, "Pscunix, I have dishes to put in the dishwasher, laundry to put away, and poop patrol." I do believe you have brought up a lot of good points, here. But that was for me in the past, when I couldn't write while I was working full-time. I do admire those who hold day jobs and still find time to write. I have workaholic tendencies, so the job always came first. Let me leave you with a vote up and everything else. Yes, I am being a big chicken on this one. A big, California chicken who doesn't suffer from any blocks relating to writing. Is that your drawing? Has Mark started a new trend where we'll all going to draw to illustrate our Hubs? If so, I'm in trouble.
Yes, but I was doing my scribbles before I noticed Mark's, so there!
I just loaded my dishwasher too. And as soon as the sheets come out of the drier, I have to make the bed.
That's what I call exciting! Ha!
Beautiful! I agree that living life -- a creative, challenging, passionate life is the key to idea generation. I have NEVER had an idea for a blog post or article while reading online. Really. (Okay, maybe rarely, but I can't think of an example, so it feels like never.) On the other hand, my best writing ideas come from real things in my life -- questions I have, things I've made, or problems I've solved.
I was checking Latest Hubs of Hubbers I Follow, looking for interesting reading and I saw and was attracted to yours but was drawn to Mark's to read first. Then I came back to yours. Maybe it's because he's less intimidating. Anyway - it was a good choice of reading order.
YES! If one isn't LIVING in the now, there is not much hope for anything interesting to happen or to inspire one to write or even to feel inspiration to get up and get started. Maybe routine substitutes and fills the time somewhat; but how sad if that's "all there is".
You mention an "allotted 3 score and ten" . Feb. 2nd will mark my completion of four score and I'm here to say that I've never been bored in any of them, though there have been trying and there have been relatively solitary times. It's in the now that one finds the interesting details or grand schemes, the beauty and challenge, as you say. If you don't find it here, you won't find it anywhere. Like Harrison Ford said in "7 Days and 7 Nights" - "If you don't bring it with you, (to the idyllic tropical island) you're not going to find it here."
During a particularly trying time of my life, I took inspiration from "The Birdman of Alcatraz" who kept his mind alive & active and found interest and challenge in prison in the form of a bird who visited the sill of his cell. He was able to study and became a leading authority on birds. There is always something really exciting and interesting in one's day if one is alert and aware, responsive & INTERESTED. If one is not interestED, one will not be interestING. I found beauty and inspiration in the way a mud puddle froze into conchoidial patterns and wrote a poem about it.
As you say - maybe it will be mostly interesting to oneself, but that is the one person with whom one is stuck for the duration and whom needs to be kept interested.
Ugh. Should be, "who needs to be. . ." Silly me.
Oh, I am so sorry that you see me as intimidating :-(. I certainly don't want to intimidate anyone as nice as you..
I love " If one is not interestED, one will not be interestING. "
By the way, Nellieanna: all the BEST people were born in February :-)
Hiya Pcunix, my life is very interesting.. thank you very much... well, in my opinion anyway. I'm a strange creature in that I find a lot of things interesting and, most of the time, exciting.
I'm definitely with you in "If your life isn't interesting to you, then why (da heck) are you living it that way?"
I wrote almost everyday during my first few months here on Hubpages, but have lost motivation. Maybe it's writers block. Nah, I'm not really a writer. :D But I'm pretty sure it's not life block. I'm having a great time doing nothing. Cheers!
Have a nice day,
Rosie
Aha! When is your February birthday? (smile) I'm aware there are many great February folks. My beloved George was Feb. 13th, for one. There are other well known ones, too.
Thank you for that encouragement! I won't be intimidated any more. I really don't intimidate easily though I used to, I suppose. But some folks who are so very 'together' can be a little bit intimidating. If I like them, though -- and I like you -- I just charge ahead, usually. And it may disperse the sense of intimidation. That's why I came here today.
Thank you.
I never tell my true day because that is an identifier used at Social Security and at my bank.
So we will pretend it is Feb 1 - but it isn't :-)
OK, understood. And close enough to put you in good company without losing any vital info!
@Rosie2010:
I have read a few of your hubs and you come across as a wonderful, truly delightful person. Whatever you are doing, I know you spread joy wherever you pass.
You're asking excellent questions, Pcunix. I'm doing my best to make sure I enjoy every minute (well, aside from the laundry and housecleaning) of my precious, unrepeatable life. Fortunately, I'm easily entertained.
Well this truly is useful...just as I voted it. I've also never once left a Mark Ewbie hub disappointed for having spent some time there.
I think humour is very important in keeping a healthy state of mind...but also is (for me) the feeling of having done something useful on every day. If I've not been useful to me, then I surely hope that I can feel like I've been useful to someone else.
Also, I don't think of having done something "useful to me" as being superior to having done something useful for someone else.
Gosh I certainly do the researching something new thing....it's what I do here nowadays - I research something that I want to know about, and try to create a hubpage in the process of it all.
Lately, it's been on the subject of whatever local creature I've wanted to know about. I can't tell you how pleased I am with the response I've been getting either...but I'll say that it's a lot more of a response than what I was getting when I was just forever writing about something that I already knew.
Maybe the good vibe or feeling that one gets from learning something transfers into the writing and the reader gets some of that too?
I hope so.
Although I do this for the hope of making money and friends, or learning something new (as often happens on hubs such as yours)...I really don't do it for money...as the pure sales driven profit motive things I've done...ain't even fun to re read.
Sounds good to me.
Borneo's not all it's cracked up to be, you know! And, the movers and shakers knock down my doors for meetings every day, but I'm too busy taking care of my husband and my pets and writing and reading about the stuff that has been interesting me for years. :)
This hub was fantastic.
So glad I wasn't able to sleep tonight, or I'd have never stopped in to read it. :D
Thanks to Wesman for sharing this hub. My life is a little boring at this point because my rehearsals and other things I am supposed to be doing keep getting cancelled due to icy weather- I am left with the mundane things. I miss my rehearsals! My cat who is never boring takes up most of my time. I could write about my cat all the time.
I'm sorry you couldn't sleep, Motown2Chitown, but happy to see you whatever the reason.
@FloraBreenRobison I suggest throwing a Dark Lord Party to spice things up :)
Hi pcunix. I am back to let you know that I have included this hub in my favorite hubs this week. Congrats!
Well, thank you!
Funny, and inspirational...I enjoyed reading, and I still have a smile on my face...though with chagrin...yes, I must live my life...what am I doing sitting here?
As one of my inspirational characters said, when I said, I wanted happiness..."you are looking for your Secret Garden"...what is in your secret garden? flowers, but also dirt and bugs. That is life...seek your secret garden. (and then write about it).
Good advice, Enlydia Listener
Just got to you through Millionaire Tips choice!
Perfect timing.
Just coming out of a funk, a real low (sick) state where writing anything has been almost impossible.
I thought I might have been procrastinating on writing a book I came all the way over to the USA to write, but no, I've been sick. (duh!)
It's a dull state to be in emotionally, a hard place to be to try to write...but the good news is that through the very existence of Hub Pages, somehow hanging in here (with a few questions, some Hub reading) and with 'trying' to get out of it, well here we are.
I read your Hub and am encouraged by it to try to be interesting to myself and you guys.
I'll be putting out a Hub today!
Bless, thanks.
It's hard to be anything when sick. Don't push yourself too hard - that can just delay recovery.
I have life block, sort of. I'm writing a lot but don't feel I'm really getting anywhere.
That doesn't sound good. How can we help?
I liked Mark's piece as well. I stopped working on my humor blog because it felt more like work than a way to relax. I write at HP for different reasons, but I'm a big believer that if you can't think of anything to write, you shouldn't have to write anything. If it doesn't come naturally in the moment, you may as well not waste your time. At that moment, it's time to go out and get some more life experiences to write about. And, yes, ironing shirts can result in inspiration for writing. Anything can inspire someone.
Thanks and keep up the good work.
Max.
Yes, ironing can inspire, though not usually for a piece about ironing :)
Mark Ewbie Level 7 Commenter 4 months ago
Thanks for the mention... and the inspiration. DO SOMETHING TODAY - I should stick it on my PC. Seriously, you got me thinking.