I have no idea if and/or how many people might be able to understand how it can happen for a person to have writer’s block when s/he has too much to say. I don’t know what’s meant by the definition of writer’s block when it’s said, “…an author loses the ability to produce new work.”
It’s true I can’t ‘produce’ new work on my blog, but the reason why might not be the same as what’s intended by the meaning of writer’s block.
Normally for those who write and hit a wall stopping them, it’s because they can’t think of new material. Sometimes that’s my reason for not posting. I’m now realizing though that it is not my usual reason, especially when the blocks are my toughest to bust through.
I’m actually in one of my most difficult periods of time to produce new material because I have WAY TOO MUCH new material! In fact, there is so much I’d love to say that I’m too overwhelmed to even record it on my voice recorder! I’ve tried it before when I’m in this condition and what I end up doing almost all the time is deleting it all because it ends up becoming too challenging for my executive functioning abilities. All the new material piles up so fast that I have to find a way to dump it when it looks like there is no end in sight. How’s that for a mess? Plus, when it comes that fast, I cannot retain it all in my memory. I suspect that my mental habit is to dump a lot of the new insights in order to protect myself from going insane by it all.
Here’s how it works:
The more I’m in an receptive mode, the more I’m attracted to things which fuel my thoughts. I have no idea when, where, or how another new insight/revelation will come. It could be from a person, book, video (or audio) production, or experience.¹ The more engrossed I get, the less I’m able to realize how deeply I’m digging myself down under it all. I don’t dare mention any of those things that have collected to captivate my attention because I must get back to them now.
I need what I’m learning from it all, but at the same time I feel frustrated that I can’t share it since it probably would help others like it is helping me. It all feels so selfish, but I doubt it since true selfishness stems from wrong motives.
As Adrian Monk would say, “It’s a blessing and a curse.” Being in a hyper-active mental state sure doesn’t help one to stay on track with other activities that one is committed to accomplishing!
I’m going to try to force myself to focus on writing something significant, but yet as brief as I can think of, after this post so that I can feel like I’m at least capable of that much. Hopefully that will give me some encouragement while I’m in my writer’s block.
¹It must be obvious that when there are too many offline sources of inspiration bubbling on the stove of one’s mind, gravitating to the internet, on top of it all, is asking to be stretched into the snap zone!
