Writer's Block

There are few things that are more terrifying when you have 1667 words to write that writer's block. That nightmarish feeling when you sit in front of the computer and you have no idea what to write. It's like turning on a faucet and no water comes out. Not because there's no water in the pipes, but because the pipes are clogged. You know exactly what you want to write but somehow the thoughts become lost somewhere between you mind and your fingers.

That's how exactly how I felt earlier today. I decided to get up and do my writing first since I ended up stay up late the past few days finishing it. Now, this weekend is probably the most hectic that I've ever had in a long time. I had a lot of other stuff to do, but I know I wouldn't be able to do anything else if I kept getting bothered about my novel. I was on the verge of panic, so I decided to log on the the NaNoWriMo website to see if I could find a forum thread somewhere about how to cure this writer's block.

As soon as I logged on the site, a video on the right hand side of the page caught my eye. It was a video about novel dares: little different dares that one of the NaNoWriMo staff had come up with to add an extra bit of excitement to it. I had seen if before, but for some reason I decided to watch it again. One of the dares was to change genres every 1667 words. For some reason this stuck with me. I decided to try it. I mean, I had nothing to lose. As a matter of fact, I had nothing at all right then. So I changed switched from my literary fiction genre to science fiction...sort of. Not so much to affect the story, just a weird dream that one of the characters had. And just like that, the words started flowing again. And as they flowed, I began to notice that something was different. The things I was writing were things that I had never planned or thought about. Beautiful things that appear only in those quiet moments of inspiration. I realised that an entirely new world had opened up in front of me.

And if it hadn't been for my writer's block none of that would have happened. There was a time I would have wished that I'd never have writer's block, but that would be stupid thing to wish for. Writer's block was the imagination's way of saying that it had had enough of walking in one direction and that it was time to change gears. Writer's block is probably the best inspiration I've had all week.