Winning over 'The Block'

In my last blog I wrote about my "travel bliss". After that, many of the readers, who happen to be bloggers as well, shared their "writer's block" experiences with me, especially after their very first writing. Every time they talked about the gap or discontinuity in their writing, I assured myself, "I am definitely not going to stop it here. Especially when I got so many encouraging and exhilarating comments (I considered nine to be a good number!)." But somehow, very slowly and mysteriously took birth a small devilish brain who continued hissing in my ears every now and then, "c'mmon! Take a break! Writers have the right to be lazy. How else would you experience the fun of it?” And before I could realize, I had already fallen into the trap of the mighty influence of a notorious monster called ‘writer's block!’

One writer friend of mine once wrote an article on ‘the firsts’. Mentioning, revealing and expressing the different reactions and experiences on her different ‘firsts’ of life. Interestingly, most of the firsts are the most impactful. And when it comes to any creation, the first one has the maximum ingredients! Be it the first blog, the first baked cake, the first show, the first woven sweater, your first clay creature or may be your first film! You tend to put the most in your first creation. And honestly, that’s easy. To create something new is definitely easier. As you don’t have to restrict yourself to any rules or don’t have to bother about ‘touching the benchmarks’. Just an ear to your heart. And that’s what extracts the best of you. You devote your best, receive the best appreciation, encores, applauses, kudos, pats on shoulders…and attain the high of your life! Life seems perfect! But all those highs start fading out soon and that perfect life seems like a mirage. It’s now the sense of responsibility to maintain consistency that begins to scare you. And this is where comes the monster!

Slyly entering into the mind, murmuring in a husky voice it says "You can never become a writer if you don't have such a block, you know! Every great writer has faced this and still does. There is nothing wrong in it…” Even then, if I managed to muster up the spirit and start scratching my head looking for a topic to write, that creepy voice would again pop up, “what’s the hurry? Just take your time! Obviously you cannot force yourself to write something when you don't feel like. You can afford to be lazy; and you can afford to be moody! That's the best part of being a writer..." and so on. Surprisingly, those little green voices turned my laziness into a perfect alibi in no time. Little did I realize, that the examples I was referring to as a support to my laid back attitude, were of those who already are writers…and for them having a block is far more justified than someone like me, who has just begun and needs to first write sufficiently to get a block!

So, after being enough thick skinned to all the sarcastic bombardments by Dev about my lack of inconsistency, impatience and laziness, and also after innumerable self-motivation sessions (I’m glad that I didn’t wait for the New Year Resolution push!), I held the pen for the second time. Not just that, I was determined to come up with something better than the first one as well. Trust me, it took me more than a month to actually ‘start’ it. A few more weeks to zero it down on ‘what to write’. And another couple of months to finally make it a ‘readable scribble’!

Though I’m still not sure about that ‘better than the first one’ statement yet, but honestly, I’m happy. Not just because I have something prepared as a strike back reply to Dev’s sarcasms which would bring a triumphant smile on my face, but also I have known the trick now! And the trick is, I just need to keep on writing to win over that monster. It doesn’t have to be “the most enlightening masterpiece”, neither does it have to be a bloggable material…but anything that crawls out of my brains and flows on the paper through my pen- or rather should I say the keyboard! Doesn’t matter really. What matters is, now I’m ready to go on with it. And I’m again going to prove it in my next blog…very soon….umm…yeah…soon enough!