Monday, September 6, 2010

Writer’s Block?

I’ve been saying that I’m suffering from writer’s block for something close to 8 years now. That’s because I cannot write a decent story anymore! And that is because I used to be a helluva writer back in the old days. The old days of course are when I was in prep school, which means when I was between the ages of 11 and 14 (I’m stretching it a bit). That just sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? I mean how can I say I was a better writer when I was a child than now when I am a full blow adult! Doesn’t make any sense whatsoever… except it does in a very silly kind of way.


It’s all in your head, and because I have become an adult, my head isn’t quite what it used to be. My head is now filled with issues of money and family and responsibility and friends and problems and work and jumping out the window and all that. They are issues that adults deal with every single day. Mind you just because I am an adult does not mean I am mature by any means (although I very well can be just choose not to because life is too short and fun is so little as it is, so why kill the simple pleasures of immaturity?!), but the case here is that my mind –as is yours I’m sure –is filled with so many things that are draining the life out of me; worse yet, they are draining the imagination out of me, although to be perfectly honest, I have been told to have quite the macabre imagination so maybe I should start writing horror stories for children :)

Anyway my point is, as a kid, especially at the tender age of 11 to 14 (why tender? NO idea!) I had the chance to explore life, see it as something new and different, understand it from different perspectives, and escape it with all those stories we used to study in Ms. Ola’s class about King Lear and Shylock and Oliver Twist and the other sad kids from Dickens’s work. We had different views and different worlds. We hadn’t seen it all, we actually hadn’t seen it AT ALL! So wasn’t it easy to imagine a character that travels through time or has a pet dinosaur?! Wasn’t it easy to try to understand how a man like Sydney Carton could give so much yet Lucy still loved Charles Darnay who was quite useless?! At that time, when we were told to write a story on the fly, it was easy and fun and there was no such thing as writer’s block because there was no limit to the imagination, but now when one is so busy with work and life, it is almost impossible.

It is also worth noting that, after reading the quotes of many of the writers I admire like Oscar Wilde for example, you find them carefree, childish, with a bit of innocence that has not been lost. Or they could be sad and lonely and suicidal with so many ideas going through their heads that it is only normal for them to write such complex and sad stories to release some of the tension.

The question is, how do we get that imagination back? How do we stop getting bored of life and its monotony and get back to admiring everything around us? How do we move from the “been there, done that” state to the “the world is so mysterious” state? My answer: I wish I knew. These days, for me to get inspired I have to talk to so many different people about so many different things that I am not used to. I have to read a lot of books and short stories and articles. I have to listen to so many different types of music. And I have to go on one helluva sugar rush in order to write something decent. But it was never so hard so I guess I’m not doing it right.

Anyway, if anyone has a secret formula like an ant’s foot with the oil of a lotus flower please pass it on; I’m desperate!




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2 comments:

  1. Hey, nice one but i beg to differ; I beleive it's not because of life & all its pressures to that we lose our sense of imagination.
    It's because as we get older we "learn" what is possible & what isn't (according to what people call normal, but that's another story:D). We learn that unbeatable habit of needing to fit everything in a logical box that makes sense. E.g.: we "know" that there is no such thing as say a pink & blue stripped mango so accordingly we deduce that it's not feasible and won't exist and thus we stop ourselves from going down the track of what could happen if there really is such a fruit.
    We implicitly decide that what we are taught is not going to change and if the expert says so then it must be so. We forget Galileo and his like when they contradicted the world.
    I had once stumbled upon this quote by a guy called Yanni (don't ask me who he is coz i don't know, just bing! him): "I believed that anything was possible, or at least because I didn't put together everyone else's 'facts' and believe that winning was impossible."

    Hope that's enough to get ur creative juices flowing :)

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  2. i agree with you completely. but when the moment you close your eyes and try to dream and immediately think about something that is making you maybe a little unhappy, then maybe life gets in the way a little too much:)
    I'm glad you read it ya Hoda :)

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