Writers’ block and grasping the nettle

I guess thousands, millions of words have been written about writers’ block, possibly most of them by the writers who are blocked. It must be the hardest thing, to be a writer but there are no words coming, or even worse to have no ideas coming. Even famous writers have struggled with it, to suddenly have an empty mind, to become voiceless in a way.

Thankfully I have never had a block like that, but I do sometimes feel as if I’m walking barefoot across a very pebbly beach and making little or no progress, and sometimes even stopping altogether just to look at the pebbles, or to turn back and look where I’ve been. I know I do suffer from procrastination – apparently there is such a thing as procrastination, and if it does exist then it does take hold of me every so often. {procrastinating, not by doing nothing, but by doing other things – even horrible things. I know, I won’t tidy my room I’ll clean the bathroom instead‘ – tidying room monster task, cleaning bathroom small task. Sometimes it’s a downward slope. I’ll decide to do a mountain of ironing instead of the mountain of washing up, but then I’ll tidy my sock drawer instead of doing the ironing!

I don’t know the causes of writer’s block,. I don’t know why I put off things which aren’t hard or difficult or even unpleasant; it’s not always a fear of anything, it’s not because I can’t do it, it’s an irrational and acknowledged lack of will – or maybe will-power which overtakes me sometimes. I dither, faff, piddle about, waste time, distract myself with irrelevant tasks.

I know what happens after the dithering, faffing, piddling about – I suddenly grasp the nettle – or the pen or attack the keyboard and make a rush at what I could have done in a more measured and considered way. The end result won’t be as good, and even though others might not know, I do and it’s infuriating! So why do I allow myself to procrastinate? Why don’t I grab a broom and sweep the pebbles off the beach and stride womanfully towards the open sea? I don’t know… I wish I did…

OK, dithering, faffing, piddling about over, I’m about to grasp the nettle and attack the  keyboard!

My featured image is of nettles, below is what you can do with them once grasped: