Writer’s Block

I’m sure that you have felt it before- that sudden, sickening feeling in your stomach as if your mind has gone completely blank, and you cannot think of a thing to write. I hate that feeling, and I’m sure you do too- we call that “Writer’s Block”.

When the ideas stop short, and your mind comes to a dead end, fear not! There are ways to get back on track.

First of all, try not to think of anything. This may seem dumb, but when you consciously try not to think of anything, you think of something. Its like telling someone not to think of a purple horse.

See?

If that doesn’t work (it usually does), look up “Emily Dickinson”. Read three poems, and then imagine that you had written them. What would you write next? Don’t write it. Write the antithesis of whatever you were just thinking about writing, and then take that, and translate it into something presentable.

If THAT doesn’t work, this will. I guarantee it.

What does the word Euphuism mean? It is basically an Elizabethan era style of writing, which is really confusing; here is an exerpt, from the Anatomy of Wit:

It is virtue, yea virtue, gentlemen, that maketh gentlemen; that maketh the poor rich, the base-born noble, the subject a sovereign, the deformed beautiful, the sick whole, the weak strong, the most miserable most happy. There are two principal and peculiar gifts in the nature of man, knowledge and reason; the one commandeth, and the other obeyeth: these things neither the whirling wheel of fortune can change, neither the deceitful cavillings of worldlings separate, neither sickness abate, neither age abolish.

Stand up right now, and say those words in an obnoxious English accent, and pretend that you are wearing a top hat and use one finger as a mustache (even if you already have a mustache- and yes, even if you are female). March around the room, and act it out. Twice. (Unless you are in a crowded library, then I wouldn’t reccomend doing that.)

Your mind will be racing because of the stimulus you just gave it. Tada! No more writer’s block!

-Savannah Cash