4 min read
Reprogramming my subconscious has never been this easy.
I started writing this article two months ago. Writing about writer’s block gave me writer’s block. Ironic, right?
But that is the nature of the writing game.
Writer’s block sometimes strikes out of nowhere and demands you pay attention to it since, in most cases, the drying up of words is led by a deep psychological fear of being unable to produce many words. Sometimes, the block is more about the plain old simple burnout. Trying to find out what things are not working for you is significant, too.
But I should tell you it never gets easy dealing with the repercussions of writer’s block.
Why Writer’s Block is a PAIN in the behind
When deadlines are looming, and you don’t know how you will get those 1,000 words on paper, especially when you don’t respond well to pressure, it feels like your whole world is crashing down. It was like that for me. And it hit me harder than it probably should have since I have built my entire identity around being a writer.
My email signature proudly boasts of my identity as a writer. It says, ‘I’m a writer. I write.’
But what about those times when I can’t for the life of me or am not feeling up to the mark to write? That’s when the insecurities rear their ugly head and tell me I’m a loser and I cannot get anything done. Or the voices in my head tell me I’m lazy and unproductive.
Still despite everything, I try to stick to my identity because it’s something I have cultivated with a lot of courage, and it has slowly taken shape over the years.
I am proud of being called a writer since it is an identity that I have had to work really hard towards to earn and use as a signifier of my profession in the first place.
Where I come from, people look down on writers. They cannot understand why someone in their right mind would stick to a low-paying job since writing is a profession not picked up by many and is put in a category similar to other low-paying jobs. It is a view accepted by many that writers in my country have a history of not getting paid well and being discarded when media companies finish taking advantage of their skills.
Well, I cannot speak for everyone, but I’ll say most writers succumb to that fate at least once or twice in their careers, where bills keep piling up, and you have no way to pay them.
Whenever I tell my real-life friends, family, and acquaintances that I’m a writer and I’m trying to earn a living through my writing, they look at me like I have grown three heads. There’s something very dismissive about their tone when they speak to me about the ins and outs of my profession. Some people would go as far as not to acknowledge something paramount to what makes me me and that it is such a big part of my personality and identity.
Why I Couldn’t Write Anymore
It has always felt like I have worked too hard to be a writer, and I have done it for so long that it should have come easily to me by now. But when I felt like I could not sit down and write anymore, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I spent many nights crying into my pillow, trying to console myself that the feeling that helped me write would magically come back and all would be okay.
Then, a few days passed. Then, a few months and then a few weeks later, I realised that I still cannot write consistently and produce work regularly like I did last year.
It was heartbreaking.
I was disappointed in myself.
But one day, I woke up and did my morning meditation. While I was trying so hard to focus on the nature noises of the forest playing on my phone, I realised that if I tell myself I enjoy listening to these nature sounds, it will be easier for me to focus on them. And maybe it will feel like I am not fighting with myself anymore to focus.
So, that is what I did. And voila! I saw that it was easier for me to focus on that little meditation routine.
Curing writer’s block
Using that new learning, I sat down in front of my computer and told myself that I knew exactly what happens next in the story, and I would be able to get the story down if I just started to write, so I did just that.
And again, I realised that my writer’s block, which hadn’t budged an inch in the past few days, was gone. But after I had finished my writing session that day, I was scared that my new writing method was a one-hit wonder, and maybe I would have to fight with myself again to get down the next set of words on my computer screen.
I returned to my laptop the next day and told myself the same thing. I reminded myself I knew how the story transpires, and it somehow worked for me.
So, I tried this little routine every day these past two weeks, hoping it worked, and it gave me results every time. So far, it has been working for me.
Maybe it has something to do with reprogramming your mindset, and I feel like our brains do not know any better and do not know what to believe compared to the information we give them. So why not tell stories to your subconscious that work in your favour?
And get rid of that annoying writer’s block if it has been decreasing your output of words.
If you’ve dealt with something similar, share your stories in the comments below!
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Thanks for reading!