Thursday, August 28, 2014

On Writer's Block

Guava flower with a little insect trapped in it

There is a thick fog in my head, so thick that I don’t know what I am walking towards. A haze that refuses to shift, that splinters me into disparate parts.

A paralysis has set in. The idea muscles don’t connect, don’t respond to the touch of pain or that of joy. Thoughts refuse to pass through the eye of the needle of insight. The heart continues to beat, gently, as if in some other dimension. The stomach systems churn the food out of sheer habit. You are confined to a bed corner of Now. The rest has become a memory, a yearning.

Clarity appears like a momentary patch wiped clean on the windshield of time on a very rainy day. Life is but a string of pearls burst, lying on a surface, still in hope. The frustrated spirit bawls for a return.

No, no, you still write. You basic write. Like eat and shit. But you can’t dance the words, or sing it or paint your love in it.

Bravery is in continuing to write, like eat and shit. Bravery is in checking every day if you can move an idea limb. Bravery is in not giving up, ever.

This from one writer to another.

 

22 comments:

  1. And you say you can't dance the words? Perhaps you did not make them give an intense, classical recital, but they did trip lightly on their toes and kick my top hat off.

    Surely that too is dance?

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  2. For me, writer's block is when I have sooo many thoughts in my mind that I just can't make it possible to concentrate on a single one. May be because I just want to face the facts or may be because I have too much going on

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  3. You don't write, you weave words to make a story. You show us a different world.
    I am sure you are busy in choosing which one to share first. :-)

    Take care,

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  4. Hahaha...thanks for the faith, Nisha. Right now the stories cook like Maggie noodles, easy but without potency.

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  5. That is an interesting take on writer's block--so many ideas that you can't tease out a theme! Thanks for visiting his blog, Ritika.

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  6. Hahahaha..yes, it is a dance too. One of those easy happy folk dances, so deep in your muscle memory that you can't forget. It is called preserving memory. Waiting instead to create new ones for a change.

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  7. How clearly you conveyed your thoughts as if dancing with the quill , slowly in tune with something surreal....

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  8. Whether I write other articles or not, every month I need to write atleast the monthly IndiaWilds newsletter. This is the sixth year of writing newsletters, but the main article takes me a lot of time. Unless I get inspiration, I won't be able to write. So the newsletter gets pushed to the last moment. Every time I think of writing it before hand, but it doesn't happen as the words don't flow. So even while filming and being in the field, I had to write this in the last minute. It's crazy, but I live in that craziness. :) I can't show a candle to all of you established writers, but this is my story.

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  9. Bumping in to u after ages :) Yep Bravery is to just write it like U eat and shit . This is something which every writer should read once in a while.
    Thanks :)

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  10. Great to see you here again! Hahaha..yep, keep up with the basic basic writing!

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  11. 6 years!!! Sabyasachi--the fact that you write it every month, even if it is last moment, is an inspiration! But are there periods when you write but your writing isn't the quality or standard that you have set for yourself?

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  12. Welcome to my blog, Naba. An honor. Your words gives this post the veneer it needs...isn't writer's block something so intangible, hard to pinpoint and yet crushing? When writing ceases to move beyond basic?

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  13. Same pinch....sailing in the same boat with you...yet, you managed to make the words tap a step :)

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  14. Your writing always sings, dances and paints graphic pictures.

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  15. It is so good to see you here! Thank you for the words. But it is repeating a folk song now internalized--you can't help humming it. I know, in my heart, I have not weaved a rug as yet.

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  16. Same pinch back!!! Happy sailing and may you find your harbor soon!

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  17. for me, what ever makes me writing is always then one which blocks me from writing :) I know that is the fact but I don't accept for I might start believing it :)

    But, only when you go through it the true emotion comes out, like this piece of writing of yours :)

    btw, how are you?

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  18. I am fine:) Yes, sometimes one needs to go through the darkness and watch it shroud the pathways to light. Something awakens thereafter.

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  19. Poetic as always and inspirational (even about a subject like writer's block:) Bravery is not giving up ever. And showing up everyday.

    It's an intimate dance I have with writing. A commitment of sorts - in exchange for showing up and not giving up, my writing promises me ideas and inspiration. We both have to do our parts to make this work:)

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  20. If you can write this in your Writer's Block, you are not in one :)
    For me I have a block when I have too many ideas in my head that I can't put pen to paper on one of them and I get distracted.
    I have found out that short , flash fiction kind of posts, help in such lull period.

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  21. Unable to understand the post but yes, writing is the best when it is straight from the heart. The frustration of not writing visit person always but in the end adding value to upcoming writings. And then after writing the writer is free and lightweight.
    Keep writing, keep traveling. Cheers!!

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  22. Hey Tushar!!! Sorry it took me so long..so happy to see you here!

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Thank you for taking the time to read through this post. Would love to hear back from you:):)