Writers Block or Distraction?
This isn’t a poll or the result of research, it’s just this writer’s observation. Everyone these days is too distracted to be creative. Creativity, the antithesis of Writers’ Block, has requirements. It requires a blank canvas. It requires your attention and responds to inspiration. It needs quiet space in which to grow. Three catalysts for growth are humor, freedom, and good literature. Tried and true tools are paper and pencil.
Writers know this in their heart and soul. But, too distracted to act on it, like the rest of society responding to every ring tone, beep, and vibration, we sit at a computer and open the day reading poorly- written half-truths and feeding our addictions.
Writers are watchers. The inspiration for plots comes from observing people. Inspiration for good dialogue comes from listening. What do I see when watching? I see people not interacting, not conversing, not paying attention to each other. I see young people on dates with their cell phones. I see entire families in restaurants not speaking to one another, but totally engaged with their devices. I recently saw a photo of tourists in a gondola in the streets of Venice. Everyone of them was scrolling. I hope none of them were writers. Think of the wasted material! They could have written about the smells, the sounds, the color of the water, the spray on their faces. But how could they do that? They didn’t experience it. They were tweeting and taking selfies to put on Facebook. Look! I’m in Venice. On my cell phone.
Whether you are writer, hope to become a writer, or you are a reader, pay attention to this. Reclaim your right to solitude; look for the blank canvas upon which to write your words; think creatively. Stop thinking like a robot. Turn off the TV, sit in the corner of your garden with a paper and pencil. When you are watching TV with your spouse, watching your child’s game, dining with someone, put it away. Engage. Chances are your Writers’ Block is only a bad case of distraction, afflicting the continent these days. We are too distracted to be creative.