This year I am writing a novel.

“When you face writer’s block, just lower your standards and keep going.” — Sandra Tsing Loh

Couldn’t write, couldn’t write… It was almost torture to get one word not to mention a full sentence. Anyway, after hours of trying I had produced a few sentences and a bunch of scratch. I did not fall prey to frustration though. I just noted down ideas whether they worked or not. I Googled a few things. I made a few random notes and then I decided to try again the following day.

“Don’t stop because you’ve hit a block. Finish the page, even if you write nothing but your own name. The block will break if you don’t give in to it. Remember, writing is a physical habit as well as whatever you want to think it is—calling, avocation, talent, genius, art.” — Isabelle Holland

What a difference! The words just seemed to flow and ideas just seemed to fit together.

I have no idea what changed from one writing session to the next but something did. I image that getting a few sentences down along with a few random notes and ideas did help. The path was there on the day I was struggling to write but it was cluttered with walls and debris.

“You can’t think yourself out of a writing block; you have to write yourself out of a thinking block.” — John Rogers

Have you ever had a similar experience?

By Shari Marshall – 2021