Writing came easy to me. It was a sort of outlet. I could write forever. Express my feelings without holding back. That’s why I took up writing as my career. I wanted to travel, write, see the world and tell my tales. I wrote how the spirit moved me. It wasn’t about research or getting facts right but expressing my innermost thoughts through words. But suddenly I’m scared.
How writers’ block feels like
Every time I open my laptop to write, fear paralyzed me. It’s like an invisible pressure to do my best, want appreciation and fear rejection. As I think back, I know where I went lost. The constant evaluation of how many followers I have? Will they read my content? Is it useful to them? These thoughts plagued my writing and it became something I detested than something I cherished.
It became less about me and my thoughts and became all about what the other person would think of me and my writing. Doubt crept into my mind and I lost my way. I even took my courses to find my way back but when it came to actual writing, I found excuses not to. I reasoned with my lethargy telling myself that it was okay to have down days.
My savior
One day led to another and I still found myself lost. That was when I came across this ad—Chris’ Morning Pages. The line upfront moved me.
It said “I try to write at least 300 words a day. It’s an exercise as part of my recovery as an artist called morning pages.”
https://drawingmylifeaway.com/
No, it is not an affiliate. I do not know this person. But something about this ad woke the writer in me. To turn back and find out why I started a blog.
As I went through every article I found he wrote simple things. He talked about his day, his dad at the hospital, his move, the weather. The expression of simple and mundane things that made his blog more enthralling than every other blog. It made it personal. It made it unique.
Where we all go wrong
As a blogger, we often lose our way. We try to appease our audience. Even major blogs tip new bloggers to understand the needs of their audience and put content accordingly. But, often our audience is unaware of what they need. What they crave. The reason why they look up to other bloggers is that we often are free to express ourselves. We follow accounts we want to be like or be in their place.
So, why are bloggers asked to hide their personality, just to appease others? Taking a page out of Chris’ Morning Pages, I want to write. Write anything and everything to make myself fall in love with writing again. Find what I love doing and make it something I love rather than something about followers and commercialization.
A call for change
Writer’s block is becoming a casual happenstance for every writer. We start something and stop immediately because we crave recognition. It isn’t about followers, readers but being true to your innate self. Ask yourself why you started writing. And then start writing for the sole purpose of writing. That way, those who follow you, will be all about you and not you constantly trying to judge and reason what your audience wants.
I’m hoping this is one of many articles that will make it to my blog. I strive to:
- Write what I want
- Express without holding back
- Stop trying to be a perfectionist
- Learn to embrace who I am
- Write at least one article a day
I hope this article was able to help others as it did to me. This was an article I wrote within a few moments of reading Chris’ blog. And let me tell you it was refreshing. I would ask my fellow bloggers to dig deep and find a passion for writing than advertising. It’s a writer’s passion that a reader feels and not an informative drone.
That’s a really good and quite insightful article. Really enjoyed reading it, and it has inspired me to tackle my writing tasks too. I’ve been feeling overwhelmed about it all and end up not writing as much I plan to.
Thanks to your post I am going to go enjoy writing for the pure joy of it. 😊
Feels good to be of help, Mitali!