Writer’s Block and Gray Hair

If you look closely you can see it.

See?

That lone gray hair mocks my pain. Still, I have not the heart to pull it out because it wouldn’t mask the truth that yours truly is now part of a very special, mature club. I suppose this is all fitting coming in a week or so before my 34th birthday.

Nonetheless, I have gray hair. One or two strands, I think. And those hairs make me look back on 2012 in both gratitude and sadness. I earned those hairs. They are reflections of all the steps I took forward (and all the leaps I took backward).

One very troublesome hurdle from 2012 was writer’s block. It’s a creature that if ignored will grow and grow into a Goliath beast. I don’t have a Top 10 List on how to avoid writers block or what to do with it if you are cursed with it. What I do know from my experience is that the creative wall might be just the time you need to think about yourself and only yourself. For me, writing whisks me away to magical place where I play God. It’s an easy world to live in. As soon as I step outside of that faraway world, I am slapped with reality. And once reality gets its full grip, writer’s block sets in.

What I’m trying to say is that writer’s block sometimes comes on strong for specific reasons, reasons you may not understand for weeks or months. If you suffer from it, perhaps you should take a step back and evaluate your life, not your writing. Perhaps something in your day-to-days is begging you to stop and listen before you can creatively move forward.

And if that doesn’t work, download “Hipstamatic” onto your smartphone and take pictures of your pets like I have.

xo

Happy 2013!