photo credit: TheAlieness GiselaGiardino²³

How do you deal with your own version of writer’s block?

I am officially STUCK.

I’ve started and stopped seven or more posts… I’ve sat, I’ve been still… and I’ve rocked my ideas, rocked and rolled them, to and fro. To and fro I’ve kneaded them like strings of play dough… And STILL my post page is blankity blankity BLANK!  Tossed some… Kept some… And, per Clarissa Pinkola, American poet, psychoanalyst and post-trauma specialist, I “need do no more.”  Obviously SHE didn’t work to a deadline!

I’m solution-searching, looking for a bounce to get me back on schedule. And here’s what I’ve decided to do: I’m going to string together some words of wisdom from OPs (numerous “other people”) and see if I can crochet together the ideas, theirs and mine, into a comforter that will warm my chilled resourcefulness and cover this next post.

So you see, imagination needs moodling – long, inefficient, happy idling, dawdling and puttering.  — Brenda Ueland

Well now, there’s a dandy and creative word to play with: “moodling”.  I’ve been doing my share of it; I’ve endured long, inefficient stretches of dawdling, but the “happy idling” aspect escapes me and my imagination stays stuck.  So, let me ask you, how could moodling bolster your resilience??  I suspect the thoughtful answer will probably be, “I suppose it could… let me moodle on it a bit.”

Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Now that’s a thought I can get behind.  It’s what’s kept me at this keyboard for hours and hours.  Sort of like the film, Field of Dreams, I keep hoping that if I type it, the post will come. But I just can’t get beyond the first few steps on the staircase. Until now that is. I think I’ll have a little faith in the process of “free writing” (PattiAnn told you about that the other day) and keep going.  Maybe I’ll get a post out of this yet.  One step at a time, just keep moving toward the goal.  Don’t give up now Ellie!

Advice to children crossing the street: Damn the lights. Watch the cars. The lights ain’t never killed nobody.  — Moms Mabley

Good practical advice, right up there with the blindingly obvious, “Don’t hit the pedestrians!”  And Moms was a contrarian by golly. We diligently teach our children, “Green means go, red means stop.”  But waaaaaaaaay back, when my kids were 4 and 5, I and a few of my PTA pals had to petition the city council and school board to provide crossing guards during summer school (Ah those were the days, summer school for kindergartners!) so that our wee ones wouldn’t get run down by foolish drivers who thought yellow meant “Punch it!”  I’m pretty sure that those of us who have learned Moms’ life-lesson, “watch the cars” have, indeed dodged a few collisions and bounced clear of many a mishap to persevere another day. Sometimes it pays to pause on the curb for a moment. (Or three as in the case of this post!)

You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist. — Friedrich Nietzsche

It’s tough to turn off my inner critic.  Some part of me wants my every post to be perfect.  To offer words that will be found useful and interesting for you our readers.  And of course, perfection just doesn’t show up very often for us mortals.  We do our best, hope for and work for “better” and then, keep on going.  I do hope some of what I send your way helps you with the speed bumps you encounter in your day-to-day living.  And, when my way isn’t your way, I’d love to hear from you because there are oh, so many, many right answers, yours, mine and somebody else’s – the more the merrier, we need all the help we can get!  So send them forward, share your bounce back way(s)!

Doing just a little bit during the time we have available puts you that much further ahead than if you took no action at all. — Byron Pulsifer

Well, there you have it, Nietzsche was right.  Byron disagrees with Clarissa.  He says do a bit; she says just sit and be still.  I wonder how many other ways there are for working through writers block, or any “stuck-edness” you might encounter?  Tell us yours!  What do you do to get “further ahead”, beyond stuck?

So what do we do? Anything. Something. So long as we just don’t sit there. If we screw it up, start over. Try something else. If we wait until we’ve satisfied all the uncertainties, it may be too late.  — Lee Iacocca

Oh how I like that “try something else”!  And Lee obviously knows about deadlines.  And uncertainties.  Me, I’m still a bit uncertain. Is this working?  (Can you hear me now?) Are we going to have a post here soon?  We’ll see, won’t we.

A little anxiety is motivating. A lot of anxiety is paralyzing. —  Karen Reivich

Got that right!  And, with Iacocca’s advice ringing in my ears… do anything, something, don’t just sit there… I think I’ve moved from paralysis to, at the very least, slo-mo.  Still, I be steppn’ forward.  And perseverance wins, this post is done.

Isn’t it?  Your turn – how do you deal with your own version of writer’s block?