The Block

Well, it’s been one hell of a gap hasn’t it…a year of silence or as some may put it; this is the writer’s block.

The writer’s block as defined by Wikipedia, or rather the good Samaritans who bother to contribute to it for wretched selfish souls like us; states: Writer's block is a condition, associated with writing as a profession, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work. The condition varies widely in intensity. It can be trivial, a temporary difficulty in dealing with the task in hand. At the other extreme, some "blocked" writers have been unable to work for years on end, and some have even abandoned their careers.

A rather scary definition isn’t it? Well, at least my writing career is not in jeopardy here. So what is this block people talk about. Have you ever felt that, the pause before putting your thoughts on paper? Do you feel that perspiration, the feeling of the pen slipping away? That moment, when you get an idea, but when you start putting it down on paper, the idea just withers away. That one sentence doesn’t go on to become two and then a paragraph, leave along a page. That feeling of utter desperation, hopelessness at not being able to come up with that one topic, you want to stay awake? Coupled with all of this is the plain realization of the blank page staring at you, that website you had created with the dreams of turning up masterpiece after masterpiece culminating in a Booker prize and fame. A webpage that was meant to bring down the google servers due to excessive visits, now reduced to just one visitor..yourself. A page that should’ve been lined with articles; now with just two ads; one for a shaving cream and another for Viagra. That feeling of not being able to live up to your expectations and of those around you who egged you to create the webpage in the first place and now jeering at your blog.

So have you felt that frustration; the eagerness to write, but the emptiness within?

Was that my reason for the year long absence? Hell no, folks..hahaha…You actually fell for that? Ok Ok, I admit, the last three lines were indeed from the heart; you do feel for this damn webpage; and about the two ads, well, that’s stinking true too. But, did I face a writer’s block; I’d rather say I fell for a laziness block. Seriously, this entire writer’s block thing; it’s just another excuse for laziness people. Can there ever be a paucity of topics to talk about; shortage of stories to tell. Just look around you, there are so many caricatures to draw, so many landscapes to fill. Come on, I’ve just demonstrated by writing a page of crap; haven’t I? It’s just that urge to overcome one’s laziness…and ofcourse, availability of a pen or a computer at that time.

Look at the famous writers of our time now; I empathize with them; there’s so much more work to do other than writing a book. Come on people, it’s not like the old days, that you write a piece, get it published and wait for the annual royalty to trickle in. Yes, it was just a trickle till sometime back. But today, no way, writing a book is just the beginning, one has to convert it into a script, then take active part in publicizing it and if you don’t have any material to publicize, then you actually need to make an effort to make a controversy out of it. Movies follow, then follow the law suits over the still or rolling or crawling or whatever credit they put in the movie (do I hear a loud ‘SHUDDUPPPP!!). This is heavy work and it does take time. After all this work, one does need time to spend the money too right; afterall, the money no longer trickles, it’s a downpour fellas.

What about the lesser mortals like us? Poor souls; making blogpages for a handful of friends who initially will pump you and say; Man! You are the next star; this is it, you’re on the way to glory…and after a few blogs and the same number of visitors, the adulation dies down to a cut, copy and paste of the previous blog’s comments. In fact, poor writers like us reach such desperation levels, as to mail friends and well-wishers about the new post, and keep pestering them till they actually visit the site and comment ‘Good job’.

So who the heck cares whether one writes or not. Just write for yourself and therein lies the biggest block of getting over that laziness, that laziness to stop doing something with no tangible result. The urge to create something just for the pleasure of creating, I guess, that would be the true writer’s block!