Writer’s block is a non-medical condition that happens when you’re unable to write. Writer’s block mainly happens when writers are unable to come up with something original. Most of the time when people have writer’s block they feel unmotivated, angry, sad, anxiety and more.

When I have writer’s block, I usually just push the work to the side and do it at the last minute. I remember the first time I had writer’s block I was 13 and I was writing an essay on the Lakota Tribe for my eighth grade social studies class. For the essay you had to make a story as if you were a Lakota Native American during the time of The Battle of Little Bighorn. 

At the time, I felt weird writing an essay pretending to be someone I’m not. It felt like I was lying to myself. I remember trying to write and I just couldn’t do it. I was coming up with words but I couldn’t form a sentence. This was the first time I ever felt this way. Usually I was always able to write a story about fiction. Whether it was about me being a wizard or about what I thought the future was going to be like. I was always able to write something.

During this time I remember feeling very angry, like I was disappointed in myself for not being able to write. Over time that anger turned into sadness. As the time came closer to the deadline of the essay I felt anxious and overwhelmed. In the end I did write the essay but I didn’t give it my all.

But it’s not just young people who go through writer’s block, it can be adults too. Even adults who teach writing for a living?Mary Stoner, an English teacher at Stagg High School, tells us about her experiences with writer’s block and how she copes with having writer’s block. 

Stoner has been writing since she was 9 or 10 years old, writing poems and fiction stories, and that she’s had writer’s block since she was quite young.  

When asked when she most recently had writer’s block. Stoner said that she is currently in a bout of writer’s block. ¨I’m currently in writer’s block right now and it’s very annoying. I’ve come up with a couple of ways to try and push through the writer’s block and one way I’ve been doing that is writing letters. I’ve been writing letters to a friend of mine everyday and sending them to him once a week. I’ve been doing this to get my brain around writing again.¨ 

Stoner then went on to explain why she writes to people to get over writer’s block. ¨I would write to other people and tell them how it was, tell them how I was feeling, what’s going on in my life and so on. I would just try and put words together and get back in the habit of writing again.¨ Stoner says.

Stoner has been teaching for a very long time and would like all the young people out there to know that even if you have writer’s block don’t stop writing. ¨Don’t stop, and what I mean is find something to write. It doesn’t have to be something that is amazing, its idea is just to write. Either on paper or on a computer. Just push through creativity. If what you write sucks, that’s fine. I never want to read those letter I send my friend ever again, I hope he burns them.¨

Some people even get writer’s block in different classes, not just English. Lilyanna Diaz, a junior at Stagg, discussed having writer’s block in multimedia class and how she has overcome it. “The first time I had writer’s block was in the third grade. Back then I just thought I had ran out of ideas, but there’s always more out there.” Diaz said she felt like she was boring, like she isn’t interesting anymore. “Back then when I was younger I would just wait until I actually wanted to write or until something had happened that I wanted to talk about.¨

Recently, Diaz had writer’s block because of her multimedia class. “I had just started to write poems for my multimedia project and I couldn’t think of anything else to write.¨ Diaz then explained the methods she used to overcome it.

“Something that helped me overcome writer’s block most recently was stepping away from the paper or the screen and listening to music while looking at photos on my phone or photo albums. That usually helps me a lot.¨

Diaz said that if anyone out there is going through writer’s block that it gets better. ¨If you’re dealing with writer’s block just know it gets better and you’ll eventually find something that sparks your creativity.¨ Diaz said.

Many people struggle with writer’s block in different ways, whether that be poems in multimedia class or just putting words on paper.

The most recent time I had writer’s block was actually during writing this article and it was the reason I decided to write in this topic. During this bout for writer’s block for me I was just really unmotivated. I would try to write but just felt like there was nothing to write about. Even though there’s millions of topics I could write about, I felt as if nothing was original. Like everything has already been written about thousands of times and nobody would want to read my work.

Some stuff I did to cope with having writer’s block is listening to music while looking at the sky or on a car ride late at night, watching movies with my younger brother, and talking to people about how I’m feeling. Out of all these methods I used to help me, I think the one that worked the most for me is listening to music while looking at the sky or in the car late at night. Usually when I do that I tend to think about everything. Most of the time it’s just pointless overthinking but recently it’s been helping me out a lot. Whether it’s me thinking about what I want to wear tomorrow, what I’m going to do for the summer, what I want my future to look like, or giving me inspiration about what to write.

For all the people out there who struggle with writer’s block, I just want you to know that you’re going to overcome it eventually. Whether it takes a few days, weeks, or months. It’ll be over before you know it.