Climbing Out of the Writer’s Pit of Despair

The Bottomless Pit (via The Evil Wiki)
“It’s very dark in here….” (Attribution: The Evil Wiki)

I just read a post by Wil Wheaton, “everything under the sun is in tune” and it actually inspired me to kludge together some sort of post for my blog. I have been having a bit of  trouble putting together anything for my blog. It’s supposed to be fun but it just hasn’t been for a while. I turn over ideas for blog posts in my head but nothing seems to inspire me to flesh them out. With every idea, I was blocked by feeling like I wasn’t writing anything that hasn’t been beaten to death already. This post really isn’t any different: “Woe is me! I have not the will to write for xyz reasons.” A while back, I found out that André Gide (a French writer and Nobel Prize in Literature winner active in the early to mid 20th century) wrote, “Toutes choses sont dites déjà; mais comme personne n’écoute, il faut toujours recommencer. [Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again.]” If nobody is listening then that gives you a certain amount of freedom to try and fail. I guess I should just get on with it.

I’ve been going through my notes and I see that I’ve actually got a bunch of ideas that seem to be pretty good. I should start writing up one of them. Nobody is reading this so why not?

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5 comments

  1. I can really relate to this post. For a while my blog also became a chore, and even after I reduced my personal target to two posts a month, the push to get them out became an obligation.
    I had to ask myself what I really wanted, whether sharing my thoughts was important to

    1. I can really relate to this post. For a while my blog also became a chore, and even after I reduced my personal target to two posts a month, the push to get them out became an obligation.
      I had to ask myself what I really wanted, whether sharing my thoughts was important to me, and I discovered that I do want to do it. And with that it changed from an obligation to a desire. But I still get periods when the words don’t come, when I just can’t be bothered. And I’ve had to realise that’s okay.
      Whatever works for you – whether you really want to write a blog or not – have faith in your thoughts and opinions and don’t let a perceived lack of originality be the thing which holds you back.

    2. Apologies – this somehow submitted when only half completed. Please scrap this one and (if you do want to accept it) use the completed one which follows.

      1. No worries…I’ve had to post the whole thread to make it visible…I hope that’s okay. It appears that you replied to your own comment.

        I agree with you; if blogging feels like an obligation then it’s just another form of work and one that doesn’t pay very well or at all (at least in my case…). It has to be something you want to do and you can’t beat yourself up if the words don’t come. At least for me, I don’t want to join the rat race of building an audience. I do this because I like to write and if it’s a burden then I won’t write.

        Thank you for the comment. I really appreciate it.

  2. […] I’m pretty sure a lot of people have defended entire PhD dissertations on this topic but, as I said before, André Gide wrote, “Toutes choses sont dites déjà; mais comme personne n’écoute, il faut […]

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