Writer’s block is the worst.
I can say that from bitter experience; many is the time that my muse, whoever or whatever it is, has deserted me and I have been left staring in growing frustration, and near panic – we writers are nothing if not melodramatic at times – at the blinking cursor on the screen.
The whiteness suddenly becomes extraordinarily intimidating and though the calm voice of reason tells you that you have written many things, and will likely write them again, the emotional reality is that you’re convinced the end of all words has come and it has chosen you as its syllabically-challenged standard bearer.
It’s not a great place to be by any stretch of the imagination, and though it too shall pass, when you’re in the thick of it, it feels like it shall never left and you will be left wordless for the rest of your days.
Don’t think Hollywood hasn’t noticed how angsty we all get.
As San Francisco video editor Ben Watts and Freelance filmmaker Ivan Kander show in their supercut video of writers in movies confronting the great big bogeyman of writer’s block, it’s something that has been a recurring theme in many a film.
It may not sound like great drama to watch a writer face the temporary mortality of their creative ability but in the right hands, it can be gripping.
And if you’re a writer, more than a little unnerving. Someone pass me a Xanax will you?
(source: Laughing Squid)