When Inertia Besieged My Keyboard
4 min read
By: Barnali Bose, Editor-ICN World
KOLKATA: I paused, scrolling and scanning one unfinished blog after the other. Then, with a sigh, I shut down my chromebook.
My friend, quick to notice, quipped,“Do not worry. This will pass.” “But how?” I intercepted, demanding an answer. “Let me finish,“ he frowned, visibly irritated. I grimaced, shrugging at the same time. “It’s a passing phase,” he went on, “However, there can be a relapse or more. It is all part of the game,” he finished almost in one breath.
Game? Before I could even voice the obvious query, he concluded, “It’s nothing but Writer’s Block. It will pass.” He chuckled as I sank into my chair, with a “Phew!.” “ Hmm! …. Writer’s Block…….well……..interesting…,” I whispered under my breath, relief writ large on my countenance.
The nomenclature thus given to the strange phenomenon that had stealthily invaded my grey matter, paralysing my otherwise seemingly perennial flow of ideas, my drooping mood now got an instant boost.
Writing, for me, has always been cathartic. It helps me talk to myself ; to be in sync with my thoughts. It is almost like psychological therapy. Not writing is like missing my daily dose of medication. Absence of writing is bound to
cause restlessness in me, and it did.
Poetry, as a renowned English poet had once said, is the spontaneous overflow of emotions recollected in tranquility. Tranquility or Turbulence, any form of writing is, I believe, a free flow of responses to occurrences, trivial or otherwise.
Reasons for the sudden transformation of my Amazonian rainforest of ideas ( excuse my use of the metaphor; I love metaphors) into a frozen Antarctica, so very annoyingly elusive for the past few days began to topple out one after the other.
For one, I accorded the sudden dryness to the lack of proper spacing between spurts of flow. Just like nature needs time to replenish its resources, so do I, I reasoned to myself.
Probably, I had been trying too hard. I had started to consider writing to be obligatory, almost a compulsion. It had sadly ceased to be an outlet for my pent-up feelings and ideas that had once made me desirous of writing.
Familial and professional obligations have been keeping me very busy as well. In fact, so busy have I been, that my mind has hardly been free to lap up anything else for ideas to pop up.
I was still looking for more reasons. I recalled a very popular catchphrase in a Sherlock Holmes’ film, “Elementary, my dear Watson.” Almost imitating the fictional detective, I invented the parody, “Motivation, my friend, Motivation….” I repeated it aloud, much to the amusement of my friend who raised his eyebrows, perhaps expecting more elaboration on the quote.
“Motivation leads to mental exaltation,” I echoed Holmes’ conviction with conviction. Well, In my case, the motivation to write had waned like the waning of the moon. Where there is lack of motivation, I inferred, inertia is
bound to follow. I had to feel motivated enough for the renewal of the ‘waxing’ phase.
I also realized that for quite some time, I had hardly been reading. Ideas, as I reflected, not only emanate from one’s own experiences but are also triggered by incidents that leave an indelible mark, positive or negative in our minds.
Diagnosis thus done, now the medicine needed to be prescribed. The much-needed break from the routine of ‘trying’ to put ideas into words was the first step towards making a sustainable recovery, I said to myself.
Hibernation and only hibernation was the primary key to a proper rejuvenation and resultant revival.To elaborate, the solution was thus to stop ‘trying’ to write awhile, to allow myself feel motivated enough to resume and also give time to replenish the aquifer of ideas before trying to assimilate them and finally freezing them in the written form.
I then remembered a conversation in the Hollywood film, Can you ever forgive me? wherein a character says, “I do not believe in writer’s block.It is just a name invented by the writers’ fraternity to justify laziness.” Laziness, if at all it was so was that of the mind and utterly beyond the writer’s control, I now reflected.
The causes and effects, thus unravelled and self-analysis made, I set to satisfy my curiosity to find out more about the’ condition. ‘
Wikipedia explains Writer’s block as a condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown. I searched for more information on the topic. A good number of results were instantly at my disposal.
Eager to research on the condition that seemed to have taken my keyboard by siege, I tapped on one from the list. Lo! There was an elaborate list of dos and don’t s for one suffering from writing inertia
Initially, I was tempted to look for reinforcement of my inferences. But then, I paused and took a reverse turn. The uninvited wave of unease that had been surging in my otherwise tranquil mind seemed to magically subside. I tapped on Google Docs. Opening a blank document, I started typing.
Seeing the ‘Eureka-like’ euphoria on my transparent face and the escalating speedometer of my fingers dancing ecstatically over the keyboard, my friend gestured a thumbs up before making a quick retreat.
As letters translated into words on the screen, the quote that loomed large before my eyes was, “Writing about a writer’s block is better than not writing at all.” There was a sparkle in my eyes as my friend’s words, “Don’t worry; this will pass,” echoed in my thoughts. It surely will, I reassured myself.
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