Writers come in all shapes and ages. They author fiction and non-fiction, long and short. A few make it big and sell a lot of books. Most lie in obscurity, sending rejected manuscripts off to publishers, waiting, wanting. That is a major obstical. However, even more frightening is writer's block.

What is Writer's Block?

Writer's block occurs very often. When someone sits to type a paper, but has trouble coming up with ideas, that is writer's block. That is fairly common. Also common is the writer being dissatisfied with phrasing of certain sentances or paragraphs (or entire papers). So writer's block is several things. It is the inability to assemble the thoughts in your head into sentances on paper, and being dissatisfied with what you do write.

Causes of Writer's Block

A huge factor of writer's block is stress The pressure to meet expectations creates stress, which can in turn freeze the mind when ever a pen is in hand. Often this is caused by expectations. Fans demanding a great sequel or publisher's deadlines. These feelings create anxiety in the writer. Nothing that they write is "good" enough. To take this further, one opinion is that writer's block implies a lack of self-confidence. Not being sure if he/she'll be accepted or not. He/she thinks that the book (or story or essay, ect) can't be good. To take this even (yet again) farther, he/she is writing for other people, instead of themself. Read that last line again. Worrying about what other people think about your writing is not going to create an paper that you are satisfied with. Writers need to write papers that they want, not what they think that other people want. They've lost their focus in writing.

Effects of Writer's Block

The effects can be minimal (a day or two of lost time) to devestating. While most can break free of the clutches of writer's block, some people stay in that rut. They just can't break free. The words don't come. Or they break free years later. By that time they've lost either their core audience has forgotten them or there is no publisher willing to take a chance with them. Plus the author has then learned that he/she is NOT immortal. They will not always be a beloved author. This can bring on depression. (Ironically, some authors best writings come while they're depressed.)

Conclution

Despite the devestation some authors experience, many writers continue to thrieve and write qualilty books or papers. Overcoming writer's block is magical. How do you think this paper came into existance? Let's see, what was I going to say next?