Writer’s Block: Conspiring Against Writing

Alright, settle in and put down your hunger for conspiracy theories for a few minutes. Your writing career is being attacked by a non existent enemy. There is some crucial information here for you, dear writer. Bringing you back to earth is the obvious FACT that…writer’s block is a MYTH. Reliable sources are convinced that one failed writer woke up one morning without any excuses left and decided to give his failure a sophisticated reference, ‘writer’s block’.

A writer writes. There is nothing else a writer is born to do. If the Powers That Were gave you the ability to use words and create a written product; that is what you must do with that ability. You have no control over that gift. It controls you. It tells you what to do. It gives you sixth sense, seventh sense, eighth sense, ninth sense and all the senses up to the final nth.It manages your brain and messes with your imagination. It owns you. At no point in a true writer’s life will the roles switch. Therefore, a writer cannot refuse to write and blame it on a non existent block of air.

There are three reasons you are not writing:

1. You are lazy
2. You are reading something better aimed (consciously or subconsciously) at improving your writing.
3. You are busy doing something else. Working, sleeping, eating, drinking, bathing, talking, eavesdropping, farting and doing the pee-pee or poo-poo.

‘All writing is difficult. The most you can hope for is a day when it goes reasonably easily. Plumbers don’t get plumber’s block, and doctors don’t get doctor’s block; why should writers be the only profession that gives a special name to the difficulty of working, and then expects sympathy for it?

-Phillip Pullman-

Writing is not easy and it is not meant for the weak spirit. Not everyone is a writer but the problem is that most of you think that you are writers. That is why we have cases of year long writer’s blocks. I cannot imagine a writer who stays longer than two days without writing even a paragraph.

There is the cliché, “Practice makes perfect.” Write, write, write and write…write well. Create stories that will not cover your name with muddy troubles, such as the unimaginative grammatical failures you submit to this blog that hurt our editors’ feelings. Fight laziness, create time, stretch your mind and stop finding reasons to avoid your word processor. Writer’s block is a figment of something other than your imagination.

Now that you have discovered the truth, write some good fictional prose, not more than 1600 words and submit it for the It’s a Conspiracy, Short Story Contest.

All you have to do is pick an event that actually happened, and create a fictional conspiracy story around it relying on the themes of death, murder, politics, crime and family vendettas. Send your story to blogs@storymojaafrica.co.ke for a chance to win:

1st Place – 2 books, 2 Season Tickets to the Storymoja Hay Festival( 14 – 16 September 2012)

2nd Place – 1 book, 2 Season Tickets to the Storymoja Hay Festival.

3rd Place – 1 Season Ticket to the Storymoja Hay Festival.

Deadline for submissions: 8^th May 2012