Breaking the Block

You know, I thought I had it licked. That ugly thing called writer's block.

I was in a time where the words were just flowing. I was waking up early, before anyone else in my home, and writing everyday, exceeding my daily word goal. And the stuff was good! I even went in a direction I hadn't expected, which definitely seemed like a God thing.

Then one day, it just STOPPED. I woke up, and there was nothing. I read over what I'd written the day before, and had no idea where to go next. Maybe it was the distractions. My husband is between careers right now (long story) so he's home all the time, and so is my son. Yep, it's easy to blame it on them. So when I found out that they were both going to be gone for a weekend (another long story) and I'd have the house all to myself, I was elated. This was it, my chance to really get back on track.

The weekend came. I sat at my computer and... NOTHING.

This made no sense. I was completely alone for 3 days, yet I couldn't come up with a thing to write. I finally gave up, and watched a few movies on TV (for the record, The Bone Collector and Shall We Dance, two very different movies, but both very good.)

This dry spell lasted for almost 2 weeks. Finally, I did write the devotions I needed to get done (chronicled in the I Made My Deadline blog). But still, the WIP was stuck.

Today, I decided it was time to get unstuck. I opened up my WIP file, determined to write something, ANYTHING, just to get some words on the page. And it worked.

Praise God, here I am, 5 pages and 1200 words later. The best part is, I think it's actually stuff I can use, not just page filler. At any rate, I'm feeling good.

So what happened when I couldn't write? Was it God's way of reminding me that I need to trust Him? Was He trying to remind me that all the words come from Him, anyway? Or was I just lazy? I really don't know. I'm just thankful that today, the words flowed, and the block broke.