...blocked...

When people think of "writer's block," they tend to think of nothingness. No ideas. No clue where to go next, how to fill the page, what to write about. They don't really mean "block" - they mean "blank." I posit that most cases of "writer's block" are misdiagnosed (or at least, misnomers): most are actually referring to Writer's Blank.

I can't remember the last time I suffered from Writer's Blank... but lately, I am absolutely chronically afflicted with a more literal writer's block: like a clogged sink, or blocked arteries, my problem is not one of nothingness but one of being overwhelmingly stuffed. Stuffed so chock full of ideas that they cannot flow from me; like a backed-up pipe, I am unproductive not because of vacancy but because of crowding.

I see inspiration all around. It's getting suffocating... but mostly in a good way. Thus, I can't give it up. I'm having trouble focusing because I'm so grateful for so much rich material, I can't let any of it go. I take notes here, there, everywhere. Characters, slips of dialogue, whole storylines. I jot down notes and try to not lose any of these ideas... and now I have so many just-begun projects that I fear I will never finish any of them.

I think if I were to lay on a metaphorical medical table, and a team of Doctors of Composition were to do a little biopsy, they would be astonished at the findings. Upon opening me up, they would rush to page all their colleagues.

"My God! Get down here! Hoo boy, you have GOT to take a look at this writer! She's suffering from extreme playwrightitis; her novel cavities are filled beyond belief; she has multiple outbreaks of character infection, and the worst case of one-liners I've ever seen! I keep cutting and cutting, and it just keeps on coming out... I can't staunch it... get this woman a laptop, some caffeine, and a year of her time being her own, STAT!"

That, folks, is a serious case of writer's block.

The recommended cure is hard to come by. Keep me in your thoughts. I may never recover.