It just seems to hit sometimes, doesn’t it? You cannot seem to write anything of worth, and reading your words out loud makes you cringe. Worse still, what seems beautiful to others – your friends and family – is superficial to you. You didn’t mean that! You didn’t write those lines of prose, those lines that lie about your state of being! It’s a mockery. You want to take an eraser and threaten the very existence of those words! But you’re afraid … if you do so you’ll have nothing better to write about.

I came across this light 9rules note (their term for discussion) about Writers Block. John Baker‘s reply made me chuckle:

People aren’t commenting on this because they don’t want to be associated with someone who has that particular disease.
So, what you should do is go read a book or walk in the countryside.
Find something as stress-free as possible and keep at it until you’re bored out of your skull.
Next time you sit down to write you’ll be a different person . . .

And on went the rest of the 9rules community helping out poor dook with his writer’s block. They suggested

• screaming at CNN @ McDonald’s
• drinking tea (rather than coffee)
• forget about the task you’re doing
• have a good rest/sleep/nap
• writing all your ideas down in a notebook
• write crap until you strike gold

And, my favourite:

• go off the Internet. Like right now.

Personally I’ll walk my dog, or take a seat in a fairly busy public space and watch time and people pass me by. Or I’ll take a stroll in a park enjoying flowers and the sweet smell of grass. Life is too short to waste time sitting in front of a computer screen, willing words to travel down your neurons to your fingers.

Write clean, write sharp, write right. Go take a walk.