Writers Block

Dear Friend,

Under normal circumstances, writing is hard enough as it is. One might think that having to stay at home full time would increase your productivity and allow you to finally, finally, sit down and knock out that book that you have been meaning to write, but simply never get the time.

Well, as it turns out, for most of us, we would be wrong.

As much as we are spending more time at home and no longer really have any form of social life beyond video calling, that unfortunately does not mean that we automatically get to spend all that extra time on writing. Even if we wanted to.

Everyone staying at home has its ups and downs. If you are like me and live with people instead of living alone, you might find yourself with a whole new set of unwanted distractions. Unfortunately many do not understand that writing can be a form of work and so to them you are not busy, you are not working and therefore you are free to help out with whatever it is that they have decided they wish to do to occupy their time. Or maybe that is just the people that I live with? Even if the ones you live with do not bother with these types of things and keep themselves busy, they can still be very distracting and that makes it hard to focus on writing, Whether it is playing games, movies or music on loud, talking loudly on a call or to each other, or maybe they have taken it upon themselves to fix things around the house with power tool, noises are a huge distraction.

Distractions aside, the cause of us being at home does not help our focusing abilities either. We are in the middle a pandemic that has been causing chaos for months now. Especially on our mental health. We may not realise it, or think much of it, but the mental health repercussions of covid-19 are huge. It affects your depression, your anxiety and can even the cause of ptsd.

Trying to write or get anything done with the current state of the world and everything that is going on, is not going to be easy. It has been taking a toll on us all and we need to remember that it is okay if we do not reach all the goals we set for ourselves. It is okay if some days all we do is lay in bed and marathon our favourite tv shows or movies. It is okay. In times like these we need to remember to practice self care and self love. Try not to be too hard on ourselves for what we do or what we fail to do.

Remember that if you are not able to be productive during all this, it is okay and it is not your fault. I know we keep seeing all these amazing hobbies people picked up during lockdown or quarantine. All the amazing things they managed to accomplish because they finally had the time. And then here I am finding it hard to even do the things that I want to do. I have all the time in the world and yet I do not have the time. And it is okay.

Taking care of yourself and your mental health is far more important. Drink your water, try to rest and take your mind of things.

Just remember that it will get better in time, and you will be back to creating whatever it is that you wish to create.

Hold on there.

Love always, Brennan.