WRITER'S BLOCK: MORE ON CURIOSITY

There was a wonderful story presented in Curious?: Discover the Missing Ingredient to a Fulfilling Life about a young man so terrified of bugs that it interfered with him living a full life.  The author, Todd Kashdan, also a therapist, worked with the young man's interest in science to help him overcome his crippling anxiety.  Because the young man loved science, Todd was able to gradually introduce the man to more and more upsetting experiences with bugs once the  man adapted to the less frightening experiences.  Eventually, the young man was able to be comfortably in the environment where there were bugs (e.g., butterflies even flew onto his body and stayed there, and he hardly noticed).

Now I know we're not focusing on anxiety specifically when we talk about writer's block.  Still, negative emotion interferes with writing, despite what the negative emotion is.

So, I'd like to reiterate the message of my last blog post (I'm still not up to writing three posts per week).  Work with the positive experiences about writing.  If there were absolutely none, you wouldn't write unless you needed to for your business or because you're a paid professional writer.

The idea of being anxious about whatever you write,  dovetails well with the goal of having fun in your writing.  And, both are more likely to happen if you value the topic you're writing about, or want to write about.

So, why not stop and think about it.  Do you really – really – want to write about the topic you're choosing or being given?   If the answer is yes, remember to be curious about what you will find as you let pen hit the page, or fingers touch the computer keys.