An Artist's Struggle

There is nothing more horrendous than an artist facing a block in the beginning, and more so in the middle of their moment of creativity. It strikes at the worst possible moment and makes even the most creative person struggle to put a pencil and/or words down onto a piece of paper...not that this generation and the next few even use pencils and paper as much anymore.

Some may call it Artist's or Writer's Block, yet it's all the same—most of the time it has do do with stress while other times it could be a sign that an artist is simply burnt out or merely in a state of not knowing what to show to express one's deepest feelings and or ideas. In any case, it is the worst thing to spring up upon anybody.

Anybody also includes me. I have experienced so many different variations to both kinds of blocks. As it stands now, I'm in a sort of block. My family has been through all kinds of hell and back again in the past couple of years and it has caused me so much stress. There was no way for me to really escape that other than to try and draw out the characters I planned on one day writing a detailed novel about. Yet, the moment I put my pencil down on the blank page, nothing seemed to show besides endless unfinished sketches and even jotted dots of what I had hoped to draw out.This blog has also proven to test the limits of that block, allowing me to type out as much as I can within the set time it deems worthy of me. Normally I can pump out a good hundred words a minute, ignoring every grammatical mistake and or spelling issue, until I had written a little over 3,000 words within 30 minutes. When it strikes, I can barely get out 1,000 words. It smashes into the creative portion of my brain and walls up every thought that was supposed to come flowing freely behind the previous one.

Take this blog, as an example. It's flowing rather nicely at the moment, but at any time it can suddenly come to a halt as I try to force the terrible block away. Much like it had a couple of minutes into the beginning and even halfway through. Another example can come from the article cover. The sad and distressed look on the quickly doodled cartoon version of myself trying to come up with more content and simply having a hard time. It's a mountain I cannot climb so easily on my own.

Yet, like all artists and writers looking to make a living off their creativity, I persevere. It takes a lot of will to break down those blocks and keep trudging forward until paragraphs start making sense and/or beautiful pictures land themselves upon the page. One thing to note: it happens so often. These blocks can drive someone like me absolutely mad. If I ever want to make it in this world, I can't let it do that.

I must block out those blocks. Write out all my thoughts and ideas. Sketch down all the images that pop into my rambling little brain. I may not be able to finish them all. That doesn't mean I won't try. Whenever I find myself at a block, I try to find ways to break past it and that is one of those things. Jot things down or quickly make a few odd looking designs.