Writer’s block damn! There’s nothing more frustrating than that. Saturday 17:31 pm, 18 March I’m sitting in my room, I have finally decided to write a mini-memoir of how I overcame the curse of writer’s block.

I look around my room and see thousands of books; maths, science, biology, novels pretty much every kind of book and genre I have. Picking up a copy of Gulliver’s travel I read for two minutes and throw the book on the ground. My desire to read is eclipsed by my desire to write. I make my seventh cup of coffee for the day – thank God Coffee exists! It momentarily gives my mind a stimulation boost of creativity.

Frantically I write my novel titled, ‘Survival Games’ a horror book that I aim to make my debut novel this year of 2017. However, the stimulation wears off and my creativity is running on empty. Sighing I try to write yet another book of mine titled ‘The opposite world’, a dystopian book that will be another debut novel of mine in this year. I fail yet again to write more than 200 words.

My room is hot and stuffy, a great analogy to how my head is. 17:42 I yell to myself as I exit my room. Walking outside in the calm suburbs of Pinetown I stare in wonder at all the greenery before me. Walking to a local park, a recluse most of my life, it’s rare that I ever go to public areas. However, it is necessary; the fresh sense of serenity makes me realize how close I am to truly becoming crazy.

Going back to my room that is 28.8 degree Celsius, I take off my shirt. To say my room is boiling hot would be an understatement, it frustratingly chips away at my patience. I look at the amount of writing that I’ve burdened myself with and I feel like an atlas, weighted down by my own stupidity for wanting to write over 15 books at one time. Love, mystery, sci-fi, horror, crime there’s no book genre that I’m not writing about.

In anger, I throw books around in my room as I have decided to write just one book at a time. I feel relieved that I came to such a decision with my writing. 18:32 the thought of how I can truly overcome writer’s block finally hits me’. The answer was so simple – write, yes! That simple verb of writing is the secret to overcoming the curse of writer’s block. Is it a paradox? A paradigm? A coincidence? To be honest, I really don’t know what figure of speech it is. To be honest, I really don’t know – or even care what figure of speech it is.

To overcome not being able to write is simply to keep on writing. I laugh at the irony of it all. Finally! The curse that cursed every other writer seemed the obvious answer to have uplifted the curse which was, to write. My excitement and jubilation were evident in me impulsively writing this short mini-memoir. Eagerly I can’t wait to go back to my writing as I’d determine exactly how I found my secret in overcoming writer’s block. Oh, the irony!

Tell us what you think: What other ways can you overcome writer’s block when you’re struggling to think of a start or continuation of a story?