I don’t have writer’s block.

I’ve decided that I have writer’s fatigue.

I’ve got ideas about what to write coming out of my ears, to be honest. But my problem, personally, is that I’m so overwhelmed and just plain t-i-r-e-d that the fatigue stops me from putting words together in any coherent way on the page with regularity.

I’ve had writer’s block. Or, experienced it. I’ve sidled up to it in the dark, embraced it, and written around it. I’ve written about it. I’ve written love letters to it.

But this is different. The thing stopping me from writing isn’t a block in my head; it’s a tiredness in my body and in my soul. It’s acknowledging that we’re living in unprecedented times and our fight-or-flight response is on high alert. It’s a deep knowing that I’m experiencing exhaustion on a level that is far, far deeper than surface level. I need a subterranean elevator to reach the bottom.

I’m juggling and I’m not a juggler. I have a cousin who was, for a time, an actual clown. He was taught how to juggle, and I often wonder…do those who know how to properly juggle, juggle better in life?

My words feel tired as I put them on the page but I don’t think they feel any less powerful, or impactful. They say what I need them to say.

And I think what I need them to say—right now—is that if you have writing fatigue too, you’re not alone. If you have words and ideas running through your brain but you can’t get them from your brain to the page? You’re not alone.

The fatigue is real.

What’s helping me is changing how I write. The time of day. The place. Even, sometimes, the topics. Don’t give up, writers. Now is when the world needs us.

One word at a time.

I encourage you to take a break. Recharge your writer’s battery. And come back at it from a slightly different angle. We need your voice and your voice is waiting to be shared.

We can juggle existential dread, and recipes, and birthday parties, and paying the bills, and back-to-school, and, yes, we can still be writers. But first, give yourself a little grace and put down the balls you’re juggling for just a moment. Try to rest. And the words will come.

~

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