Editor's Note: Sunday Success is a weekly blog dedicated to documenting the frustrations, difficulties and humor in developing ridiculous amounts of success in college.
After seriously considering leaving this entire blog blank to prove my point, I’ve decided that’s probably basically unacceptable and now you’re wondering the Top 10 Best Steps to Writing Something—anything— or whatever. Instead, I’m just going to complain to you on why writing can be so, just so very hard.
Writer’s Block is the Devil. No really.
Writer’s block can be compared to a lot of experiences in my life. Analogies I’m proud of involve something along the lines of never getting out of bed during the middle of winter when your roommates refuse to turn on the heat. It’s just not happening. Or the time your mother tried to pawn you off onto the lap of some creepy bearded-red-suited man. You’re like, “Yea right, screw this, I’m not budging, ‘parent’.” But then it happens. A word appears in that uncontrollable brain of yours, striking up an urge to reach for the nearest platform to reveal it on. The sentences begin to roll out into paragraphs as if it’s a carpet for the stars of Hollywood waiting to be famous. You’ve done it. You’ve waited (im)patiently for this moment to arrive, showing up as unannounced as Taylor Swift and her guitar during your wedding ceremony. You both nod and shake your head as you slap your keys to construct the sentence as perfectly as it first appeared in your head. “Once upon a time…” it reads, and you couldn’t feel more proud.
I’m in College—Why Does My Vocabulary Suck So Bad
Part of me legitimately regrets not becoming an English major because, well, I’ve grown pretty envious of anyone who can actually utilize 1/8 of the 170,000 + words in the Oxford Dictionary. I love language so much, and I am a firm believer there is always some way to express anything you’re feeling/wanting (if only we would become less lazy and more active in strengthening our ways of just saying it). With language, I feel like an older version of an infant flailing my arms when I need warm milk or sleep (or something). Knowing what you want to convey is the first step, but finding the right words to make it as significant as it deserves to be seems even more important. Because of this, I’ve begun to read books I’ve avoided due to intimidation or laziness (or whatever). I’m focusing more on what others are saying rather than waiting to speak and, like, I’m deleting more unconventional words from my own vocabulary than ever before (besides, Twitter only allows 140 characters so I have to pick the best!)
Early Onset Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Could Maybe Set In, I Think
It’s probably a thing. A thing that may happen to you, so just take a break and do something else less active. It’s important to preserve your precious phalanges from any harm, as they may be the only reason you’ll be receiving an income for the rest of your life. Return later after all other excuses have been exhausted.
Never mind, Conclusions are the Devil
After all of the conveying you’ve done, you personally don’t think your masterpiece should ever really END. But, alas, your readers who have gotten this far are probably pretty exhausted from all of your complaining and just want it to end successfully. You want it to seem “worth it” to them that they’ve reached this point, but there’s really nothing “good enough” you’re coming up with. I’m personally terrible and awkward at any sort of departing, ever, and tend to prolongue it long enough to allow the readers to understand that it’s probably just going to sort of drop off anytime now. You consider using “fin” as a direct way of getting the hell of out there, but instead you revert back to summarizing everything you just said with subtle apologies to your readers for your lack of creativity in between.
