When someone you love has an incurable illness, your perspective changes. ‘Not curable but treatable’ becomes a thread of hope. Each day is precious. A myriad of life’s annoyances, things that seemed so important at the time, are now mere trivia. Mud on the clean kitchen floor is just that. Mud. A leaky shower is water in the wrong place. It can be put right.
Suffering is something else. I have a friend from church who is confined to a chair by day and a bed by night. Another friend has known the downside of cancer for four years. Yet another battles stress and depression. Amazingly, each one of these people shows the world a cheerful face.
For a writer, suffering of any kind can be one of the causes of the dreaded Writer’s Block. Knowing someone you love is in distress or pain can also cause your creativity to dry up. You, too, put on a brave face. Yet inside you feel a giant wave of sadness waiting to push you to the bottom of the ocean.
I told my husband I felt I had nothing to say in my writing any more, nothing that would be of value to anyone, nothing that could possibly entertain another human being. I used to love creating stories, bringing characters to life.
‘Write for yourself,’ he said. ‘Don’t worry about the rest.’
‘I think I’ve got Writer’s Block,’ I said.
He smiled and gave me a hug. ‘That proves you’re a real writer at last,’ he replied. I like a positive man!
Frog: Halloween! Bonfire Night! No wonder my friends advocate hibernation.
Liked reading your post. So true!
Thank you. It can be scary when a writer hits a bad patch. In my research for this blog, I found that Herman Melville has writer’s block for a few years after he had completed Moby Dick.