April Fools and Writer’s Block

If you’ve been sent on a “fool’s errands” as soon as you woke up this morning; or if somebody played pranks on you to make you believe something ridiculous; or still if you discovered the picture of a fish taped on your back, remember it’s April Fools’ Day or All Fools’ Day. The French call it “Poisson d’Avril” (April Fish).

“Oh, how could I be so gullible,” you feel embarrassed. Sheer absurdity, isn’t it? And if you had planned to wake up for a quiet writing day, it’s all spoilt. Your mood is off. Your mind is still revolving around this moment where you find yourself a standing jest. You can’t do anything about it. It’s a day of hoaxes celebrated in many countries around the world.

Don’t feel blocked in your writing though. And if this is what you’ve been dreading of, know that this fear can lead to the condition of the blank page or screen, writer’s block. It’s not the prank of April’s fool anyway. You probably need to shake yourself up, take a deep breath and start over again before you get stuck as you don’t want to break your writing rhythm.

Incidentally, in her article “Writers Block – What to Do about It”. Anne Wayman provides some useful tips to address this awful condition which affects to great extent beginners.

Anne identifies two types of fatigue that, according to her own experience, “can lead to temporary writer’s block”: fatigue from “not getting enough rest; and fatigue from not taking enough breaks during the writing process”.

Taking deep breaths, drinking water to lubricate the brain and the body, doing some physical action to change your state, talking about it are among the practical solutions Anne proposes to tackle this issue which, if not addressed properly, can exacerbate and become “a sign of deeper problems” that might require professional counselling.

And if you do fancy having another practical look at this problem you might consider taking a peek at “Is this writer’s block?”, which I wrote last year at the beginning of my blogging trail.

Have fun as you read.

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