What Keeps Me from Writing

When I was a child I liked to write letters to my friends.   I had a lot of pen-pals.   Also, I had no problems with essays during my grade school years.   I did not need much time to create an essay, or a journal, or something else for my writing class.   The older I become, the more difficult it gets for me to write.   Perhaps, I have more problems, needs, or other various things in my life that keep me from being able to focus on writing.   Therefore, when I read “The Watcher at the Gates” by Gail Godwin, I saw myself there.   In this essay, Godwin illustrates examples of many things that may be obstacles to some people to start writing.   Also, she suggests several ways that may help people to overcome such a problem.   Although I have different kind of excuses to not start writing, they all have the same meaning, purpose, and consequences as in Godwin’s essay: take me away from writing.   There are some of my favorite excuses such as having no ideas to write about, other important things to do, and enough time before the deadline, that give me no good chance to begin writing.   Still, I know that I must turn in my assignments on time, and this helps me to put aside these excuses.


The first reason why I don’t sit down and write is that I don’t know what to write about.   I just have nothing in my head to write about the particular topic.   Often, I begin with a couple of sentences and stop because I don’t have good thoughts to continue.   In these cases, begin to look out my window, my eyes wander around walls in my room searching for ideas.   During such moments, I silently repeat these words to myself, “What do I write about?   What’s next?”   This may last ten minutes, or twenty, or even an hour.  




Sometimes, I just put all of my papers away and do something else, but usually (I have already begun!) I don’t allow myself to give up writing.   Also, I tell myself, “I should write because I must, because I will write this anyway today or tomorrow.   Why not...