Writer’s Block

Sometimes my fingers can’t keep up with my brain as I compose a blog post, and at other times, I stare at a blank screen, wondering what I’m going to write about. Chances are that if you’re an author, you periodically experience the same thing: writer’s block.

Doubtless, authors have struggled with this issue ever since the first creative writers put quill to parchment, but when was the term “writer’s block” coined to explain what was happening? The first recorded instance, according to the OED, appeared in 1948, so both Agatha Christie and Graham Greene (who published Taken at the Flood, featuring Hercule Poirot, and Heart of the Matter respectively that year) could have complained of experiencing the phenomenon during their writing process. Thankfully, if they did, they both overcame it, as have countless other authors, both those well known and those more under the radar. So, if writer’s block is your experience, know that you’re in good company and that you will overcome it, as have so many others since 1948.