Season of Writer’s Block

Posted on August 12, 2005 in Originality & Creativity

I saw a graph of Vincent Van Gogh’s output in a book on the link between creativity and madness (more on this later). Van Gogh tended to peak in June and then settle down into a langour that lasted the rest of the year. Other artists likewise tend to lose interest in their work. Summer, therefore, is the season of writer’s block for many of us.

Could it be the days that begin in blue haze and end in blood-spilling sunsets? Is it the rainstorms like the one I drove through yesterday, that last only long enough to spatter the windshield with maybe fifty droplets that break into half a dozen or a dozen tinier droplets? Does the heat cook the brain? Do poets and writers just neglect their walks because they fear the untempered sun? Or did they just go down to the beach to doze?

I am feeling something rising within me. Themes that had gone to sleep through the bitter days have come to lurk at the edge of my mind.