You want to write the thing.

Everything about you wants you to do it! Your brain is cheering you on, saying you can write it. You have a great idea! Sometimes, you even have an entire plot sitting there, begging to be put down on paper or Word document. Calling on you to immortalize it.

However, you just cannot do it.

This is writer's block.

It attacks at varying degrees for various writers at any given time. You could be a tired college student in charge of writing a large term paper, writer's block stopping you in your tracks from doing so with the sweet whispers of go to sleep instead. You could face it in writing a social media post, begging your friends and family around you to give you the correct wording that will make it a success. Or, you could face it like I do, when my Odyssey post for the week is coming up and I cannot for the life of me come up with an idea or way to convey my idea.

Regardless of what way it hits you, it hits you hard.

I love writing in my free time, but when writer's block hits, I do not want to see anything that involves writing. I do not want to read, I do not want to hear about writing, and I certainly do not want to try the act. The thing I love the most turns into the thing that makes me want to hop into a bubble bath and drown out the rest of the world. Easy papers become like mountains to climb, and without a due date attached to them, I will let them go unwritten for weeks if the block is particularly strong.

And this has nothing on trying to get out of your blocks.

Writing again for the first time after taking a break to rid yourself of a block is a lot like watching a caveman learning how to use a typewriter. You know that, eventually, you will get it. But, you have to get through the slow process of learning and constantly say "Do they seriously not know how to do this?" to yourself. It is as painful and tedious as pulling teeth. If you are anything like me, getting back in the saddle also involves a horrendous amount of backspacing, deleting, and grumbling over why nothing you type is looking decent enough to publish.

This frustration, I must say, does make for a pretty amazing feeling once you break through it.

If getting through writer's block is an arduous climb up Mount Everest, finally getting your words and thoughts down in a coherent manner is equivalent to a huge party celebrating your safe return. You laugh, you cheer, you leave your room to tell your roommates or family members you survived. You submit your paper no matter what the quality is because at least you can submit something. It's a glorious state of euphoria that anyone of any age can experience.

And it lasts until you have to submit your next paper and start the process all over again.