Imagine you’re stuck in a traffic jam. Imagine you’re on the top of a hill, in your crappy beater car, and you can see there’s no end to this traffic jam for miles. You have music playing, but you’re so irritated with the traffic jam that none of the songs sound good to you. They overwhelm you instead. “I’d rather sit in silence.” You say to yourself and angrily turn off the music. The brake lights of the car in front of you flick off and back on. Great. You can move up one inch. Great. Only 63,359 inches to go until the next mile.

You look at the clock. After a long day at work, you just want the cars to move so you can go home and relax! You don’t know what caused this traffic jam. Was there an accident and someone got hurt? Is there just so much commuter traffic that it’s really bumper to bumper? Is it simply just karma? Who knows?

After about an hour of sitting there, the brake lights turn off of the car in front of you. This time, they stay off. Despite the cars moving slow, you are finally moving! Your heart races as your excitement to finally get home peaks. The cars gradually build speed. You are finally driving highway speeds on the highway. You see no sign of what caused this traffic jam but who cares? It’s over!

You pull off your exit, only a short distance from your goal. You are smiling, the music is back on, and you feel great! For real this time. Then your car stalls out. Your smile instantly drops to a frown as a warning light on your dashboard pops on. “No, no, no! I’m so close!” You scream, hitting the steering wheel and pulling off to the side of the road, at a full stop again. It is aggravating. You knew you were almost done with your commute and yet you’ve got another hurdle to overcome.

This is what writer’s block feels like to me.