When You Don't Know What to Write...

In response to Brittany Guntor's question, "Is writer's block an actual psychological problem, or just an excuse to turn in sub-par work?"...

     Just before I started writing this post I was searching for questions to respond to, for I felt that in that moment a free post of my own thoughts was too daunting of a task. So, it was pretty coincidental that I stumbled upon this post about writer's block. While some people may use the words "writer's block" as an excuse for poor work, I do not think this happens very frequently. I believe it is usually a legitimate psychological problem that stems out of frustration and the constant distractions that surround us. Today people, teens especially, are surrounded by so much technology that it can be overwhelming. Therefore, when a student sits down to write a paper, they are often periodically checking Facebook, chatting with friends, checking their cell phone for text messages, or playing computer games. It becomes very hard to put away one's phone, shut down the other computer programs, and just leave up the word document they are working on. All of these distractions seem to be causing writer's block, for they fill our minds with so many other thoughts than what we need to be thinking about. So, like we talked about before in class, one may go on Facebook and get into a fight with a friend. When they sign off of the website, they then might be distracted with this anger and sadness. These thoughts obviously will be overwhelming if someone is trying to write something relatively intelligent for class. I do not think that writer's block is an excuse, but rather a psychological problem that has developed in more severity over the past years due to the rise in the amount of things to distract us. Why do you think writer's block occurs? Is it possible to train yourself to not experience writer's block as often?