Is your writer's block a "what" or a "who"?

I have a hypothesis about writer's block.

We're all plagued by it from time to time, whether we're "real writers" or not. It can strike when you're doing something as mundane as preparing a grocery list. What do I want to cook this week? can be a paralyzing question, especially if followed by its chilling cousin: What can I cook that won't make my family whine and complain?

Then there's the challenge of a sticky reply. Perhaps you received an awkward text from your daughter's 2nd Grade teacher. She said WHAT? you gasp. Can you come up with an appropriate apology that makes it crystal clear she most certainly did NOT learn those words at home?

Writer's block can hit us from every and any angle. It doesn't really care what we're writing.

I've often assumed that my chief obstacle with writer's block is that I don't know what to write about. But maybe my challenge isn't what. Maybe it's who.

Take this particular email, for instance. I'm an inveterate deadline-pusher, so I naturally started writing it this morning at ten o'clock. An hour, I thought. Easy schmeasy.

But suddenly it was 10:50am, and I'd only written three short paragraphs, and I had an 11am call bearing down on me. What happened?

(The irony that I got stuck writing an email about writer's block is not lost on me. Har har.)

Believe it or not, I wasn't distracted by social media or hockey news. I actually spent the whole time writing and deleting and editing and then writing some more. The trouble was, I didn't have a clear audience in mind. I want to write about writer's block today, I'd decided, but I hadn't bothered to decide whom I was talking to.

I've overcome the hump by writing, well, to myself. Because I clearly need to hear this message, whether or not it lands for you.

But I suspect I'm not alone in this. I can think of a few clients—names withheld to protect the innocent—who have struggled with this challenge.

They want to give voice to their passions. They've learned incredible things and want to share them with the world. The only trouble is, they find themselves constantly getting stuck. It's like they're small sedans, barely 10" off the ground, doing their best to plough through two feet of snow.

So, what gives?

When I catch myself in this position, it's often because I need to buckle down and decide just who I'm trying to talk to. It's all too easy for me to get precious about my topic. Because what I'm writing is obviously SO important that everyone in the whole wide world needs to read it. Right?

Sigh. No. Not right at all.

I can't speak into your situation, nor do I cast any judgment upon your battles with writer's block. I simply invite you to stop and wonder, next time the words refuse to flow: Do I know whom I'm writing to?

And I'd be curious to know your answer.