Not writing has been a feature of many people’s year. The immediate dangers of the pandemic, negative emotions, stress from work, homeschooling, distance learning, furlough, unemployment, and more, have all contributed to writer's blocks or simply lack of time to write.
We would like to invite you to write something about the process of not writing or not being able to write. You might be inspired by Anne Boyer’s poem “Not Writing” (2015) to think about the forces that get in your way or the other things you prioritise. Or you might be inspired by Ban En Banlieu (2015), a hybrid autobiography / novel / poetic project which the author Bhanu Kapil presented as written around “a novel never written” (here is a review of Ben En Banlieu, which explains this).
What are your thoughts about the writing you never committed to the page or left by the wayside? What can you tell us about the experience of “not writing”?
We hope that you might find some inspiration in this writing prompt but as always if you would like to write something else - a diary entry, poem, your reflections on something else about your life at the moment - we'd be delighted to read whatever you would like to send. To go directly to the submission page and send us your writing, click here.
To return to the main This Immeasurable Year page, click here.
