Writer's Block

Today, for like ten minutes, I had the first honest to goodness writer's block. It was terrifying, and it had nothing to do with my anthology (which has taken the back seat to my regular work, again).  I was working on creating simple essay questions for my students.  Normally, I can usually generate these in an instant, no problem. Not this time. 

For those ten minutes, I felt like a struggling graduate student again with the self-doubt and the "I have lost my edge" fear.  Shivers.  I only got out of it because I told my husband, "Dude, I think I have an honest to goodness writer's block.  I can't think of anything."  The confession worked.   

In the end, I came up with two questions, and I m looking forward to the essays.  Ironically, the students have to write for an hour and twenty minutes, by hand, so they really cannot waste any of their time.

I don't have any pregnant writing advice.  Mostly, I want to go into a sleep cocoon, but I have a nasty chest cold that is dragging me down.  I have however, taken small steps, like downloading old comments by generous friends, comments I will incorporate, but realistically, I will have to wait until the break to work on this book and really polish it.