What does writer’s block feel like?

It feels like my soul has run dry. It feels like I’m wandering through a world of endless fog. It feels like admitting defeat to the forces of entropy. 

There is also a feeling of rage—a wave of anger pointed at those mediocrities who peddle content slop. They can churn out endless prose and videos because they do not care how good it is. I resent the ones who succeed at this. They achieve fame and fortune by jangling keys in front of infants. 

I’ve wondered if I had any writing potential in the last few years. I read my old work and feel a profound sense of hapless mediocrity. Maybe I was delusional or a victim of the Dunning-Kruger Effect. Sometimes I point out that much of this writing is mere juvenilia, or an unpolished piece. Most of my stories never progress past a first or second draft. I either run out of time or put them aside, afraid I’ll delete them because of their inadequacies.

I’m a chronic perfectionist, and it has crippled my life—not just my writing, but my entire life. I can’t finish books or video games because I convince myself I didn’t “experience them right” and so must start again. The same applies to my writing. I’ve started some pieces hundreds of times and have yet to finish them or even make significant progress. 

Writer’s block is also like a ticking clock, counting down to when it’s too late for me to try. I feel like an old thirty-one. My best years are already behind me, and I’ll perpetually play catch-up to the person I could’ve been. 

Is it worth my time to continue writing? Or am I just wasting my time and the reader’s time? 

I want to be a writer. More importantly, I need to be a writer. I have so many ideas stuck in my head that I need to let them out or my brain will explode. But when it’s time to reach my hand into my mind and pull those ideas out, they are nowhere to be found. They are expert hiders. 

Perhaps worst of all, writer’s block feels like a stress headache. It is a pain that starts in the forehead and spreads, first to the mind, then to the soul. I have one of those right now. I think I’m going to go lie down.