I am stuck. I’ve been stuck for a while now.

As I’ve said before, I’m just finishing work on a book on the Weakerthans. I’m in the period I refer to as editor’s edits, meaning I’ve submitted my manuscript to the editor and she’s getting me pieces back with her suggested changes and, in some cases, you absolutely need to fix this-type changes. I’m behind in returning a bunch of pages because, frankly, the process is extremely difficult for me. I’m not good at editing my own work, and making changes to something you think is good the way it is isn’t fun or easy.

Early last week I got a bit of bad news, which added to some other bad news. This stopped me in my tracks. All of a sudden I couldn’t write, and, more to the point, I couldn’t really talk about it with anyone.

Being stuck is hard. When I get stuck my world stops. I forget to do things as simple as eat or make my bed. Last Wednesday I must have done three loads of laundry and yet today, those clean clothes are still in a pile on my bed. I haven’t sorted, folded, or put any of them away. I haven’t even put the clean sheet back on my bed, opting instead to sleep on my couch. I don’t think I’ve paid my bills in a while; I know I’ve been pretty behind on a lot of work and yet find myself paralyzed whenever I try to work on things. I hate it. I hate feeling this way and, moreover, feeling like I can’t explain it to anyone.

Question: Do you get stuck like this? If so, how do you get unstuck?