There's nothing more frustrating to a writer than to not be able to write. Under normal circumstances I can handle the constraints of time, the demands of work, house and dogs and still ebb out a few hours of writing each night. Those factors remain controllable because I'm serious and disciplined. What I cannot control is the mental shift that needs to take place in order to be "in the groove," if you will.
Writers, by nature, have very busy minds. A raised eyebrow in the course of an ordinary meeting can evoke a plethora of plot ideas. A slogan observed on the back of a t-shirt can conjure up all kinds of facets of a character. A news story with a bizarre twist can be a novel in itself...
And so it is that the writer's mind is often as turbulent as the waters smashing into the ragged sides of a cove, filled with story ideas, churning with characters dredged from the bottom, conflicting in direction as it all swirls and turns only to be sucked out and thrown back in again and again.
This mental turbulence is exactly what drives writer's mad. The interant spillage often includes self-doubt, withdrawal, insomnia. For me, this mental disruption is the force to be reckoned with and what I struggle with most as a writer. Remedies I've found to be successful include trying to get as many of these thoughts down on paper (or monitor) as quickly as possible so that they may be freed, physical activity to the point of depletion and getting near the water.
Then there are days like yesterday where the waters were very calm and I was able to produce an all-time high number of pages. If only the waters remained calm but that is not the natural state. For now, I'll just go with the flow...