Writers’ Block vs Cup of Tea: A Very British Solution

This is one of those stories which would only reply in the UK, India and apparently China. People’s creativity can be enhanced by drinking a cup of tea. Now let’s be clear: I might be British (okay, I am) but I do not like tea. I am a coffee drinker and completely happy in that state.

But only the Brits (I think it was The Daily Telegraph) would took the mega-leap from increasing creativity to solving writers’ block. And that is what they did – although The Guardian did actually put some effort into the problem and get a journalist to ask some writers how they sort out their block. And quite a few use tea.

I’ve had two bouts of writers’ block and neither was pleasant. Each took about a month to fight through and neither was eased by consuming any beverage. The cause was a lack of preparation on my part so I had no idea what I should be writing. Then personal circumstances took my eye off the ball for a couple of weeks and a month or two flew by.

Put another way, I think the idea of tea as a panacea is total rubbish, but I can understand writers using a liquid comfort blanket to ease their burden and to get out of the dark hole they find themselves in.