Are you stifled as if mind-gagged? Choking on the great white mass on the desk? Blinded by the depressing light? You have writer's block.
Credited with being the fountainhead of English literature, William Shakespeare was portrayed in film reduced to sampling signature styles when confronted with writer's block. Romantic poetic license aside, it affected him, too.
According to David Taylor, executive editor at Rodale Press, there are four causes of writer's block: You are not ready to write, you are afraid to write, you try to compose in your head, or you start writing in the wrong place.
Is the blank page where inspiration spawns? Is that where characters develop, plot forms, desperate acts are dared, eternal love blossoms and victory over obstacles is achieved? No.
Staring at a blank piece of paper will not cure it. Get up from the desk, go out into the world and experience life, wherever it is found, however it expresses its start, middle or end. Engage it. Life is the true inspiration of all written words, whether they describe Heaven or Hell and every reality and fantasy in between. Life begets words, never the blank page.