Writer's Block

There, I said it.

The reason I can't seem to write a single damned word of my novel. The reason I can't seem to make a blog post that isn't a link with some witty comment, a sumamry of my weekend, or some dull-witted political rant.

I can't fucking write.

Oh, I can write. I can write at work just fine. I can email, I can IM, I can make what I've taken to calling "maintenence" blog entries, but can I write? No. And it's kind of starting to piss me off.

I feel creatively numb. I've always been a little streaky in my creativity. I often write in "bursts," where I sit down and crank stuff out left and right. My last novel, for example, I choked out 40,000 words in two weeks. I typically hit a short story in a day, two at the most. And then I'll go dormant for a month or two, or maybe just write little piddling things here and there.

But now, when I sit down to work on my novel, everything I've written so far looks awful and when I try to write more, it just doesn't come. I even tried to outline it, to force myself into a structure so I could work on it like I would a project at work, and I can't even do an outline.

I admit that I've lost some of the excitement - the idea was born of a white-hot passion, which has since died down into a pervading sense of cynicism - but I can't even come up with a decent idea for a story, let alone a story.

The last story I wrote, I got the idea while I was in Hawaii. I was also doing a lot of reading, and I was reading things I don't typically read. Possible conclusions:

1. I need to read more, and I need to be more diverse in my reading selections.
2. I need to get out more, possibly reading and/or writing in different settings. These seetings would be parks and places I can relax, rather than places I have to worry about time and work.

But I've got to do something, because this is getting to the point of frustration.