Day 5 – The Myth of Writer’s Block
Posted on | December 12, 2009 | 1 Comment
To continue the conversation started yesterday about myths, I would today like to attack a big one for writers, the myth of writer’s block. In our how-to guide, On Writing a Short Story, we touch on writer’s block and give strategies to overcome (or, more accurately, bypass) it. I’d like to go more in depth about what writer’s block really is.
In the post on inspiration, I mentioned those who sit around waiting for inspiration to hit. This, I think, is what writer’s block really is. When a writer is not in the habit of writing, either with a set schedule or a set number of pages, ideas won’t flow, or won’t automatically flow all the time. If ideas aren’t flowing, the writer thinks there is nothing to write about. To hit a point I make often, all a writer is is one who writes. If the ideas aren’t flowing, prime the pump by writing something. Anything. Type, “I have nothing to write” a hundred times. Your brain will come up with something, believe me. If only to get you to stop typing that. It might also slap you upside the head, so be careful.
More practically, describe in detail some object or person in your immediate environment. The dusty keyboard. The wilted plant. The stinky old cat. The stinky old room mate. Use as many of the senses as possible to viscerally evoke an experience with your words.
Again, when you do this, the pump will be primed.
Another aspect of writer’s block is that a lot of writers, a lot of artists, feel that every time they sit down to create, what comes out must be brilliant with a capital “B” and a sparkly font. Give that thought up immediately! It is death to art. It won’t allow you to test things or experiment. It won’t allow you to write a long string of nonsense just to get the fingers moving and the mind engaged. It has happened to me that I wrote nothing but nonsense for days on end, but two thing happened because I did that:
1) It started to flow in a way that was almost hard to capture and
2) In looking back on the pages of nonsense, I discovered the kernel of many very cool ideas. I once wrote an entire short story based on a stray thought in my rambling pages. It was a very good short story. Once I opened up to the thought, the story came forth almost fully formed because I’d been cogitating on it the whole time I’d been writing the nonsense pages.
I rarely feel the need, anymore, to write nonsense pages, I am in the habit of writing. It isn’t that hard a habit to have. Nothing is stopping you. There is no such thing as writer’s block. There is just “not writing” which can be handled very easily by writing.
~Geoff Hoff
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December 13th, 2009 @ 2:30 am
A good friend of mine told me “Writers write”.
I like how you call it habit.
I have really enjoyed having my blogs so I write. I really have surprised my self. I have come into my own style.
Thanks Sheila