Dismantling Writer’s Block
Writer’s block.
I don’t believe in it.
Okay, I’ll hedge that a bit.
All writers have moments when the words don’t come, or they have to be pried out of our brains like candy out of a three-year-old’s grasp. I do acknowledge that fact. Those moments are not fun.
Those moments are always uncomfortable, even anxiety-provoking.
“Writer’s block” is a great excuse when you need one.
But I’ve learned that when I run up against the dreaded blank-page-combined-with-blank-brain syndrome, rather than “try harder,” I need to dig deeper.
For me, writer’s block is a symptom, not a disease. It almost always shows up when something else is wrong.
I’ve run up against it twice in the past couple of weeks. The first time, I was working on revisions to a book length manuscript. The rut began to form when I tried to revise in accordance with a critique partner’s suggestions. Mind you, there was nothing at all wrong with her suggestions; I understood and agreed with them. And yet the more I tried to comply, the deeper the rut became, until I was stuck.
When I finally stepped back and reevaluated, I decided to trust my own instincts and disregard the advice. The floodgates opened. Ta-da! No more writer’s block.
The other instance was when I was trying to write a post for a guest blog appearance. I got so tied up in how awesome all the other guest-bloggers were (and how hard it was going to be to compete with them) that I couldn’t think of a subject to write about. Fear of the unknown kept my fingers off the keyboard, with that blasted cursor mocking me.
And then I recognized what I put in parentheses in that paragraph.
I know better than that! At a simple decent-human-being level, or at the level of maturity befitting the color of my hair, I know better than to compare myself to others. And at the level it matters most, as a Catholic Christian believer, I know that we are all given the exact gifts God wants us to have. I can entertain exactly zero envy over the other bloggers’ humorous or clever or passionate posts. Once that flash of insight came, I was able to write.
Here are some of the tools for dealing with writer’s block I’ve discovered over the years, none of them my own, by the way. I credit the many authors who traveled ahead of me with these ideas!
1. Give yourself permission to write badly – and then write. The words you tap out on your computer are not etched in stone. You can delete what doesn’t work later, so just start putting words on paper, so to speak. I’ve often started out with “I have no idea what to write next, but I have a sense that such-and-such character might do/say this, or that plot idea might happen.” Within a few sentences, it usually morphs into something I can work with. The unanticipated gift of this method is that I often discover a gem that livens up the story.
2. Get out of your own way. Figure out what’s wrong. If there are underlying issues, acknowledge and face them. If fear has you paralyzed, stare it in the face and then stomp over it. We are all insecure. We all fear failure, success, taking a risk, criticism, making a commitment. Deal with what ails you, and then write anyway. If there’s something wrong with the manuscript, try writing the scene from a different character’s perspective or go a different direction for a while.
3. Change your scenery. Get up and walk away from the computer. (I can’t tell you how many times a solution came to me as soon as I shut down the laptop and stood up!) Even better, go outside. Smell the flowers. Let the sunshine warm your face. Listen to the raindrops on the street, the leaves, the roof. Go to a museum, or a movie. Go to the zoo and watch people watching animals. Go to the mall and make up outrageous stories about the people walking by.
4. Get physical. Go for a walk or a hike. Dance. Play a game of tennis or hopscotch or go for a bicycle ride. Anything to get the blood flowing in your muscles—and in your brain.
5. Write something else. Write a thank you note or an email or an honest-to-gosh real live, old-fashioned letter! Free write, or use a writing prompt. Write fiction if you’re stuck on a nonfiction piece, and vice versa. Interview your characters; ask them what they want you to know.
6. Do something creative with your hands. Draw or paint a picture. Do it with your non-dominant hand. Make a quilt square or embroider the beginning of a pillowcase design, if you like fabric arts. Cook something really yummy from scratch, and enjoy the aromas and textures along the way. Garden, whether it’s indoor or outdoor. Write something longhand. Try that with your non-dominant hand!
7. Engage with another human being. Hey, we’re writers. It’s a solitary activity. Sometimes we forget how much we need to connect with others. Take a break and play with a child. Talk with your spouse and make eye contact. Volunteer, officially, or just lend a helping hand. Go out for coffee with a friend, or invite another family over for dinner.
Rather than a curse, writer’s block can be a blessing. Listen to it. Let it tell you what you need to do, or not do.
Just don’t let it be an excuse to keep you from your passion.
How do you identify writer’s block? What strategies do you employ to get past it? What have you learned from it?
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I’ve been working my way through Julie Cameron’s _The_Complete_ Artists’_Way_ and it has been a very good exercise. It has helped to have someone point out each of these points and provide exercises that prove very helpful to figuring out the “what’s wrong” part.
I need to trust myself more when I write. I waste a LOT of time worrying and self editing and that isn’t productive.
I’m not blocked, but I sure do tend to slip into procrastination!
Hi, Ann! Sorry to be so tardy in replying to your response. I was driving, and just got in.
I read and worked through all twelve chapters of The Artist’s Way (probably the original version) several years ago. It was an awesome resource that touched me deeply. I intended to go back periodically and do it over, because I expect it’s like an onion: going deeper each time.
Thanks for sharing about that book, because I *should* have mentioned it!
Thank you for stopping by, too.
Blessings,
Leslie
I am an incurable perfectionist and I hate it when I know what I’m typing is trash. If it’s not just right, I usually don’t want it on the page at all. But as Karina Fabian told me recently, “You can’t edit a blank page.” And I thought, “Hey, well that’s true!” I very often forget that in my self-anxieties. But I think I’m going to try to take it more to heart now.
Also when I’m really stuck sometimes I say a prayer to St. Paul, the patron saint of writers. I should probably do that a little more often, too!
Hi, Mary! I am so hobbled by my perfectionist tendencies… 🙁 NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month – Google it if you’re unfamiliar) is very effective at pushing a person past the internal editor. And I’ve discovered that when I go back to read what I threw on to the page, not nearly as much as I thought was drivel was actually drivel. Oh, yes, there’s a bit of sloppy writing in there, but the stuff that matters almost always has surprises for me. Good surprises. Surprises that make the story much better.
I LOVE the idea of praying to St. Paul, the patron saint of writers! Thank you for suggesting that! A person can’t go wrong in asking for divine help, and the most prolific letter writer of the New Testament is a great source to approach for intercession.
Thanks for stopping by, Mary!
Blessings,
Leslie
That is so like the quote I have had posted on my bookcase since 1990 or 1991 when Nora Roberts did a chat on Compuserve in the writers forum and she told us, “You can fix almost anything but a blank page.” So I printed that bit of the transcript and taped it to the book case and it is still there, slightly tattered and a bit yellow, but holding on and reminding me often to just write! 🙂
Ann, Nora Roberts still speaks at Romance Writers of America events, and “You can’t fix a blank page” is her mantra. Along with “No excuses; get your behind in the chair and do the work.” Those two sayings really do carry their weight in gold as advice for writers.
Thanks for mentioning Nora’s timeless words of wisdom!
Blessings,
Leslie
Hi Leslie,
The image of the writer’s block looks a lot like a wall of truncated, Keebler (Original) Fudge Sticks. Might it be possible to eat your way out of writer’s block?
Rather than writer’s block “provoking anxiety,” might anxiety provoke writer’s block? Stage fright? Brain freeze? Fear of failure?
I’m saving your blog and expect to see it in your book on the subject of professional writing.
God Bless,
Don
Absolutely, Don! Anxiety is the chicken-or-the-egg element of this question. Writer’s block first, anxiety second, or anxiety first, writer’s block second? It’s worked both ways for me! Fear of failure, and the opposite side of that coin, fear of success, both contribute.
I’m all for eating one’s way out of writer’s block, especially if it involves cookies. 😉 Unfortunately, I end up with indigestion to go along with my writer’s block, because it seldom ends up that lack of cookie-ness in my life was the problem with my manuscript! But hey – it’s always worth a try!
Thanks for stopping by. As usual, your humor always carries a seed of truth.
Blessings,
Leslie
I find the best way to get over any block is to take a short break (go for a walk) and rethink if what I’m writing at that moment isn’t forced in some way.
Getting stuck for long periods just doesn’t happen to me.
Hi, J.D.
You’ve highlighted the most important point: Identify the problem and fix it. The sooner that happens, the less impact writer’s block will have.
Thanks for stopping by!
Blessings,
Leslie
I just love Robert McKee’s advice on writer’s block:
“I know a cure, but it isn’t a trip to your psychiatrist. It’s a trip to the library. You’re blocked because you have nothing to say. Your talent abandon you. If you had something to say, you couldn’t stop yourself from writing. You can’t kill talent, but you can starve it into a coma through ignorance. For no matter how talented, the ignorant cannot write. Talent must be stimulated by facts and ideas. Do research. Feed your talent. Research not only wins the war on cliche, it’s the key to victory over fear and its cousin, depression” (McKee, STORY, pp. 73-4).
Oops: “Your talent DIDN’T abandon you.”
Wow, what a powerful quote, Rhonda! Thank you for sharing it. I love the part about ‘you can’t kill talent but you can starve it into a coma’ – followed by ‘feed your talent’. Awesome visuals there…
Thank you for stopping by and taking the time to enrich our conversation!
Blessings,
Leslie
American poet William Stafford offers this advice to poets who suffer from Writer’s Block: “There is no such thing as writer’s block for writers whose standards are low enough.” This sounds terrible at first. “What? I’m supposed to write junk? I need a good grade! I’m better than that!” No, Stafford is not encouraging writers to produce garbage. He is suggesting, however, that it’s easy to take yourself too seriously, to think you’re going to write a poem or an essay that is going to be the greatest poem or essay ever written, that you’re going to formulate the greatest, loveliest, most intelligent statement ever made. So you sit there, thinking how unworthy you are, cursing the day you were born, wondering why you ever went to college, hating the very act of writing that has you so stymied. A writer has to let that go, forget about judgment. Go ahead and write drivel at first, as long as you write. Out of your nonsense and ramblings, however, believe that something good will come, some idea will catch fire right there on the page, there will be sparks, patterns will emerge. Be willing to throw stuff out. It’s all right. Do you think Shakespeare didn’t litter his kitchen floor with balled-up pieces of paper? One nice thing about the word-processor is that you’re not wasting paper and trees; you’re just exercising the delete key. But this is no time to worry about the environment. Fill that wastebasket with paper and trust that something will come of all this scribbling. It will.
Writer’s block is a condition, primarily associated with writing as a profession , in which an author loses the ability to produce new work. The condition varies widely in intensity. It can be trivial, a temporary difficulty in dealing with the task at hand. At the other extreme, some ” blocked ” writers have been unable to work for years on end, and some have even abandoned their careers.
Thanks Nadia!
It’s amazing how much good advice has been given in response to Leslie’s blog. It seems that quite a few writers have been “around the block.”