Writers block? Or a blocked writer?

by Toni L.P. Kelner

I recently read something on a writer's message board that pissed me off:

There is no such thing as writer's block...if you are a writer to begin with.

I get really cranky when anybody spouts absolutes about writing, particularly anything in which the phrase "real writer" is included or implied. You see, I've met an awful lot of writers, ranging from the authors of dozens of books to people who've written three or four unpublished short stories to people who haven't finished a thing but still aren't giving up. And I have two observations:

• Not one of them has been a hologram or astral projection. In other words, they're all REAL writers.
• No two of those writers approach writing the same way. Some write a book or more a year, and some just barely manage a book a decade. Some swear by outlines, and some swear at outlines. Some write every day, rain or shine, and some write only when a deadline looms. Some...  Well, you get the point. Each writer has his or her own way of working.

So for anybody to say there is no such thing as writers block is ridiculous because I know plenty of writers who've had to deal with it. It's been painful and frustrating, and again, neither a hologram nor an astral projection.

Now my own theory of writers block is this. Writers block is not a disease--it's a symptom.  If I find myself having to pure drag the words out of myself when I'm in the middle of a project, or get so stuck that I can't produce anything at all, then I know there's something wrong. It could be related to the project: the pace is dragging, or a previously feisty protagonist is acting uncharacteristically wimpy, or the logic of the plot isn't holding together.  Or it could be something unrelated: not enough sleep, worries about family, anxiety about pretty much anything. But if I can isolate what's blocking me, I can usually get past it, and that's how I advise writers who ask me about writer's block.

Does this work for everybody? Of course not. I don't even know for sure that it works for anybody other than me. In fact, I doubt that there's anything that works for every writer. But I'm not going to say that, because it would be an absolute, and I've already said how those affect me.

About the only absolute I will accept when it comes to writing is this: If anybody ever tells you that you HAVE to do something to be a writer, or that you HAVE to work a particular way, ignore them. To make any such pronouncement about writing is absolutely wrong.

Comments

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

Toni, as usual, you are absolutely right.

Writers and people who write do like to share hopes and fears and concerns, and that's one of the reasons blogs like this are so valuable. SO often we're alone in an office, staring at a screen, and it's great to be able to turn to a blog pal and get some reassurance. Comfort. And a pat on the back that you are not really alone.

Now, that astral projection thing. Can it help me with my newest plot?

[Dana Cameron]

When I was a kid, back in the Neolithic, I used to worry when I would be a "real archaeologist." Would it happen when I had accumulated a number of degrees? When I ran my own dig? When, by way of adverse digging conditions, I contracted a rare tropical disease (which is harder than you might think, since nearly all of my work was in New England)? The answer came to me in the summer of my sophomore year, when there was a period of time between checks when my diet was exclusively stale pita bread and the eggs from friends' chickens (and a bottle of Kahlua thoughtfully left behind by a student). I figured if I was willing to do that to do archaeology, I was real enough.

(Sorry, I have a thing about "real.")

I think you're spot on about writer's block: it's an indication of something that needs correcting. Jan Burke said something very wise when asked "should I outline?" She answered that asking that is like asking whether you should write left or right-handed. It's all a matter of what works for you.

Absolutes, schmabsolutes. I got a thing about them, too.

Write on!

[C T]

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[B K]

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