Writer’s Block – The curse that keeps you cursing – Infographic…

The original post to which I’m linking, closed the blog to comments, so I’m reblogging from Chris Graham’s site. I suppose Ian Laurie, the author, was afraid all of the blocked writers would suddenly vent in the comments to his post.

I’ve never been blocked. I have, however been too lazy to write and know the difference. This doesn’t mean the perception of being blocked isn’t real and sometimes crippling. Ironically, the best laxitive for writer’s block is to write. I was fortunate enough to learn this from the late John Vandezande, short story writer whose out of print collection can still be found at resellers for far too little money than his estate deserves. John taught the first fiction class I enrolled in.

When anyone complained of being blocked, John said to start writing anything anywhere at any point in your story. It doesn’t matter how bad it is, when you get to be a good writer, you’ll throw it away in the rewrites anyway. He’s never been wrong.

I learned this teaching writing and visual design courses for more than twenty-five years. (In the design courses I told students to sketch thumbnails, at least fifteen to twenty, no matter how bad.) When I reviewed assignments requiring students to submit all of their work before their final grade, the students who wrote rough drafts (and you can tell who did it and who faked one after the fact) that showed their struggle to get the words out, but they wrote them anyway, always fared better on their assignments.

Similarly, the students who drew thumbnails (many of them truly awful) tended to score at least a grade point higher than their classmates who didn’t.

Think of blockage as a clogged drain. You have to get that crap moving to unplug your drain for the creative flow. Writing out the sludge might feel tedious, but when the last paragraph of crap plops onto the page and you feel the flow pushing your words out faster than you can type, it’s like, well, a feeling of relief not unlike moving past real constipation.

My motto is: “You can’t fix what you haven’t written.” But I also have seen cow patties made into jewelry. Some of that crap you move might actually be polished into shining prose and that gem of a poetic line you always wanted to publish.

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

Source: IAN LURIE at Portent

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