Around the Writer's Block


Some dismiss writer's block as simple procrastination or just "in your head." Others label it a serious cognitive or emotional problem that requires professional help. Blocks can take a variety of forms, from lack of ideas to compulsive editing. The affliction varies in intensity from trivial or temporary to devastating.
Isaac Asimov said, "Writer's block is a sign that you're working on the wrong thing." 
Tom Wolfe called writer's block "…a misnomer. What is labeled writer's block is almost always fear."  
In The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain, Alice Flaherty argues that literary creativity is a function of specific parts of the brain, and that block may be the result of disrupted brain activity in those areas.

Books, blogs, articles, and websites offer suggestions for those times when cleaning the toilet bowl seems more fun than facing a blank screen. Although not every writer's block can be cured by relaxation alone, almost every prescription for beating it down includes relaxation techniques as a major element.
Excerpt from "Relaxing the Writer: Guidebook to the Writer's High" Next, we'll hear what Kate Robinson has to say about writer's block.
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Published on October 10, 2011 12:45
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