Writers Block

A good post about this at Patricia Wrede’s blog.

I like this post because

(a) Patricia Wrede immediately separates out clinical depression as something else before moving on, which I do think is crucial; and

(b) To my surprise, she also comes up with some new things I haven’t read before / thought of.

In this post, Patricia Wrede distinguishes between burnout, extreme disinclination to work on something — I think surely these two intergrade into each other, but she lists them as #1 and #4, so she considers them separate. I would also say that extreme disinclination and depression might intergrade and I would be very suspicious if more than a couple of days passed and an author (meaning me) could not force herself to make noticeable progress on a project.

I say that because I am familiar with extreme disinclination, I hate it, it happens, I agree it’s not the same thing as depression or just getting stuck, and here is where setting a minimum wordcount per day or a minimum time spent writing per day might be most helpful, imo.

She also mentions more craft-related types of problems: writing block and project block. The former basically means having a hard time picking up a new project, and the latter basically indicates that the author is stuck in the middle of a specific project.

[Maybe you should figure out everyone’s secret plans before you’re 100,000 words into the story? -ed]

Decent suggestions at the linked post, with no indication that this is a list of Magic Tips That Will Work or anything like that.

Please Feel Free to Share: