Dispelling the Writer’s Block Myth
photo credit: Jonno Witts via photopin cc
One of the recurring subjects in writing is the dreaded writer’s block. As I understand it, for most people, writer’s block seems to be the inability to get the work moving. The blank page or screen sits there, mocking you, until it becomes so oppressive that you walk away. Other versions, which I actually don’t think are writer’s block, include not being able to figure out where one specific story goes next or not being able to get one of the multiple ideas you do have off the ground. In my experience, writer’s block is a myth.
I’ve had moments where I couldn’t figure out what happens next in a book. I’ve had stories that never seemed to go anywhere. Plenty of false starts, unfinished novels, and bad writing in my past, but I have never experienced, in close to 15 years of amateur and professional writing, a flat out inability to write.
What I have experienced, and suspect most people mistake as writer’s block, is a lack of passion for what I’m writing. I either don’t care what happens next, wasn’t interested in the topic in first place (think informational articles on some very dry topic), or am simply having an off day.
It was never that I couldn’t write. I just couldn’t write in that fiery heat that early 20th century writer’s waxed rhapsodic about. The muse wasn’t speaking. Or, as Stephen King would put it, the guys in the basement were taking a day off. None of which impaired my basic abilities to construct serviceable sentences, reason my way through plot problems, or deliver finished work. I just had to MAKE MYSELF DO IT. You know, like going to work when you’re hung over, or tired, or just don’t feel like it.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is what separates the serious writers from the dabblers. You don’t have writer’s block. What you have is a passion deficit. You can still write. You just need to accept that it’s going to feel like work that day, maybe the next day, and maybe for weeks at a time. Here’s the thing, though, the writing will get done.
More importantly, because your essential skill set hasn’t changed, it will be about as good as everything else you write. It’s just harder to do. So, stop fretting about writer’s block, stop waiting for the muse to fill you with creative fire, and start putting words on the page. Do it today.
