The Block
I have now had three writers who worked in the newspaper or advertising industry prior to becoming fulltime novelists say virtually the same thing about writing as a daily discipline: you can’t tell an editor or a creative director you’ve got writer’s block. And yet in his book Adventures in The Screen Trade William Goldman, one of the most successful screenwriters Hollywood has ever produced, describes suffering with a long and agonizing bout of writer’s block. Apparently this bugbear can visit the best of them. I’ve certainly never had writer’s block the way Goldman described it. From him, chemotherapy would be preferable to a prolonged case of writer’s block. But who can say that they have never been blocked on anything? Unfortunately, being blocked is virtually a human condition. That is, questioning yourself; that is, believing you can get it wrong.
So here then are a few quick tips if you are feeling blocked, which I have culled from my own experiences and my conversations with other writers:
- Free write. Write anything and everything that comes to your mind as quickly as possible without judging it. This gets you back into the flow.
- Keep a journal. Write down everything you’re afraid of in it. Get it out of you. Look at it and see how silly it is.
- Write something different. Move to a different part of your story that you are interested in.
- Step away. I’ve learned that if it’s not coming this day, it might come the next.
- Write on a different project. Move to poetry, blog, write a letter.
- Talk to someone. Find a friend and unload.
Finally, and most importantly, be kind. Be as kind as you can possibly be. Even if you can’t write anything, be kind. The whip will get you nowhere. It’s only fear that’s ever blocking your way, after all, and fear is always an illusion, a nightmare we’ve chosen to believe.