Writer's block

[prizzley]

"Writers have the perfect excuse when they get stuck. Inaction is dignified not by the name of laziness but by writer’s block, a term that sounds like a medical condition. No builder ever refused to knock a wall down citing builder’s block. Plumbers don’t give you a pained look and say they don’t know when the muse will strike to allow them to fix the shower. But if you sit in front of a screen for hours doing nothing, you have an acceptable get-out."

This comment in yesterday’s paper made me stop and think, particularly about the word acceptable. There are days when I struggle to progress my wip, because I’m tired, not in the mood, or have limited time so decide it’s not worth starting. The excuses are endless. But I also know, having learned from experience that once I start the words will start to flow, although I sometimes have to work on something else until I can face the wip. And if I work through the excuses, it’s easier to do so the next time.

So for me, writer’s block really is an unacceptable excuse and I know a little bit of determination will get me through it. Am I lucky, that I haven’t hit an immoveable brick wall, or does everyone find that writing is 95% perspiration and 5% inspiration, give or take a few dozen percentage points?

 

[The Judge]

Er... well, I'd suggest that when you struggle to progress your book it's becase you're tired or not in the mood or have limited time. Which is nothing to do with writer's block. So the fact that you are able to have words flow when you force yourself to sit at the keyboard is neither here nor there. It is, with all due respect, much like someone who has been a bit down telling someone with clinical depression that there's no such thing.

As for anyone who feels that writing -- the act of creation, the breathing of life into characters so that words on a bit of paper can make people laugh, weep, feel -- that this is on a par with plumbing or knocking a wall down...

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

As a complete amateur, I can only say that there are times when writing doesn't feel like much fun at all. To try to deal with this, I am currently working on three different projects, so I can skip to another when I get bored with one. I also enjoy doing things like the 75 word challenge. Sort of like a warm-up exercise, I suppose.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I dunno, yer honour. There's something to be said about taking a professional, pragmatic attitude to it and buckling down. That said, when I'm not motivated to write, or I'm a bit stuck, I know it'll be rubbish, so I usually pop off and do some editing instead, you know the type where you move commas around, not the sort where you pull people in closer etc.

 

[DarkYami]

I always get stuck finding the right words, i know what i want to write but then when it comes to getting it out of my head some how the words disappear

 

[Hex]

I haven't really had it but I do believe that it exists.

Like TJ said, it's not the same thing as knocking down a wall. eg: people don't come by and say, "Very well knocked down, that wall, but you know what? I didn't quite love it so I won't be employing you to knock down my wall."

It's like that whole "Where do your ideas come from?" thing. I have no idea at all and I live in fear that because I don't know, one day they might just stop.

Which doesn't mean I disagree with springs -- it is sensible to treat writing like a job. But sometimes that's not enough.

 

[Ursa major]

It strikes me that writer's block is more like a builder being unable to face (and, perhaps, not seeing how they could ever face) knocking down that wall (indeed, any wall) rather than refusing to do so because they can't be bothered. It sounds a lot like the debilitation that some experience when they're depressed.

 

[Warren_Paul]

I've never experienced 'writers block' myself, so can't really comment on what it feels like, but I've always treated my writing in a professional manner - mainly because I'm trying to make a career from it. But I do believe that writers block exists.

I don't think being tired or not in the mood to write comes under writers block. Isn't it when you want to write something, go so far as sitting down at the computer with your fingers on the table, yet no matter how hard you try, you just can't think of what to write?

I don't think the quote from the paper is being fair, to be honest. Not being in the mood to write would be considered equal laziness to builders or plumbers not wanting to do their work, and from what I can see, we are more often not in the mood to write than stuck in writers block.

I think a better interpretation would be to compare it to whether the builder or plumber even knows how to do the job they are hired for. If a builder doesn't know how to build a particular wall, then that is their equivalent to writers block. If a plumber comes to work on a job and discovers they don't know how to fix a pipe, that is their equivalent to writers block.

It's not that they don't want to, but that they don't know how to - just like a writer suffering from writers block doesn't know how to write the next part of their book.

 

[Gumboot]

I personally believe that "writer's block" is nothing more than a writer finding them self unable to enter "flow" (often called being "in the zone") as proposed by psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi.

Understanding the circumstances required to enable flow would go a long way towards preventing so-called writer's block.

 

[Bowler1]

I dunno, yer honour. There's something to be said about taking a professional, pragmatic attitude to it and buckling down. That said, when I'm not motivated to write, or I'm a bit stuck, I know it'll be rubbish, so I usually pop off and do some editing instead, you know the type where you move commas around, not the sort where you pull people in closer etc.

I've never had writers block but I have been too tired to get stuck in and get going sometimes. That's the the rest of life getting in the way of our hobby that we're hoping to make some cash from. Busy days at work, or just busy sometimes, that's life I guess.

I'm with Springs on those days when my muse has quite sensibly gone to bed and is wondering why I'm still up and at my keyboard. As most of my writing is now editing and revision, there is always something to be done - so I edit. This can get the muse back out of bed, or be just more editing. It's not just the creating that counts, polishing has to be done as well and it can be best that the muse is not around for the hard graft.

So if blocked - edit.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

To me its the difference in work that's the key. A builder turns up to work and he knows what he has to do. The same thing he has done a thousand times before. Brick A goes on brick B with a slap of morter. (Not wanting to put down building at all, just saying that its not like he has to go back and start thinking, which brick do I put where etc?)

Writers though, and artists are constantly thinking what word does go here? Does this sound better than that? As a writer you have to think and make choices constantly. One word is not like another.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[prizzley]

I dunno, yer honour. There's something to be said about taking a professional, pragmatic attitude to it and buckling down. That said, when I'm not motivated to write, or I'm a bit stuck, I know it'll be rubbish, so I usually pop off and do some editing instead, you know the type where you move commas around, not the sort where you pull people in closer etc.

Exactly.

I haven't really had it but I do believe that it exists. . . It's like that whole "Where do your ideas come from?" thing. I have no idea at all and I live in fear that because I don't know, one day they might just stop.

Which doesn't mean I disagree with springs -- it is sensible to treat writing like a job. But sometimes that's not enough.

I wonder though whether the more professional we are about writing, the easier it it becomes to find the right words and to keep the ideas flowing. That's been my experience so far, fingers crossed, especially when adrenalin kicks in for deadlines, competitions, challenges.

 

[A. S. Behsam]

Er... well, I'd suggest that when you struggle to progress your book it's becase you're tired or not in the mood or have limited time. Which is nothing to do with writer's block. So the fact that you are able to have words flow when you force yourself to sit at the keyboard is neither here nor there. It is, with all due respect, much like someone who has been a bit down telling someone with clinical depression that there's no such thing.

As for anyone who feels that writing -- the act of creation, the breathing of life into characters so that words on a bit of paper can make people laugh, weep, feel -- that this is on a par with plumbing or knocking a wall down...

I completely agree with you, Judge.

 

[Hex]

I wonder though whether the more professional we are about writing, the easier it it becomes to find the right words and to keep the ideas flowing. That's been my experience so far, fingers crossed, especially when adrenalin kicks in for deadlines, competitions, challenges.

Dunno. I'll let you know if (a) I come to regard my writing behaviour as 'professional', (b) I get writer's block.

Has anyone here had it, by the way?

 

[HareBrain]

Has anyone here had it, by the way?

I've had what I call writer's block, but that's not to say it's the same as everyone else's. I've had periods, sometimes of several weeks, where I haven't been able to face writing because every word I try to type stinks of inevitable failure and pointlessness (or I know it will, even if I don't actually get round to typing it).

I've also had periods of feeling unable to progress until I've sorted out a plot conundrum. I guess that could also be called writer's block, but it's an entirely different thing.

 

[Biskit]

Hi,

To me its the difference in work that's the key. A builder turns up to work and he knows what he has to do. The same thing he has done a thousand times before. Brick A goes on brick B with a slap of morter. (Not wanting to put down building at all, just saying that its not like he has to go back and start thinking, which brick do I put where etc?)

Writers though, and artists are constantly thinking what word does go here? Does this sound better than that? As a writer you have to think and make choices constantly. One word is not like another.

Cheers, Greg.

Writing is an intellectual exercise as much as anything else. Wanting to get on with it and seeing what to do next don't always go together.

A scary number of decades ago, I was trying to 'write' Ch6 of my PhD thesis. The problem was not the writing, but the maths - I 'knew' the answer and couldn't prove it. Cue many hours of 'unproductive' poking at the problem, reams of paper covered in scrawl, and days of frustration looking for the right approach.

I have never had quite such a significant block writing fiction, but it does still happen - I know what I want, but not how to do it. Cue many hours of 'unproductive' poking...

 

[Jo Zebedee]

But, I don't see that unproductive poking as anything other than part of the writing process. I poke around, see what happens, sometimes spend days scribbling in a file block before I type again.

And that's sort of what I meant about taking a professional attitude. I wasn't being harsh on anyone who's down and not able to get motivated or whatever, no more than I would be on the builder or the plumber.

But if we take it up a level to say, the architect, they have planning time, and design time, and on the build time, and review time, and each is part of the process. So, too, with the writer. So, if it's not flowing that day, go and do something else that is part of the process. Think about a character arc, write out a time line, go and read something that you think might help the block. If it's part of the process, that's still writing time to me. And that's sort of what I meant about taking a pragmatic approach; that if it's the time you've set aside to write, then you should. It just doesn't neccessarily have to be three hours at a keyboard.

 

[Abernovo]

But there's also the shame involved of admitting (including to yourself) that you've been staring at a blank screen, unable to produce; or that you've not even tried typing, because you KNOW that all you're going to produce is 50 Shades of Sh**e (which makes Grey look like a Nobel masterpiece).

Having the idea, but being unable to put it on paper/screen is soul-searing. Like an architect who is suddenly unable to draw straight.

 

[Ursa major]

Nearly every month I admit to not being able to come up with a 75-word challenge entry until the last day. (In fact, I'm going to have to do so again today.)

I don't think that's writer's block, for all I lack is an idea and a way to encapsulate it. Writer's block is a deeper phenomenon than that, one where the mere thought of writing anything seems divorced from living one's life, or even somehow distasteful. This is why is can affect those with it so profoundly.

To return to that blank page/screen.... One could say that the page doesn't rebuke you for leaving it blank; you rebuke the page for demanding to be filled with your writing.

 

[Biskit]

If the blank screen/page is staying blank, that's something I find a problem. It's time to walk away, do something mentally undemanding. Laundry, washing-up, feed the cat, walk round the block. I don't cope with boredom and my mind will start picking away at the current problem, whether that's maths, physics or the next scene. I often find that not having the page/screen/existing answers in front of me can help, forcing me to start over from the beginning.

It doesn't always work, but every time I get to look at the problem from a new angle, that's a step closer to an answer.

The downside of this is the occasional sock in the cutlery draw or the cat spitting Fairy Liquid all over the kitchen. Even mentally undemanding tasks need some concentration.