Is being lazy the same thing as writer's block?

I don't think so, no. I think laziness and writer's block can go hand-in-hand sometimes, though. Right now, I have the ideas but can't find the words. Lazy is when I give up and walk away.

The only cure for me is to keep my BIC and let blood droplets form on my fingertips.

I don't use the term "writer's block" because it seems kind of strange to me to treat not writing like an affliction that's outside of ones control and, dare I say, a bit special? Why, then, couldn't I say I have cleaner's block, cook's block, doing-the-laundry block, working out block, etc.?

I do note huge differences in my creativity level, though. Sometimes it's flying high and other times my mind is just dull and slow and it's not there, so I dunno.... Still, I just say "I don't feel like writing," leave it at that, and go do something else. The urge always comes back.

I'm going to quote the forum description:

Writer's block is a reality for many writers. This is a place to discuss methods of coping with writer's block. It's not a place to debate the existence of writer's block.

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I may be able to find a better home for this discussion, but it's not going to be in this forum which is specifically about writers's block.

I've spent some time reading up about writers' block and much of the current research suggests it stems from a lack of self-compassion, and from being too critical and hard on oneself. There are all sorts of solutions to it, but the ones which are often suggested--powering through, forcing oneself to write, etc.--are often more harmful in the long run. Create a sense of enjoyment and excitement about writing and the words will come; punish yourself for not being productive enough and you risk blocking yourself further.

But laziness? Nope. It's really not that.

Developing self-compassion is important, I think. Writers are particularly prone to negative thinking drilled into us by that lyin', stinkin' critic in our heads. It likely stemmed from things said to us over the course of lives—incidences we may not remember—but our internal critic has honed and refined those comments to a razor edge. Immuring that negative self-talk deep within is hard work, too. Too many famous writers have opened up about "the block" for it to not be real.

Sometimes, though, writer's block comes about for different reasons: too much debris in our daily lives that demands our focus, leaving us drained of thought; poor health and/or poor nutrition can leave us too debilitated to even think, much less come up with the wordage we need.

What are some other things that might cause writer's block? Can you think of any?

I think there is definitely a difference. Laziness, to me, is choosing to not do the thing when the thing is available to be done.

Writer's block involves choosing to write, but it just isn't happening.

I find the best solution to those days of puttering in coffee shops is to just write *something.* And by *something* it could literally be: "I'm in this shop and I hate this shop and no, that's not true because I love their chai latte. I just wish I could write this scene. X is supposed to be doing this and saying that..." And then things happen.

Coffee costs too much for us to waste our time in cafes.

Mmm, what's being lazy?

I suppose the answer to "perking up" depends on the nature of the perk-vacuum--as others have noted, it can come in many flavors. Why do you think you didn't get as much done as you wanted? What was going through your mind, etc?

What's bein' lazy? I know you asked Nerdilydone, but I can give you a personal example. It's opening up a deliverable I've been struggling with, staring at it for 15 minutes, then shutting it down to indulge in a two-hour marathon of one of the most boring online word games ever developed: Wordchuck.

Ari Meermans said:

What's bein' lazy? I can give you a personal example. It's opening up a deliverable I've been struggling with, staring at it for 15 minutes, then shutting it down to indulge in a two-hour marathon of one of the most boring online word games ever developed: Wordchuck.

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Lol, sure. But I mean, yanno...did you shut it down because you couldn't, because you sat there shredding yourself over it, because there was nothing in your head, because you were obsessing about existence, because you were weighing universal harm vs. not-harm or neutrality in even this small action, because you wish to avoid the feeling of potential failure because there have already been so many and you cannot focus on anything else but the failing, because the feeling of non-progress hurts, because being in limbo is infuriating and you have no mental stamina left at the end of the day to tolerate it, because you already wore yourself out being emotionally available for someone else, because you were physically exhausted, because you were bored, or did you think, well, I could do this, but I just don't want to...

It's not the actions that define laziness, in other words, but the cause of the not-doing, if a definition is to be had (and I mean, I don't know how I would define it personally, so that's just open-ended babbling). But then I'm pretty much just saying what you and others have said, so dunno if that's useful.

It's useful. Yeah.

I have no fear of failure for this deliverable; it's gonna be accepted—with edit suggestions or a knuckle-rap, or sumthin'—but it will be accepted. It's infuriating that what I'm thinking and wanting to write isn't hitting the page (screen). Yeah, fury at myself plays a huge part in my writing.

Ari Meermans said:

It's useful. Yeah.

I have no fear of failure for this deliverable; it's gonna be accepted—with edit suggestions or a knuckle-rap, or sumthin'—but it will be accepted. It's infuriating that what I'm thinking and wanting to write isn't hitting the page (screen). Yeah, fury at myself plays a huge part in my writing.

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Aye, yeah I feel that climbing over obstacles like this are possible, but it takes energy...sometimes we just don't have that in us in the moment, perhaps.

I'm not sure how to label it, but it's enough to recognize that it's a struggle, look at what the struggle's made of...and...that's about as far as I get, personally, much of the time But sometimes there could be a possible path in the origin of the muck, I imagine.

...I really feel I'm just babbling now But, if I had to put words to it--or deny words to it, more accurately--I don't think your fury with yourself is laziness, really, just--a lack of energy, in the ability to absorb or transform the frustration of a thing going unfulfilled.

heh. That's both kind and philosophical, buz. I would certainly never ascribe this to anyone else, but in my case? I consider it an inherent lack of character, hence the fury.

Ari Meermans said:

heh. That's both kind and philosophical, buz. I would certainly never ascribe this to anyone else, but in my case? I consider it an inherent lack of character, hence the fury.

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Well, me too...obviously when it's me, it's because I'm a human-shaped effigy of white-crusted dog poop with dehydrated hookworms sticking out and I deserve nothing more than to be burned into a gaseous swift-dispersing cloud of offensive smells, but when it's other people, suddenly I manage a modicum of compassion.*

Odd how that works.


* assuming I am not in one of Those Moods Which Are Not Advised...

Ari Meermans said:

It's useful. Yeah.

I have no fear of failure for this deliverable; it's gonna be accepted—with edit suggestions or a knuckle-rap, or sumthin'—but it will be accepted. It's infuriating that what I'm thinking and wanting to write isn't hitting the page (screen). Yeah, fury at myself plays a huge part in my writing.

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That's not laziness or really, writer's block so much as the nature of being a writer. Maybe it's not ready to write yet.

Maybe you need to try drafting it in a different way. Try writing a letter to someone—say someone you know or trust or the person waiting for the deliverable and instead of writing the thing write about what you want to say, without worrying about how you say it.

Prewriting is a real thing. There aren't many writers who sit down and do a completed draft just like that. We noodle. We sketch. We outline or brain storm or free write. We play a game or take a walk while we let our hind brain sort.

Try writing around the edges of the thing, without writing the thing. "What I want to write about is . . . "

AW Admin said:

That's not laziness or really, writer's block so much as the nature of being a writer. Maybe it's not ready to write yet.

Maybe you need to try drafting it in a different way. Try writing a letter to someone—say someone you know or trust or the person waiting for the deliverable and instead of writing the thing write about what you want to say, without worrying about how you say it.

Prewriting is a real thing. There aren't many writers who sit down and do a completed draft just like that. We noodle. We sketch. We outline or brain storm or free write. We play a game or take a walk while we let our hind brain sort.

Try writing around the edges of the thing, without writing the thing. "What I want to write about is . . . "

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::snort:: Yer funny, Lisa. AS IF I'd send ya a letter or my noodlin'. No, when I send it in, it'll be at least a decent effort.

Actually and in all seriosity, my biggest writing hang-up—and that applies to ALL my writing—is conveying the emotion required because I'm basically an emotionless* little piece of work.

ETA: *except for fury, of course.

Ari Meermans said:

::snort:: Yer funny, Lisa. AS IF I'd send ya a letter or my noodlin'. No, when I send it in, it'll be at least a decent effort.

Actually and in all seriosity, my biggest writing hang-up—and that applies to ALL my writing—is conveying the emotion required because I'm basically an emotionless little piece of work.

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You don't have to send it; just write it. In fact the point is that you aren't going to send it, you may not even keep it, but it gets your hind brain engaged in nudging your frontal cortex.

I swear this works. Thinking around the edges of it helps find a path to say what you want to say. This is a thing I learned not only in my own writing, but in working with all kinds of other writers.

Ari Meermans said:

*except for fury, of course.

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The fury is why we love you.

I'm reminded of the great Eagles' line (penned by Glenn Frey, I'd guess) from "Lyin' Eyes"?:

Did she get tired, or did she just get lazy?

caw

I get writer's block when I try to push the story one way and it wants to go in another direction. When my brain warms up to this the words flow.

buzhidao said:

I don't think your fury with yourself is laziness, really, just--a lack of energy, in the ability to absorb or transform the frustration of a thing going unfulfilled.

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Ari Meermans said:

heh. That's both kind and philosophical, buz. I would certainly never ascribe this to anyone else, but in my case? I consider it an inherent lack of character, hence the fury.

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Ari, you are full of character, in all the best ways. This isn't laziness, or a lack of character. It's a lack of self-compassion, as I said upstream. You're being far too hard on yourself.

AW Admin said:

Maybe you need to try drafting it in a different way. Try writing a letter to someone—say someone you know or trust or the person waiting for the deliverable and instead of writing the thing write about what you want to say, without worrying about how you say it.

Prewriting is a real thing. There aren't many writers who sit down and do a completed draft just like that. We noodle. We sketch. We outline or brain storm or free write. We play a game or take a walk while we let our hind brain sort.

Try writing around the edges of the thing, without writing the thing. "What I want to write about is . . . "

Click to expand...

AW Admin said:

You don't have to send it; just write it. In fact the point is that you aren't going to send it, you may not even keep it, but it gets your hind brain engaged in nudging your frontal cortex.

I swear this works. Thinking around the edges of it helps find a path to say what you want to say. This is a thing I learned not only in my own writing, but in working with all kinds of other writers.

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It definitely works. Change how you approach writing and the writing changes too. Making it more fun, or somehow less important ("I'm never going to send this letter," or, "This is only making notes, it's not real writing,") makes it less intimidating, and therefore more achievable.

I appreciate that, folks, I do. But the point is we give ourselves all sorts of reasons (read: excuses) for not writing: laziness, negative self-talk, no time, no space, too much noise, no noise. The reasons are as varied and individual as we are.

Sometimes, though, there is no immediately identifiable reason, nothing we're conscious of, anyway. The words simply won't come. It's real. It happens. Now, there are some good coping mechanisms given above but there are others, too. What do you do? Do you go for a walk in the fresh air? Do you tell Calgon to take you away? What do you do?

Ari Meermans said:

I appreciate that, folks, I do. But the point is we give ourselves all sorts of reasons (read: excuses) for not writing: laziness, negative self-talk, no time, no space, too much noise, no noise. The reasons are as varied and individual as we are.

Sometimes, though, there is no immediately identifiable reason, nothing we're conscious of, anyway. The words simply won't come. It's real. It happens. Now, there are some good coping mechanisms given above but there are others, too. What do you do? Do you go for a walk in the fresh air? Do you tell Calgon to take you away? What do you do?

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Well, what I do or don't do is related to the reason, which is why I asked

So. Sometimes, I'm capable of writing, I can sort of think of what to write, but the thing just isn't coming together. I may then switch to another project, thinking this one wasn't meant to be, or I haven't pre-planned enough yet. Or I may try more planning and outlining. Or I may pull myself back entirely and seek some sort of extra-my-brain thought in another medium, by which I mean I usually watch a movie or read nonfiction articles or something, in order to introduce myself to elements of the world that I cannot think of on my own. I may talk to friends hoping to work something out.

Sometimes, I'm stuck on plot. I sometimes find freewriting -- "talking" to myself in text -- helpful. What if this happened? Does it make sense? Would it make more sense if x? If I carry that to its logical conclusion, or to several conclusions, what would happen? Fart fart fart. Can't think of anything. What motivates the character? List anything that jumps to mind. Love. Love of a dog. Love of a lion. Loving a lion would probably kill her or at least hurt a lot. There are no lions in this setting, that's a problem. And so on. I might also do this with the lights off and my eyes closed, letting my brain drift on the subject. Some people get some ideas in the shower, on walks, or outside their usual habitats...getting the brain to work its way out of a rut in whatever way possible.

Sometimes I am bored of what I'm writing, so any of the above might be tried. Freewriting, plugging more input into myself to play with, pictures, places, people, things, histories; trying to think of something I'm interested in enough to write. Nonfiction gives me more ideas than anything else. Many of them are not workable with what I'm trying to do, but it's the most fertile ground for me.

All of the above might fail. When it does, I don't have a backup plan. I just withdraw. Withdrawing is not effective but I don't know what else to do.

Sometimes I hate what I'm writing. It looks ugly, nothing's coming out right. I can switch to another project but the same thing happens. I can't think. I can't do. My head is full of mud. I don't have a fix for this. I try to get other bits of my life in order hoping that I will have an improved mood overall, but I don't often get very far. I try to think of what I might tell a friend. Poop it out anyway, I might say, make a mess, try to edit later, or if you need a break take a break, just breathe, don't be too hard on yourself, you're majestic as fuck even when this happens, we're all human, sometimes things just don't work, it's okay, this happens. And it does. Sometimes I do poop something out anyway, sometimes I just sit in my mess and wallow. (Ideally the "sitting in the mess" part would be breathing and taking a break, but I'm bad at doing the good things)

Often, I'm just...I cannot see any point in spending the energy doing this. I don't get anything out of it and neither does anyone else. The world does not need my voice. My voice has nothing to say anyway. I do not have stories in me. I should step aside and make room for people who do, whose voices are needed, who have something in them. I can't do this well enough for money and I don't have enough love in me to do it for love. I should stop trying. Etcetera.

I don't have a fix for this either. That stops me writing. All I do then is just...wait. Weeks, months maybe. Why write if no one gets anything out of it, after all?

The above is part of a larger mental affliction, though. So I try to focus on what to do with that. Writing, not writing, it doesn't matter; just need to keep myself functional and see if I can get my brain online.

And I don't think all that quite covers all possible causes and responses, either? But, yanno, this is just what I experience, what I attempt. And none of it really has to do with motivation or impetus. If I have the motivation, I have it; if I don't, I don't--I have not yet discovered how to manufacture it.
Mmm. I don't know how to end a post effectively. * flourishes with bunch of flowers *

Fruitbat said:

I don't use the term "writer's block" because it seems kind of strange to me to treat not writing like an affliction that's outside of ones control and, dare I say, a bit special? Why, then, couldn't I say I have cleaner's block, cook's block, doing-the-laundry block, working out block, etc.?

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There are countless afflictions that involved "not doing something." A lot of them are purely medical, of course. Not breathing? Asthma. Not pooing? Constipation. Blood not clotting? Hemophilia. Not creating enough insulin? Diabetes. When something stops working the way it should, it's trouble.

There are also plenty of "not doing something" issues that may be purely mental, but are still debilitating. One specific to a different art form would be stage fright. If you want to be an actor, but freeze up in panic every time you're in front of an audience, you have a problem. Phobias in general can be just awful. I once worked (very briefly) with a young lady who was terrified of cats. I'll never understand why she even applied for a job at a vet clinic, but the first (and only) time she had to bathe a cat, I gave her some instructions and a demonstration, left briefly to answer the phone, and returned to find her doing a great job... except for the tears streaming down her cheeks. Poor kid. We offered to work around it and let her just handle dogs, but she quit a couple days later. Her inability to do something (in this case, be around cats) lost her a paycheck.

And of course, there are many afflictions of "not doing something" that may have physical causes, mental causes, or some combination of the two, such as insomnia.

If that "something" is something you desperately want to do and the issue at hand is keeping you from doing it, then you have a problem on your hands. Can't say I've ever had "cleaner's block" or "doing the laundry block," but I HAVE had what you could call "working out block," back when I was doing a lot of running. In my case, it was "runner's knee." (note the activity-specific name. It's not being "special," it's just a name that reflects the group most commonly afflicted by this particular issue). At the worst point, I'd go for a run and have to turn back after a mile or two because even though I wanted to push through the pain and keep going, I also recognized that if I did, I'd make things worse and get to run even less. The more I did the thing I wanted to do, the less I could do that same thing. It was incredibly frustrating.

There are also tons of job-specific illnesses and problems. Not being a coal miner, I'll probably never get black lung. Doesn't mean it doesn't exist or that it's not a problem for the sufferers. There are also problems that exist in some form for everyone, but are a much more serious problem for folks in specific situations. An accountant who loses her voice for a few days will be inconvenienced. A singer with the same problem will be out of work until the issue is resolved. Anyone can get a minor concussion, but few people will get enough of them to cause them long-term issues... unless you're a football player.


I've never understood the mentality of "if it's not a problem for me, then it obviously doesn't exist." I mean, I can eat peanuts all day long with no problem. In my personal experience, peanuts are not only harmless, but delicious. Does that mean peanut allergies don't exist? Of course not! It just means I'm one of the lucky folks who hasn't had to deal with that particular problem.

Sadly, writer's block falls into the category of problems that people tend to dismiss as whining and drama. But depression is NOT being a bit blue. migraines are NOT regular headaches with extra whining, narcolepsy is NOT the same as being a little sleepy, infertility doesn't magically resolve itself by "just relaxing," and writer's block is DEFINITELY not just "being lazy."

I've been lazy about writing from time to time. However, when I finally put my butt in the chair, I'm able to write (albeit better on some days than others). I can't imagine how awful it must be to try to write and come up completely empty. And then to sit there and wonder, "what do I do? Is there a cure? How long will I be this way? What if it never comes back?!" *Shudders* Folks with writer's block have my sympathy, and I'm really glad they have a place like AW to connect with people who have been there and can provide support and suggestions.