Your thoughts about writer's block?

For me, writer's block is like this great wad of cotton gets stuffed inside my brain and blocks out the words to such a degree that it will occasionally affect my verbal communication as well because I can't think of the proper words to say. It doesn't happen very often, thankfully, only once or twice a year at the most, but it can last anywhere from several days to several weeks.

I know there are a lot of writers who deny the existence of writer's block, who say it's simply a matter of being lazy/avoiding the task, but for me there's a huge difference between my lazy days and the days when the words truly are not there.

I hope this helped! And good luck with your presentation.

The biggest issue I see with Writer's Block is a lot of professional writers claiming it doesn't exist. This then really confuses and upsets new writers who think, "But I've been blocked, I know I have. Does that make me not a real writer then?"

It's a question of semantics. What professional writers mean when they say Writer's Block doesn't exist is that using WB as an excuse is a stupid idea. Just because one can feel blocked on occasion doesn't mean you give up on the project or you don't work through it. It doesn't mean "I'm blocked, woe is me, what a life I lead . . . I'm going to go do something else . . . for ten years."

But that feeling of being stuck, of not knowing where to go next, just being mad and frustrated with yourself. That exists.

Now I realise you want some suggestions on getting over this feeling (I say going for a walk does wonders ), but I think it might be important to discuss this issue as well. Because many of these writers are going to run into other writers who will tell them it doesn't exist. And explaining that what they mean is not that those feelings don't exist, but that the excuse of WB meaning you have permission to stop writing doesn't exist, I think would be very useful.

Toothpaste said:

It's a question of semantics. What professional writers mean when they say Writer's Block doesn't exist is that using WB as an excuse is a stupid idea. Just because one can feel blocked on occasion doesn't mean you give up on the project or you don't work through it. It doesn't mean "I'm blocked, woe is me, what a life I lead . . . I'm going to go do something else . . . for ten years."

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I agree with this, a lot of the debate over whether or not it "exists" is a matter of how it's framed. I agree the intention in saying 'there isn't any outside force that stops you from writing' is good, and I agree with it, but sometimes there just is something in your mind that blocks you. You shouldn't let it take over and you shouldn't surrender to it, but I don't see the point in pretending it's not there.

I don't get generally blocked very often (knock on wood! )-- sometimes I don't know where to go next or how to do something but I can usually work on something else and within a day or two I'm ready to tackle the first thing again. But I do sometimes have days where the writing part of my brain jams-- I may be dying to write, but it's not working properly. It doesn't flow. I feel like I can't write a decent sentence, I can't express an emotion, I can't build tension-- none of it is working. I might struggle through a page but it's just awful, dead on the page, and by then I'm feeling frustrated and upset because it's NOT WORKING. So I just concede and take the day off, and by the next day it's usually fine. I hate it, though, especially when I'm busy and it hits on my day off!!

I don't know what causes it really... I do sometimes feel very upset that I'm not a good writer and my story sucks etc., but the two don't seem to corrolate. Those feelings hit when I'm reading my stuff or talking about it with someone who's read it or sometimes reading other great literature, not when I'm writing or preparing to. I can be feeling awesome about my work and writing and get hit by a writer's-block-brain-jam.

I have no idea if any of that's helpful to you, but there's a couple of my perspectives!

I definitely agree that the [questionable] existence of writer's block should be included. Too many writers use that temporary "what the hell do I do with this" situation (which every writer and every story has at least a hundred of) as the reason for not writing anything - but why do they not want to write at that point? I really see this occurring in three stages - the first is where they just give up, sometimes permanently. The second is when they try all kinds of distractions (something other than writing) to 'catch the muse' - so at least they haven't given up completely. The third is when they realize they just have to write, regardless of what it is and whether it's any good at all. It would be interesting to see where people are on that 'scale' and what caused them to get there.

Three kinds of blocks for me or semi-blocks:

1) trying to write Something Important rather than something fun. AKA, the Taking-myself-too-seriously block, or trying-to-impress-rather-than-just-write block. The ego picking the genre rather than the heart. This is actually the only one that truly qualifies as "block" for me.

2) The refusal to write the planned scene. Meaning, the novel has taken a wrong turn and the "block" is a healthy message that I don't want to write that scene for a perfectly good reason. The problem with this one is, you can say to yourself, "self, I'm just being lazy!" and force writing anyway. The trick to differentiating (for me, YMMV) is that when I am just being lazy, the block gives way by the second day of pushing at it. If my unconscious mind is sending up a truthful message that I'm off-course, the resistance just sits there on my head day after day...and feels heavier with each day.

3) The choice not to write. This isn't a block, of course. But if your ego is all invested in being a writer and you're choosing not to write for awhile, sometimes it's easier to say "blocked!" to yourself than just saying "I need a break" for whatever reason. Any reason is legitimate. "I'm grieving a death in the family." "I'm tired of rejection." "My mind is whirling around too fast and I need it to settle." "I need a vacation, like normal folks." In a way, hanging out on a board or with other writers makes this one feel more awful, because there is peer pressure to keep writing...yet maybe it's not the right thing, right this instant.

HTH and good luck.

I think what professional writers mean when they say writers block doesn't exist is just that they don't let difficulties stop them. Good writers learn go sit their butt down and write no matter what. It's something I struggle with every day, but it helps to know that if you just press on, you can get past it.

When I saw I'm 'blocked', like others have pointed out already, it usually means I have no enthusiasm for the scene I'm about to write. My head will usually go for the more interesting works in progress when faced with something I just don't want to do. Sometimes I'll be stuck for hours, days, weeks until I sit myself down and say "Okay, something's not working here, why can't I write this? Or better yet, why don't I want to write this?"

I know people who get around it by going on writing sprints to 'unblock' their minds, and sometimes it works. I know some people who just start writing the damn thing and after the first hundred words or so it isn't so bad. And then there's me thinking "let's find the problem in this scene and make it so I want to write it." Different strokes for different folks.

One thing in common is that, like everyone else here has already said, writer's block is not meant to be an excuse. A problem yes, but one to be overcome.

When I don't write it's because I don't want to do it. It's the same reason I don't mow the lawn. I can find thirty other things that need to be done.

I just love the cardboard cowboys and artifcial authors who expound endlessly on the subject of whether or not there is actually anything behind the label "Writer's Block". If you can say with any degree of surety at all that there is no such thing as writer's block, then you've never been there.

I just came through three years of the most horrible writer's block one could imagine. Three years of not being able to write anything ... at all. The degree of depression that followed it was so debilitating that there were honestly times when I wondered why I bothered to get out of bed. After all, there was nothing to get up for. And there are few things more depressing to a writer than not being able to write. To stare at a blank screen or sit with a notepad and pen in hand and see and feel nothing can be absolutely destructive. And when I see some supposedly great but at least well-sold writer spewing nonsense about there not being such a thing as writer's block, it just makes me want to scream!

When I finally broke through my blockade, I knocked out almost 28,000 words in two weeks, finished a laguishing manuscript, and now have two mss out making the rounds. Yeh. Life is good. But it wasn't so very long ago that, though I might have smiled and said life is good, I certainly didn't believe it.

So, yes, there is, most certainly, such a malaise as Writer's Block. It can be as simple as dificulty breaking through a rough spot in a scene or it can be so complex and difficult as to disrupt your entire life. Kind of makes you wonder how many truly excellent writers have never been known because they drowned in the sea of words they could not get out.

Writer's Block? Helz yeah!

TheWordsmith said:

I just love the cardboard cowboys and artifcial authors who expound endlessly on the subject of whether or not there is actually anything behind the label "Writer's Block". If you can say with any degree of surety at all that there is no such thing as writer's block, then you've never been there.

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First, I'd take issue with the 'cardboard cowboys' and "artifcial authors' terminology.

Second, staring at a blank screen is not the way to overcome not writing. Typing helps. And I've "been there" - except I recognized the real reasons why I wasn't writing, including clinical depression. But the only times I ran into "writer's block" were those times I just didn't kick myself into the chair and actually start typing. I didn't wait for an idea or inspiration or anything else. Sure, 90% of it was crap - but then I found that one sentence that sparked it all. But if I'd sat around wringing my hands about what I couldn't do instead of just typing away, I wouldn't have found that sentence.

shadowwalker said:

First, I'd take issue with the 'cardboard cowboys' and "artifcial authors' terminology.

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Ditto.

Nothing cures so-called writer's block like a deadline with a paycheck on the line.

Writer's Block is something every writer gets at one time or another. I've had it often enough to know. My cure? Listen to some good music or play my Nintendo DS until I get an idea.

Al Stevens said:

Ditto.

Nothing cures so-called writer's block like a deadline with a paycheck on the line.

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If only this were true for everybody.

TheWordsmith said:

I just love the cardboard cowboys and artifcial authors who expound endlessly on the subject of whether or not there is actually anything behind the label "Writer's Block". If you can say with any degree of surety at all that there is no such thing as writer's block, then you've never been there...
Writer's Block? Helz yeah!

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I 100% believe you, and anyone who tells you that you are wrong would, if the Universe worked in any fair way, suffer from it themselves badly as punishment for their hubris.

It's irksome, I know, when people pretend to be experts regarding everyone else. I sympathize. I can only report what happened to me or what friends have said happened to them. I don't tell any other adult human being what their interior life is like/should be like/should be defined as; it would be unbelievably offensive for me to try.

Anaquana said:

If only this were true for everybody.

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The cure or the paycheck?

I was "blocked" for a couple years after some personal issues. I will neither confirm nor deny the existence of writer's block because only a writer can tell you their reasons for not writing, but I can tell you my experience.

For two years I wrote nothing, except for a spurt of 10,000 words in two days. I kept telling myself I'd try the next day, but then I'd be too depressed to do it.

A few months ago, I finally got back into the swing of things. Writing nearly every day and ideas spewing out of me. Then, as I continued writing, I finally realized my reason for not writing all that time. It hit me that even though I had braced myself for the inevitable rejection that all writers must face and had accepted it, my subconscious apparently had not. As long as I didn't write, I couldn't be rejected. As long as I didn't write, I could still imagine what it would be like to have my dream agent.

I've finally come to terms with those feelings (even though I thought I had years ago) and now I'm writing more than I ever did.

Maybe other writers who have writer's block are having the same problem. Maybe they just don't know what it is that's holding them back. Hell, maybe that's what writer's block is. The writer holding themselves back from something for a reason they haven't realized yet.

But that's my personal experience. I hope that maybe it will help someone else.

Al Stevens said:

The cure or the paycheck?

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The cure.

It's like stage fright (performance anxiety). Some people get it; some don't. The ones who suffer from stage fright tend to say things like, "if you don't get stage fright, then you're not a true performer." Horse hockey.

I'm blocked, I suppose. I do some creative writing, but probably less than I wish, mainly because every time I sit down to do some, I feel this damp cold cloak of futility descend on me, knowing that nobody will ever read the stuff, so what's the point?

caw

For me, writer's block comes in the form of depressive phases. When I'm mildly manic, the thoughts and words flow freely. When I'm depressed, it's like pulling teeth. That's usually when I read or go on Absolute Write instead of writing.

Al Stevens said:

It's like stage fright (performance anxiety). Some people get it; some don't. The ones who suffer from stage fright tend to say things like, "if you don't get stage fright, then you're not a true performer." Horse hockey.

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Except I've heard from several well-respected professional authors that if you get writer's block then you're not a real writer. Both are horse hockey. Everybody's brains are wired differently so what some experience others won't and what works for some won't work for others.

I find it to be the very height of arrogance and ignorance for somebody to declaim with 100% certainty that writer's block doesn't exist because they've never experienced it before. (The previous statement was a general one and not directed at anyone here)