When is a block good?

Well, fixing the problem is good, but is the block good? Like, if you could have identified the problem right away and skipped the weeks of non-productiveness, wouldn't that have been better?

Have you ever had one of these 'the words are bad so I stop' moments and then come back and found that the words weren't bad? If you haven't, then there doesn't seem to be a problem with sorting between blocks-for-no-reason and blocks-for-a-reason.

If you do sometimes get frustrated and take weeks off and then come back and find that your work was on track all along, then I guess you do need to worry about sorting things out.

I don't know. Sometimes we need breaks, sure. But if you're trying to maintain your productivity, I think you need to work on getting more analytical about your own work. If you can tell when there's a problem, then you can focus on fixing it, rather than wandering around wasting time.

I've had blocks that force me to spend more time reading, critiquing and doing other things to help me grow as a writer, so that when I do come back, I'm better than I was before.

I've also had blocks where, during the time I wasn't actually writing, I was still doing work to develop the story. If I had been "in the flow" of the actual word-writing part, I would have just come up with something less substantial to have something to roll with, but taking more time can improve the quality of the art by allowing you to come up with the right material, rather than settling something in a rush in order to move on.

So in those cases, I think times of writers block can be positive. I think the key thing is to make sure to sharpen the saw and make some type of progress toward enhancing your creativity (such as reading stories similar to what you want to write, critiquing others' writing, even other types of creative activities like drawing, etc.) instead of just sitting there using writers' block as an excuse to not bother trying at all.

How is this related to "Are writing blocks good?" ? Seems like you hit one, then overcame your writing block. I don't see how that makes writing blocks good.

The only blocks that I see are good are the ones that tell you that you don't love your story enough to work on it, and forces you to move onto the next big idea. About half a year ago I had into a block while planning a book, and while suffering through the process of trying to overcome it, I fell in love with a different story (my current WIP). There's a book... the name escapes me, but I believe it's a journal written by a writer when he was going through writer's block, and if memory serves me well I think that was his most successful book when he published it. Something like that can also be good.

1. When you need to keep a door open on a windy day.

2. When your quarterback needs protection in order to complete a pass.

. . . that's about it, near as I can think.

caw

I suppose that a block can be good when it is your subconscious telling you that you are trying to fix the unfixable. When you have written yourself into a hole, and the easiest way is to rewind to a position before the hole instead of trying to dig yourself out.

Blocks are good weapons of opportunity. Bricks, cinderblocks, cube-shaped rocks... all prime candidates for bashing brains in. Don't neglect your blocks or your blocks will neglect you.

Oh, writing blocks. Um, for me personally: writing blocks stop me right when I start writing awful things. Instead of plowing through I generally go back to outlining, details work, revision, anything else. Or I go fight someone. Nothing like punching or submitting through writer's block.

Blocks help me out. When I come back to writing I feel fresh and eager again. I'm not a BIC writer most of the time.

Like trying to rewind, and take the plot in the direction you intended. Like if you look at your map, and realize you walked through a mountain.

JustSarah said:

Like trying to rewind, and take the plot in the direction you intended. Like if you look at your map, and realize you walked through a mountain.

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I think this is a good analogy. If you're walking in the wrong direction, perhaps your sub-conscious is telling you to go back (maybe think about your next move) and try again. But being stuck and not writing is never a good thing for a writer...it's the main requirement. And if you're not doing what's required for the job, you're not doing the job. So same thing goes for if you're lost and stop, realizing you're in the wrong direction. You don't just sit there for weeks and think about it, you keep trying new routes to take.

I can understand a breather between novels, or to recharge the brain, doing other things. But if you're not writing for weeks on end, and you want to, but you can't, don't convince yourself that's a good thing.

Just like the other thread you made about convincing yourself that failing is really a success. Instead of analyzing writing, write. If you like analyzing writing and want something good to come out of it, write a blog about analyzing it, by writing it there. Otherwise, all the advice given to you (from what I've read from other writers and other threads you started on the same thing) you've gotten excellent advice.

I'm not you, I'm someone else, my suggestions might not work for you. Your suggestions you give me might not work for me. Everyone's different, not just you. But you do (or at least try to do) what will work for you. Keep testing it out. Because before you know it, after all these weeks of figuring out whether failing attempts are successful and writing blocks are good, you'll have nothing but half ass stories and blockhead headache to show for it.

Your other thread here is very similar to this thread: http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=280886

I would really consider all the advice given, see what works and see what doesn't. The trick is to keep testing it out, not to trick yourself you're doing good by doing nothing.

Don't ever have blocks of the kind you describe. Apart from being lazy or sick, the only obstacles to writing I encounter are plot details and direction that need to worked out before continuing. Usually I can tell when the story is going the wrong way within one or two paragraphs and I just delete them and go on to an alternate plot line.

Usually, I listen to my internal monologue when I hit a block and start the cycle of procrastination. It took a while to tune into it but once I could distinguish between the different mindstates and the internal chatter they produced, I could tell when I was just tired and needed to recharge, when I really was dithering and felt guilty that I'd rather play space invaders than write, when I'd rather brush the dog and clean the toilet than have to make a decision on something writing related, and when my mind was trying to work out a solution to something that I wasn't even consciously aware of at the moment.

They 'sound' different. The things they 'say' are different. Subtle but different.

That's the only way I've come up with.

When is a block good? When it's really your instincts telling you something is off, but you're so out of whack with listening to your instincts you think it's a block.

WillSauger said:

There's a book... the name escapes me, but I believe it's a journal written by a writer when he was going through writer's block, and if memory serves me well I think that was his most successful book when he published it. Something like that can also be good.

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That sounds like John Steinbeck's "Journal of a Novel," a series of letters he exchanged with a friend while writing "East of Eden." I can't find any info on how it was received, but Steinbeck considered the book his magnum opus.

OP, I totally understand. I work this way, too. I've learned to trust the blocks because they're telling me Something Isn't Right. It might take a day or two, or it might take a month, before I figure it out and get back to it. I just took a hiatus from one novel (about 6 months), worked on a new one, and now I'm taking a hiatus from the new novel because I've figured out what was wrong with the old one.

But, the trick is, I'm usually working on something, AND I'm not beating myself up over not writing. I might be editing, or blogging, or being a beta for a friend, or -- as in this case -- working on something totally different. I might have set aside that one project, but I'm not out of the loop. And if all else fails, I'm reading.

Like you, I can't bull my way through a block. It's a waste of time for me; I'll end up throwing away every last cold dribble of pudding I put on that page if I do. So, no, I trust the blocks, and I don't let them get me down. I keep busy and I know when the time is right, I'll get back to it. You've finished several novels, it looks like, so it must be working for you, yes?