A few days ago I was visiting Mason Canyon’s blog, Thoughts in Progress and saw she’d posted on writer’s block. Mason writes for a newspaper, and she mentioned that when you’re writing articles for a periodical, you’ve at least got a format to follow for your story: who, what, when, where, why and how. Mason said, “By answering those questions it helps overcome any writer’s block I have.”
Most of the writers I know don’t have a whole lot of trouble with writer’s block. Many of us have trouble harnessing all the ideas we have and deciding whether to channel them into the current manuscript or save them for a future book.
But I think we’ve got to all have days…whether we call it writer’s block or not…that we just can’t seem to jump into our manuscript. Maybe it’s more of a hesitation.
For me, this happens for a couple of reasons:
I’m worried about screwing up an important scene.
I’m not exactly sure the best way to approach the next part of the story.
For me, the only way to handle this hesitation is just to jump in and write as fast as I can without thinking about whether it’s good or bad. I’ll tell myself that it can be as bad as it wants to be…that I’ll toss it all in the trash later on if it’s really awful. Once I’ve taken the perfection pressure off myself, it’s easier.
And sometimes what I’ve written is horrible. But I’ve gotten past the bad spot. And usually there’s something there—some kernel of an idea or a scrap of dialogue—that I can actually use.
There’s been some good advice online recently about handling writer’s block…and even writer’s hesitation. :)
Here’s my friend Cleo Coyle’s take on it (on Terry Odell’s Terry’s Place blog):
I seldom have writer’s block because every day I try to seek out something new that will spark ideas, fuel the creative engine, inspire my spirit. This is something most writers know, yet we all still need the reminder from time to time. So here it is—
If you have writer’s block, learn something new (or something more) about your setting, background, or your character’s occupation. I guarantee that block will soon disintegrate.
Roni Griffin from the Fiction Groupie blog gives pros and cons of both the “write, no matter what” side (this would be the one I fall on) and the “take a break” side.
Here’s an excerpt:
Write No Matter What:
Pro:You keep yourself in the habit of writing daily even if the words aren’t going to be used later on.
Con: You may write a lot of words you’ll have to scrap or write yourself into a corner. How many people finish Nano and say “Hey, got my 50k words, but they’re all crap”?
The “Take a Break” Argument:
Pro: When you take some of the pressure off, your mind can relax and work on the story issues. How many times does the answer to a block arrive while you’re driving or showering?
Con: All that free thinking time may lead to SNI (shiny new idea) syndrome and you may be tempted to move onto another project instead of finishing the other one.
Roni recommends a combination of the two approaches.
So how about you? Are you always flush with ideas? Do you ever have writer’s block…or writer’s hesitation?
I like writer’s hesitation rather than writer’s block. That’s the feeling you get when you write 1000 words, delete 1000 words and repeat.
If the words aren’t coming for me I’ll switch projects or do something else for awhile. Eventually I’ll get back to what I was trying to write.
Thanks for sharing this post.
Usually when I’m “blocked” it’s one of two things – I’m mentally exhausted, or I just don’t know some critical thing.
The second problem is usually cured by something like the reporter trick you described – use questions to nail down something. Go after the problem a bit at a time.
When I’m exhausted, I take it as a fall from a horse. Okay, maybe I need to take a break, but first I have to get back on the horse. I can’t just walk away.
And in that case, I might, again, just write something based on a practical question. Or write a description, or some other thing I can just choose. Once I’ve done something – pushed through the psychological aspect and proven that I can and will write again – then I take my break.
Elizabeth – I really do like the term “writer’s hesitation.” I have that problem sometimes, and it usually comes from exhaustion (I hear you, Daring Novelist!), or from arriving at a “crossroads” point in the story.
I generally favor the “plunge in and write” solution. A person can always go back and edit and revise. If there’s nothing written, though, there’s nothing to revise.
Thanks for the mention and I like writer’s hesitation much better than writer’s block. By writing something or anything, sometimes the right words slowly start to make their way in.
Mason
Thoughts in Progress
I have more trouble “harnessing” my ideas than “writer’s block”.
This is good info. Thanks, Elizabeth.
My writer’s block often stems from wanting to move on to a thousand other projects, and having restraint enough not to let myself. In response to the restraint, I get stubborn and refuse to write anything.
I don’t know why. Creative insanity.
– Corra
the victorian heroine
When I feel those hesitations I usually tend to plow right through it. There was a time when that didn’t work. I’d written and rewritten the scenes multiple times and it wasn’t working. So I decided to do a reread from the beginning – look for the flow. I found the clue I needed (something I’d forgotten about) buried in the early part of the book. The rest flowed :)
My writer’s block is normally pretty mild and doesn’t last very long, so I’ll just take a short break. But the best advice I’ve ever heard is this: Writer’s Block is a myth. It isn’t that you can’t write, it’s that you’ve temporarily lost the ability to enjoy what you’re writing.
It’s definitely true for me! :)
I constantly battle writer’s block, or “writer’s hesitation” as you so eloquently put it. Mine stems from many of the reasons mentioned above, but also, from a growing sense of self doubt when working on a piece. My ideas are huge and I have to go through alot of bad writing and pick out the good pieces to build upon. It is when I start thinking, “This story is too big or grand for me to write” that I get blocked.
I break through this by, of course, writing, and also, trying to downplay my own story. I have to force myself to get back to the enjoyment part of writing – make it the fun hobby I started with – then, when I’m not taking it so seriously, I can write more freely.
Great post, by the way.
I don’t suffer from writer’s block anymore than I suffer from psychotherapist block or my mechanic suffers from mechanics block! Imagine that! I chose to be a writer and my job is to sit down every day and work. Preferably write but sometimes it isn’t that. Sometimes it is mull, or stew or wrestle the demon plot tails. But if I show up then I work. No one put a gun to my head and told me to be a writer so I have no right to swoon and suffer at the task ahead of me.
When I am doing writing for someone else – newspaper, publicity, government and I feel resistance I write through it. I might write crap but I write something to get me going. I can just imagine saying to a government minister “I have writer’s block”. She’d say “I have ‘writing you a cheque block’!
I’d call it writer’s hesitation. I’m still writing, but I’m not 100% sure of the direction I’m heading.
When I write science papers, I love to write the first version, but hate to do the revisions, trying to make reviewers and editors happy, while having the feeling that I just mess up my wonderful manuscript >:)
Cold As Heaven
Most of my best stuff come to me after I’ve written a paragraph or two. If I wait until the muse comes to me, I’d never write anything. No, I have to write until it comes and then edit the bad stuff out.
CD
Wonderful thing about computers — the delete button!
I also write letters. Sometimes I even mail them! If they are about writing or my wip I file them and check them out later.
But there are times when truly relaxing is the only answer.
Maribeth
Giggles and Guns
I could fill a book with my ideas, but I’m still a champion procrastinator. For me it’s not writer’s block–it’s writer’s laziness.
Whenever I get writer’s block I just call upon a friend and start brainstorming. Cures it every time!
This is great–someone at BuNoWriMo started a topic on writer’s block, so I linked you there (and there were some additional good ideas).
I am a ‘keep writing’–it slows down. If it is REALLY bad, I will work on a different project for THAT DAY ONLY. Often though, in a power walk or other activity that I normally do, the solution will come–I don’t think it would if I went walking TRYING to force the solution–it just has to happen, but it DOES happen.
I think the break is counter productive, at least for me… it is like permission to just take this ONE DAY off exercise… the breaks get more and more frequent and pretty soon I’ve broken a habit I counted on.
I’ve never had writer’s block when writing – ever.
It’s when I stop for a while – then I develop writer’s demotivation.
Your post title is perfect. Writing Through the Block — because we can’t revise a blank page, can we? (Yes, I know that’s an often quoted idea, but it remains true enough!)
Heather commented that her solution was to call a friend and start brainstorming. I think that’s a beauty of a solution, too, if you can find someone who is simpatico with you and the stories you enjoy creating.
But what are we really doing when we brainstorm? I mean after we’ve begun the book. What we’re probably doing is finding a way to organize ideas and make some firm choices.
Writing fiction is all about making choices, isn’t it? (Chabon made this a major theme in Wonder Boys.) And so…
One of the most important things a writer can do for herself (or himself) is to cowboy up (so to speak) and begin making those choices, those turns in the road. Move forward and turn again and make another choice. But what if I get lost? What if I go down the wrong road? Even when we do, there are things to learn down that road – things about what we want our book or character to be and *not* be. Revision and rewriting will solve the problems for us, but we simply cannot get there until we begin to make choices for our characters and our story, move down that road: Write Through the Block. :) See – you had me at your title.
Cassandra–That sounds like a good way to approach it. At least you’re still writing in the meantime!
The Daring Novelist–Good point! Yes, I know what you mean. Sometimes we can just get really drained, mentally, and it’s hard to get that creative edge back. I like the way you approach it with the journalism format.
Corra–We never have the time to write all the different things we want to, do we? I think I’ll be 100 and still have a huge backlog of stuff that I thought I could develop into a story. I bet I’m wrong, though…a lot of the things I tend to put in a folder really are just the germs of ideas and I’m not sure any of them could be worked into a novel.
Bethany Elizabeth–The *enjoyment* of it…yes, that’s true. Because when I’m anxious about what I’m writing, I’m really not having a good time.
Margot–That’s when it happens to me, too–at the crossroads. And you’re so right–as long as there’s something on the page, we can fix it later!
Mason–Just seeing words on the page helps, doesn’t it?
J.L. Stratton–Ohhhh yeah. The insecurity. That comes up and bites me in the behind, too. Ugh.
And you work through it in a good way: “This is what I *enjoy* doing! This is for *my* enjoyment.” Ultimately, that can take some of the pressure off, can’t it?
Journaling Woman–Thanks for dropping by!
Jan–Ha! I love it. Yeah, if my plumber told me he couldn’t fix the leak b/c he had plumber’s block, I’d be looking for a new plumber.
I don’t get blocked…but I do worry over my words sometimes. If I let myself continue worrying over my words, it just festers and makes me a wreck. Neurotic! But it can happen. So I just write through it. Complete crap, but it gets me through the tough spot.
Alex–I don’t think you outline either? Maybe the outliners have less of a problem with the hesitation.
Cold As Heaven–I can totally see that–because the revisions mean that the pressure is on to make it GOOD!
Jemi–That’s a good idea–looking for loose threads in the story to wrap up.
Clarissa–My muse and I aren’t on speaking terms. :)
Maribeth–Isn’t the delete button great? I remember how uncooperative the typewriter was for mistakes. All that correction tape and typing the same letter 5 or 6 times to get the mistake off!
Heather–That’s a nice idea! Are they writing friends? You’re part of a critique group, I think?
Watery Tart–It seems like you keep up really well with it, Hart. I need to check in with BuNoWriMo! I’ve been doing my writing…I just need to log it. :)
Patricia–I think we should write a nonfiction book–“The Lazy Writer.” That would be a title to make us some $!
Diane–It’s easy to STOP writing, isn’t it? Harder to start back!
Cleo–Great point! For me, the problem is about the right approach to the story. We have a hundred different choices to make when plotting…which one should we take? I like the idea of just making a choice, moving ahead with the story, and then revising it later with a different choice, if we need to. Good idea!
I’m one of those people who has a hard time making a decision in the NON-writing life. “Where do you want to go to lunch, Elizabeth?” Then I’m just in an AGONY. Each separate restaurant means it’s own complete package of an experience…there will be different people to see at each one. I’d have a different food selection at each. I would have a completely different HOUR if I chose one over the other. Then we take this kind of waffling and apply it to a *manuscript*!
And you’re right–I just choose a path and stick with it through the first draft. If I think of something better, I change it for draft 2! (And by draft 7, it might be a whole different story!)
My strategy depends on whether I have writer’s hesitation (love that term) or writer’s fatigue.
My hesitation is either trying to figure out what to have happen next, or I’ve gone blank. Then I either talk about the path/test out ideas for the choice part, or grab a sheet of paper for the blank mind part. Paper helps get the words flowing because even if I write a sentence 15-20 times with minor variations, sometimes going back to an earlier variation for a few of those, I will eventually stumble onto something that suggests the next sentence. The next one comes a little quicker, and I start picking up speed. Once I get my momentum going, I go back to my computer. Having that full page or two of crossed out words helps me feel like I’ve still been working even though I might only have one usable paragraph after an hour of work.
Writer’s fatigue is generally after I’ve put in some very hard work on a story over several days. If I keep up the intensity for too long, then I get brain fried and can’t make myself want to even think about my story, generally accompanied with an actual headache. Then I need a break, and order myself to keep my mind off it for a couple days. Before long, I’m chafing to get back to my project. That whole “Don’t think of pink elephants.” Which once you say something like that, of course you do.
Great post. I’m usually in the hesitation camp – and, like you, my only weapon is to write fast and give myself ample permission to suck as much as I need to in order to keep the story moving.
“Shiny New Idea syndrome” exactly sums up the problem I had for many years. Glad to know I’m not the only one. I’ve progressed much better recently by concentrating on one project before I start another, or at the very least ring-fencing time for each one.
Jaleh–I use paper sometimes, too–but I don’t let myself get too far ahead on paper because it’s a pain to type it all into Word later. I could do maybe the next couple of chapters that way, though, and then I’m good to go!
Good idea–telling yourself NOT to work on something is a sure way to want to work on it!
Zoe–Because we will suck!
Wendy–It’s hard to stick with the old project, isn’t it? Especially when the new one seems sooo much better when we first get the idea!