Writers Write

[Source: x]

Comments

[Telaros]

That #1. That's the best ice breaker and confidence builder. Do one of those every day and who knows? Maybe a page might spring forth from one of those paragraphs.

#6-8 Sage advice.

#5 The spark. You love what you wrote. You love it so much you want to make it better. Learn from #8 and learn learn learn! Google is your friend even if its just to make sure you're using a word correctly.

[Karach]

9. If you want to print that to hang above your desk/bed/toilet/wherever you do your writing, for Celestia's sake, hit that negative button!

Great set of advices, though.

[Impossible Numbers]

Writers write...

About what, though? There's the rub.

[NorsePony]

1196923 I've read various professional writers talking about "writer's block." And they have a pretty uniform response: writer's block is an indulgent myth for amateurs. Pros HAVE to write, or they don't eat. Therefore, they can't allow themselves to have writer's block, and therefore they don't have it.

For example: http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=14532

In one of those discussions, a writer (I can't remember who, unfortunately, though I suspect it was Warren Ellis again) said something that has stuck with me: creativity is something you are, not something you do. The idea that being in "the wrong environment" or not having your special Thinking Mug or being in a place that's too noisy or whatever can prevent you from being creative is a foolish myth. You are always creative, because creativity is something you are. Those circumstances do nothing but let you make excuses to get out of doing creative work.

So the answer to your question is that writers write. When they have ideas, they write those ideas. When they don't have ideas, they write to get ideas. You are creative. Trust yourself to be creative.

[Impossible Numbers]

Firstly, I want to make clear that I do appreciate your good intentions and experience, and in no way do I begrudge other people their views and ideas. However, I am not convinced by some of the ideas you posted here, and I think you took an unnecessary detour in answering my question. Moreover, I didn't want to keep silent, because I feel that your take on writer's block should not go unchallenged. Lastly, I hope this is taken as constructive criticism, and I apologize in advance if it doesn't translate as such in my post.

1197186

I don't think writer's block is "an indulgent myth for amateurs", and frankly I think it's dismissive and unproductive to say it is. Your own source practically defines it in the next sentence he denies it's existence, which is a bit like saying diabetes doesn't exist, some people just can't produce enough insulin. It would have been helpful to point out that some cases of writer's block fall into the category of self-excusing behaviour, but even then I think this is a superficial treatment that doesn't address the real psychological underpinnings behind it (why, for instance, would anyone make excuses not to do something they want, in part, to do?).

I also think you're making an error in your argument. "They can't allow themselves to have it" does not by itself logically entail that it will not happen. That, as it stands, is wishful thinking. I think it more likely that those who suffer from it are simply less likely to become professionals in the first place, so by default most if not all professionals are already people who either don't have it (at least, not often or for long) or deal better with it. The way you phrased it gives the impression writers can will writer's block away when they think they don't want or need it, ignoring the fact that nearly all sufferers of writer's block think they don't want or need it in the first place.

In any case, the issue isn't over how an amateur can become a professional, but how to decide what to write at any given moment. Of course it's instructive to look at how professionals pull it off, but it would have been more relevant to state how they pull it off. For instance, it could have been that they used freewriting techniques in which they write about absolutely anything for a given amount of time. I think it would have been more helpful to provide examples of such exercises and to state the purpose of such exercises (for instance, to acclimatize to the act of writing and so ease any fears about the writing process, or to silence self-critical thoughts for a while), not to post comments about myths that come across as both snobbish and unconvincing.

creativity is something you are, not something you do

I imagine many people with writer's block have it because of a fear that they are not creative. In light of this, what you're telling them comes close to saying they are fundamentally uncreative, with the implication being that they shouldn't bother. After all, if someone suspects that they are not creative, telling them only creative people are capable of writing is unlikely to help them, especially when no actual practical advice is given. However, I appreciate it if you meant instead that everyone is creative if they'd only let themselves be, though I think that introduces a new problem.

The problem is that this isn't actually advice. Allowing that you might have meant that everyone is creative if they'd only let themselves be, then how exactly would you convince someone of this fact - assuming it is a fact - when it comes to actual practice? By way of analogy, if someone said that politeness is something you are, not something you do, then how would you think this helps someone who is having difficulties either because they fear accidentally offending someone or have difficulty keeping their temper in social gatherings? My own suspicion is that it would be regarded as either mincing words unless accompanied by practical advice, or some sort of implicit condemnation of those who keep failing. Again, I think this is an unnecessary deviation from the point at hand.

You are creative. Trust yourself to be creative.

I don't think this is going to help, either. The main feature of writer's block is that it's self-inhibition, and therefore in a sense a prediction that something unpleasant or nothing pleasant will follow from indulging it. A remedy should at least persuade them otherwise or help them assuage or test those predictions, not tell them simply to let self-inhibition go and "trust" themselves. To get an idea of how unhelpful this comes across, imagine telling a smoker to simply trust themselves not to smoke a packet when they feel the need for one, or telling a chocolate addict to trust themselves when they have the inevitable hunger pangs. It's not much more effective than telling a depressed patient to buck up.

I think it would be more productive to acknowledge the kernel of truth in the fears behind writer's block, but at the same time to encourage them to think where they're setting the bar for themselves. Overdone cliches, cringe-inducing writing, inconsistent plots, convenient coincidences, stale characters - these things exist, and they all come from people who wrote about them. There really are things they could commit to paper that warrant some degree of care and suspicion.

On the other hand, it's worth pointing out that they don't need to be hyper-vigilant for these things, strain themselves in the name of originality, bust records, or impress hundreds or thousands of people with what they write. The freewriting exercise, for instance, is specifically about setting aside space where they can harmlessly make atrocious mistakes so long as they can practise and build on their craft. A glance at motivational psychology shows that the focus should be on internal rewards such as personal enjoyment and a sense of achievement through playing and experimenting with the craft, not on external ones such as someone else's esteem or money or material rewards. Lastly, it's worth highlighting the need for coping strategies when faced with rejection (for instance, if they decide to submit to a publisher or a magazine contest), and worth encouraging people to submit to multiple such contests rather than pin their hopes on one or two. And so on.

The idea that being in "the wrong environment" or not having your special Thinking Mug or being in a place that's too noisy or whatever can prevent you from being creative is a foolish myth. You are always creative, because creativity is something you are. Those circumstances do nothing but let you make excuses to get out of doing creative work.

I understand your paragraph here was written with good intentions, but similar to earlier, the result comes off as dismissive, not to mention limited. Writer's block isn't exclusively about making external excuses not to write, but also comes from various psychological factors ranging from excessive judgmental attitudes and perfectionism to a perceived lack of inspiration and drive. People have to wrestle with themselves over bigger things than writing, and quite frankly, telling them their difficulties are "foolish myths" is both to engage in bizarre denial about a known phenomenon and to be incredibly insensitive to other people's frustrations.

Not just here, but overall, I think your comment would have been better served if you'd gotten straight to the one practical point, which seems to be: writers write anything, regardless of quality, to keep their hand in and to focus on the process rather than the finished product. To indulge in hypergraphia, if you will. That not only gives them the familiarity with the craft that reduces apprehensive feelings, but encourages necessary practice and relaxes the writer enough to let themselves experiment and make mistakes without fear of bad consequences, the ultimate aims of which are to deal directly with the practical problems that cause the fears that produce writer's block and to improve skill, and therefore confidence in such skills, that reduces the need for self-inhibition.

[NorsePony]

1198353 Many of those selfsame authors who described writer's block as a myth amateurs tell themselves mentioned that they used to suffer from writer's block themselves, but that at some point, whether before or after they made the jump to paying work, they realized that it was a thing they were no longer willing to support and so they devised tools and habits to get rid of it. And now they don't have it anymore. So no, the lack of writer's block isn't some genetic mutation that selects for professional authors.

Writer's block is a story writers tell themselves when they don't feel like writing, in order to excuse themselves from their need to get their stories out of their heads. And I think it's a damaging excuse, because it changes the situation from "I don't want to write" to "I can't write," and "I can't write" is, in nearly all cases, simply false.

People who want to tell stories, who want to be writers, such as the people on this website and people who are seeking advice on writing... those people are creative. They have that crucible in their head that forges old ideas together to become new ideas. And that doesn't go away, it doesn't turn off, it doesn't stop. It's always there. Creativity is something you are.

But when a creative person tells themselves that innocent-seeming lie of writer's block, when they tell themselves that their creativity is something other, something external, something that can be stopped against their will, that is the tip of an iceberg of assumptions about themselves that distances them from that crucible in their head and can stop them from feeding old ideas into it to be reforged, because they come to think that if they're not sitting in the right place and thinking the right thoughts and Doing Creativity, then creativity is not taking place.

And that's bullshit. Everything you experience could fire that crucible, so being open to that possibility is invaluable. And that's why I am inspired by the knowledge that creativity is something I am, not something I do.

Not WANTING to write is a totally different situation, and separating that from the myth that "I can't write" is essential. I am often depressed and do not want to write. But I never tell myself the comforting lie that I couldn't write anyway. I know full well that if I sit down and write, creativity will come out of my fingers, because I am creative. Not wanting to do that hurts, but it is the truth.

(I suspect I have more to say on this subject if I took more time to think about it, but a sudden thunderstorm has rolled in and is directly over me, so I'll be unplugging my computer, heh.)