Writing is something that is fascinating to me. I don’t understand how normal people can sit down for hours, months and years and create art with only a pad and paper. I studied writing in college and I still love to read about the different processes. Something I’ve been trying to crack for years is how people get past writer’s block. This isn’t just for writers, but also musicians, chefs, painters, filmmakers, architects, anyone who works creatively is plagued with losing inspiration. It’s not the getting the writer’s block that interests me, it is how people get out of it.
If I had a nickel for every minute I spent staring at a blinking cursor on a blank page, I wouldn’t need to write at all. Take this blog for example, I’ve been away for while getting settled in my new town and new apartment, but I also just didn’t know what to write. Sometimes I just don’t know and as soon as I begin to write a post just to get something up I’ve lost the point of this blog.
I’ve tried all the classic fixes, get a new environment to work in, go for a walk, just get something, anything on the page, but nothing seemed to work. So after a few weeks of looking for inspiration, I decided to look into what famous writers did to combat this malady. Here is what I’ve compiled:
Maya Angelou kept writing anything until she tempted the muse to return:
“What I try to do is write. I may write for two weeks ‘the cat sat on the mat, that is that, not a rat.’ And it might be just the most boring and awful stuff. But I try. When I’m writing, I write. And then it’s as if the muse is convinced that I’m serious and says, ‘Okay. Okay. I’ll come.’”
Mark Twain’s strategy is to break it down so it doesn’t seem as daunting:
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.”
Ernest Hemingway, one of my favorite authors, spoke about quitting while you’re ahead:
“The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day … you will never be stuck. Always stop while you are going good and don’t think about it or worry about it until you start to write the next day. That way your subconscious will work on it all the time. But if you think about it consciously or worry about it you will kill it and your brain will be tired before you start.”
Barbara Kingsolver advises writers to just get over it:
“I learned to produce whether I wanted to or not. It would be easy to say oh, I have writer’s block, oh, I have to wait for my muse. I don’t. Chain that muse to your desk and get the job done.”
Writing is so personal, and dealing with writer’s block is just as personal but hopefully these four quotes hit something lose in your brain and you can get back to work. I’m still learning and figuring out what my process is, but writing about my writer’s block got me a blog post. Is that cheating? Probably, but it’s my process.
Someone Call A Grownup 