Writer’s Block
March 31, 2008 by Anne Wayman
Filed under Jobs
Gather a bunch of writers together and before long someone is apt to mention writer’s block. It’s that state where a writer wants and/or needs to write, but can’t.
On a whim I decided to search for blogs with writer’s block in their name. Sure enough, there are some, including:
The results on Google’s blog search really begin to get murky after these entries.
And, of course, I’ve also written about writer’s block in an article called: Writers Block – What To Do About It
How do you deal with writer’s block?
Write well and often,
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When I have writer’s block I just keep coming back to the piece and keep trying to restart where I left off. Sometimes it causes me to trash the beginning of what I have started, because it was not flowing well, but then the writing gets done.
My most recent writer’s block was a personal hurdle. The writing was a difficult process as I needed to remember, no dredge up some painful memories to put on the page. I merely forced myself to keep working on it until I got past the most painful moment and then I was able to write the entire chapter.
Thankfully, I don’t get afflicted with writer’s block. On the contrary, I have so many ideas I can’t keep up with them and there is not enough time in the day!
If I don’t feel like writing for whatever reason, I don’t say I feel blocked – I just go and do something else. Research or bookkeeping or something.
I don’t struggle with writer’s block so much any more. But I do suffer bouts of what might be called writer’s flu. Symptoms include: clunky prose, dead-end thought paths, watery punctuation, tired clichés, and strained metaphors (like now, for example).
If I’m on a tight deadline, I just try to work through it and hope for the best. But if I have the luxury of time, I take a “creative break” and wash the dishes, the car, the kids… But I try to keep thinking about the piece I’m working on — usually something clicks during this regenerative time and suddenly it all falls into place!
~Graham
Hi you two… I don’t consider the time and pacing it takes to dig deep writers’ block…