Ask the Author: Travis Hugh Culley
Answered Questions (1)
Travis Hugh Culley
I have several answers to this question. For starters, I think there are many kinds of writer’s block. There is the very real fact that sometimes writing does not always involve continuous typing – as people think. Often writing is editing, and so there must be some room to consider the problem of “Editor’s Block.” With my latest book, I spent five years in the editing process, and there is no doubt that I have faced blocks in cutting a text back, rephrasing, and balancing the weight of certain sections by re-wording. Sometimes it was a chore just to sit there, rereading. In the both writing process and the editing process, I have had to make room for thinking. At times, I will spend weeks polishing sections, avoiding others. In these moments, I maintained the discipline of working, improving the book but the editor in me had to give the writer a break. When I moved forward, I felt the need to listen.
About a year ago, I spent three weeks just looking at one section of my book, and found that I was completely at a loss. I worried that this wasn’t just a symptom of “writer’s block” but only the lost effort of a broken writer. I faced failure, despair, and the impossible. I thought that I might have to retract the work and give up the project entirely, I sat and reached complete stillness. When I was ready, I wrote over a section I loved. I saw that I had become too precious, and couldn’t see that this one little link between two halves of a chapter was actually draining the rest of the story. I moved forward automatically, and in about ten words fixed a whole that would have otherwise sunk the ship.
I believe that writer’s block is only part of the process of completion. It may be a sign of having to go back a step, and it may be a clue that you have drawn some of the wrong elements in. It may be a confrontation with a question that a reader would not be able to avoid. So, I listen to the block like it is a mentor, a mirror, a prophet or a friend. There is nothing saying that a writer must always have something to write about. It is also true that at a point the work is done, and the next part of the process is to take a walk, or to go on a ride, to talk to a friend, and to encounter what I like to call “the ocean.”
There are also smaller kinds of blocks that I have faced, and this is where I will answer the question you’ve been waiting for. When I have the luxury of looking at a blank page, and I am setting new tracks for a reader, when the next moment is as fresh for me as it is for you (dear reader) I do sometimes rely on chance. In moments like this I will work with a metronome at my side, and I will write in synch with its rhythm. There are games which have provided interesting tools. For example Boggle or Scrabble. If I need a new clue to initiate a sentence, I can randomly draw on a letter from the alphabet, and imagine that my next thought will hang from this. Some letters line up, some leap, some return to a basis, others will help form connections. Some letters will reverse a thought and present a negative, and sometimes a complete reversal proves itself absolutely necessary. The random letter is often useful - just like flipping a coin - but remember: it is your right at all times to disregard outcome. That’s when I know: I am on to something wonderful.
About a year ago, I spent three weeks just looking at one section of my book, and found that I was completely at a loss. I worried that this wasn’t just a symptom of “writer’s block” but only the lost effort of a broken writer. I faced failure, despair, and the impossible. I thought that I might have to retract the work and give up the project entirely, I sat and reached complete stillness. When I was ready, I wrote over a section I loved. I saw that I had become too precious, and couldn’t see that this one little link between two halves of a chapter was actually draining the rest of the story. I moved forward automatically, and in about ten words fixed a whole that would have otherwise sunk the ship.
I believe that writer’s block is only part of the process of completion. It may be a sign of having to go back a step, and it may be a clue that you have drawn some of the wrong elements in. It may be a confrontation with a question that a reader would not be able to avoid. So, I listen to the block like it is a mentor, a mirror, a prophet or a friend. There is nothing saying that a writer must always have something to write about. It is also true that at a point the work is done, and the next part of the process is to take a walk, or to go on a ride, to talk to a friend, and to encounter what I like to call “the ocean.”
There are also smaller kinds of blocks that I have faced, and this is where I will answer the question you’ve been waiting for. When I have the luxury of looking at a blank page, and I am setting new tracks for a reader, when the next moment is as fresh for me as it is for you (dear reader) I do sometimes rely on chance. In moments like this I will work with a metronome at my side, and I will write in synch with its rhythm. There are games which have provided interesting tools. For example Boggle or Scrabble. If I need a new clue to initiate a sentence, I can randomly draw on a letter from the alphabet, and imagine that my next thought will hang from this. Some letters line up, some leap, some return to a basis, others will help form connections. Some letters will reverse a thought and present a negative, and sometimes a complete reversal proves itself absolutely necessary. The random letter is often useful - just like flipping a coin - but remember: it is your right at all times to disregard outcome. That’s when I know: I am on to something wonderful.
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