Robbie Vorhaus
I was trained as newspaper journalist, then moving into radio and network news, which meant there wasn't anytime to indulge writer's block, sickness, broken hearts, or bad moods. If someone was depending on me for a story or photo, and I dropped the ball, I was out of job.
That said, writing to me, including the time I took to write OLOM, was a job. I approached the work with the same attitude I have any assignment: This is my job, no one else is going to write this for me, and I have to get it done, and done well.
So, knowing that I still had a full-time job, and never knowing when or where I would be called off to, I chose to write at least three hours every weekday, working off an outline that I created earlier, and regardless of how I felt, where I was, what else was going on around me, I stuck to my schedule.
Sure, over the course of my career I've experienced writer's block. But I always made sure that despite how I felt, I knew that there was a story in me that needed to come out, and my job was to write that story, and I did, even if it meant that I felt stuck.
Writer's block is simply another form of resistance, and all resistance is feedback, and nothing more. Use the feedback as a teacher, information for what you don't want, and choose less of it.
That said, writing to me, including the time I took to write OLOM, was a job. I approached the work with the same attitude I have any assignment: This is my job, no one else is going to write this for me, and I have to get it done, and done well.
So, knowing that I still had a full-time job, and never knowing when or where I would be called off to, I chose to write at least three hours every weekday, working off an outline that I created earlier, and regardless of how I felt, where I was, what else was going on around me, I stuck to my schedule.
Sure, over the course of my career I've experienced writer's block. But I always made sure that despite how I felt, I knew that there was a story in me that needed to come out, and my job was to write that story, and I did, even if it meant that I felt stuck.
Writer's block is simply another form of resistance, and all resistance is feedback, and nothing more. Use the feedback as a teacher, information for what you don't want, and choose less of it.
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