Mary Smathers
I am not sure I totally buy “writer’s block.” I think writing is incredibly hard work. It takes enormous discipline and determination. It takes research and planning. Writing includes patience. Patience with yourself. Patience with the process. Patience with the story to form and grow. It involves revision, revision, revision. It is just a ton of work and so you have to be disciplined to sit down and work. Therefore, if you are having problems, you need to take some time to analyze why.
First, you have to be inspired. As I mentioned in the answer to the question about advice for aspiring writers you have to write from a place of deep emotion. If you don’t really care that much, if you don’t feel anger, passion, urgency, awe, compassion, grief, jealousy, desire, love or admiration, or some such gripping emotion, then it is going to be difficult to dredge up the will, the guts, the discipline to write.
The cliché of “write what you know” to me is a bit simplistic. I think it is more like write what you care about, what you know something about but also write what you are curious about and want to delve into more. You are going to spend a lot of time on the topic, the story, with your characters, so make sure you are writing about things you care enough about to spend time on.
Confront your fears. Fear, and the related insecurity, self-doubt and I’m-not-good-enough sentiments, which can overwhelm a writer, can be debilitating blocks.
SO, to deal with writer’s block, you’ve got to work hard. You’ve got to be determined and motivated by emotion and you’ve got to plow through fears and self-loathing. Ha! All way easier said than done.
Several key tricks to keep me going have been:
1. Read. A good writer is a good reader. Read everything you possibly like and admire. Read different styles of writing, different genre. Just read.
2. And then look at the quality, the language, the craft of what good writers are doing. When you don’t like a book or story or essay, take some time to analyze why. You have to remember your audience when you are writing.
3. Read craft books and essays to give you guidance and tips but don’t overdo that. Just be sure to include them in your reading. Read Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. Read Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert. Listen to her podcasts, Magic Lessons. Read Lisa Cron's Wired for Story: The Writer’s Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence. And there are many, many others, of course, but I have found these to be helpful ones.
4. Write. Sit in that goddamned chair and write something. Anne Lamott’s “shitty first drafts” are key. It won’t be good much of the time but you can’t revise on a blank page. You’ve got to accept that much of what you write will be crap. OK, fine. Then write it and then deal with the crap later, in the revising, rewriting and editing stages. But you gotta get some “shitty first drafts” down on the page before all else. Give yourself a pass. Face the fear head on and write. No one is perfect. Even Anne Lamott or Lisa Cron.
5. Finally, be real. In non-fiction, essays, history or biography, you have to get your facts exactly right. There can be no straying from the truth. But in fiction, you can make it up. Invent and imagine. But it has to ring true to the heart. If your reader doesn’t buy it, then you are sunk. A writer must be authentic above all.
First, you have to be inspired. As I mentioned in the answer to the question about advice for aspiring writers you have to write from a place of deep emotion. If you don’t really care that much, if you don’t feel anger, passion, urgency, awe, compassion, grief, jealousy, desire, love or admiration, or some such gripping emotion, then it is going to be difficult to dredge up the will, the guts, the discipline to write.
The cliché of “write what you know” to me is a bit simplistic. I think it is more like write what you care about, what you know something about but also write what you are curious about and want to delve into more. You are going to spend a lot of time on the topic, the story, with your characters, so make sure you are writing about things you care enough about to spend time on.
Confront your fears. Fear, and the related insecurity, self-doubt and I’m-not-good-enough sentiments, which can overwhelm a writer, can be debilitating blocks.
SO, to deal with writer’s block, you’ve got to work hard. You’ve got to be determined and motivated by emotion and you’ve got to plow through fears and self-loathing. Ha! All way easier said than done.
Several key tricks to keep me going have been:
1. Read. A good writer is a good reader. Read everything you possibly like and admire. Read different styles of writing, different genre. Just read.
2. And then look at the quality, the language, the craft of what good writers are doing. When you don’t like a book or story or essay, take some time to analyze why. You have to remember your audience when you are writing.
3. Read craft books and essays to give you guidance and tips but don’t overdo that. Just be sure to include them in your reading. Read Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. Read Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert. Listen to her podcasts, Magic Lessons. Read Lisa Cron's Wired for Story: The Writer’s Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence. And there are many, many others, of course, but I have found these to be helpful ones.
4. Write. Sit in that goddamned chair and write something. Anne Lamott’s “shitty first drafts” are key. It won’t be good much of the time but you can’t revise on a blank page. You’ve got to accept that much of what you write will be crap. OK, fine. Then write it and then deal with the crap later, in the revising, rewriting and editing stages. But you gotta get some “shitty first drafts” down on the page before all else. Give yourself a pass. Face the fear head on and write. No one is perfect. Even Anne Lamott or Lisa Cron.
5. Finally, be real. In non-fiction, essays, history or biography, you have to get your facts exactly right. There can be no straying from the truth. But in fiction, you can make it up. Invent and imagine. But it has to ring true to the heart. If your reader doesn’t buy it, then you are sunk. A writer must be authentic above all.
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