Writer's Block

[battlestar]

I find Laziness sometimes the best way to overcome "writer's block". Sometimes it's reading other creative works, lazily.

But sometimes laziness just leads to more laziness.

[Christopher Wright]

I've read more than a few articles claiming Writer's Block doesn't exist, and it always comes down to the writer of the article accusing every writer who claims he/she has writer's block of being lazy, that we should get up off our collective asses and do our jobs.

It's very insulting, to be honest.

[writeshiek33]

i agree it insulting those who claim writers block does not exist forget there is a reason for the block inmy case i havent named characters therefore i phycoloogly it does not feel real and can't create story. it usually wrirtes ikt self in my mind once i named the characters

[writeshiek33]

yes, but that's (as you said) complete garbage

and forcing yourself to write complete garbage that will never be used is not fun or productive, and if it's all you can make ourself write, it becomes an obstacle for your writing. as a block is another word for an obstacle, and it is an obstance to writing, it is's blocking your writing; thus, writers block.

as such, I think your misinterpreting what writers block is. complete garbage is a block, no mater how much of it you can write, as it remains complete garbage.

actually i have plenty of ideas but still block i have dysgraphia anyone who tells me it laziness i know it bull because there certain phylogocal elements for every individual whether ideas or something else

[writeshiek33]

So far I've met only a few people who share this belief, but I believe that writer's block does not exist. I do not call it writer's block. To me, it is called Writer's Laziness. I say this because whenever I get to that point where it feels like nothing will come out of the keyboard, I find that if I buckle down for 30 minutes and just put whatever comes out on screen, that I will have at least a good 500 words and the inability to write will be gone.

Thoughts?

very insulting to say that i know for fact writerblock exist so don't tell me it laziness it total bull way of thinking writers block is phyological some of us it can't be helped look up dysgraphia and dyslexia and then tel those who have it there no block very insulting indeed. true i rarely get blocks but i do get blocks non the less like every weter usually doeas i just try to find out why and then it resolves it self

[T.Allen.Smith]

very insulting to say that i know for fact writerblock exist so don't tell me it laziness it total bull way of thinking writers block is phyological some of us it can't be helped look up dysgraphia and dyslexia and then tel those who have it there no block very insulting indeed. true i rarely get blocks but i do get blocks non the less like every weter usually doeas i just try to find out why and then it resolves it self

I don't think they're talking about learning disabilities. I'm sure what they mean is that even if you are feeling "blocked" you can sit down and write something.

Who cares if it's garbage? It might turn out much better than you think. Point is you should set a word count goal every night and meet that goal without fail. To claim writers block is a way to circumvent the goal you've set for yourself and transfer the responsibility of reaching that goal to a concept. "Not my fault. I'm blocked."

You're going to wind up cutting a lot of things you wrote when you revise and edit anyway. Some of the things you write when feeling "inspired" are no exception. Don't wait for this falsehood of inspiration. If you do you're only selling yourself short. Its just work. There's no muse.

If that's insulting to some, so be it. It's the simple truth and it applies to almost all of us (learning disabilities excluded).

Writers write.

[Christopher Wright]

I've tried to post this five or six times. Each time I've had to delete it because after looking at it I decided it went too far. This is an attempt at reasoned discourse.

Athletes will occasionally talk about getting into a bad headspace where, despite years of training, they start screwing things up. Golfers talk about "losing their swing." Tiger Woods went through a reasonably public bout of this--public enough that I remember it, and I don't follow the sport.

Scientists, engineers and programmers can get so fixated on a specific aspect of a problem that they don't see the solution. I've seen this in my day job--they kill themselves trying to solve something, and two weeks later they look embarassed and say "it was right there the whole time."

Mechanics troubleshooting cars, mathemeticians... anyone who has to solve a problem will come to a point where they're stumped for no good reason. And while the answer is to "keep trying," that answer does not guarantee an immediate solution to the problem.

How is it that writers don't get the same latitude? We just have to spend 30 minutes trying and it'll all work out? Really?

I once spent 14 goddamn days stuck on the stupidest issue ever in the creation of writing. I had to have a character go downstairs. "Of course," you say, "the solution is to write 'he went downstairs.'" Well yes it was. That was the solution. And it took me 14 goddamn days to reach that because for some reason I had convinced myself that during that journey something specific had to happen or the entire chapter would be ****ed. So I sat in that goddamn chair every night until 3AM trying to fix this "problem," and went to bed at 3 only because I figured I needed 2 1/2 hours of sleep before work the next day, slogged through the next day like a zombie and then sat in that goddamn chair again, until 3 AM, writing and re-writing that ****ing paragraph trying to figure out what it was I was missing that would put the chapter in so much ****ing peril.

I did that for two weeks, and by the end of the second week I wasn't good for much of anything. And then I wrote "he went downstairs" and wrote the rest of the damn chapter and went to sleep and the next day I looked over it and I saw that lo, the chapter was not ruined, I'd just gone bug**** crazy from lack of sleep because Christ, all I had to do was write "he went downstairs" it was three ****ing words dammit.

I mean, honestly, it's the stupidest thing in the world to get hung up on, and I'm sure there will be plenty of merriment to be had on that. But here's the important bit: those were not two weeks where I sat around on my ass watching TV and eating ho-hos instead of writing. I was in my chair and I was pouring all my will into making that stupid. Chapter. Work. And then I went to work, and came home, and played with my daughter, and put her to bed, and then I sat my ass back down in that chair and I did it again. And again, and again, and again...

... it was a fruitless endeavor. But it was genuine honest-to-God work. What needed to happen between the hallway and the bottom of the stairs? Other than going down the stairs, of course.

THere is much to criticize of those two weeks, but one thing that will never be true is the accuastion that I was lazy. I worked my ass off to get out of that rut, and the only reason I got out of it was I exhausted myself until I couldn't do it any more.

Writer's block is a name that people use to describe something that looks like paralysis, but it isn't. The writer is stuck on something he or she can't shake... just like those athletes, scientists, engineers, programmers, what have you. And writer's should be allowed to talk about having that problem without being accused of being lazy by smug know-it-alls who like to give pat answers in forums like "just work harder, ya lazy bum."

That was my polite response. I apologize if it wasn't polite enough. But it was better than the ones I didn't keep.

[T.Allen.Smith]

I agree with you that it doesn't really have much to do with a lazy attitude. That was suggested by the OP only.

I also agree that there are certainly issues that we all have to work through in just about any story we write.

My only concern is when people say they can't write. I don't get that. You can always write.

In your case you struggled with an issue night after night but you were still there writing. Sometimes the words come easier than others. When your struggling though... well, continuing to work regardless is one of the things that separates an author who will be successful, from the pretenders.

[Christopher Wright]

... and this is why I shouldn't post things at 3AM. Despite your completely different user names I was ABSOLUTELY CONVINCED you were the OP.

Sigh.

[T.Allen.Smith]

... and this is why I shouldn't post things at 3AM. Despite your completely different user names I was ABSOLUTELY CONVINCED you were the OP.

Sigh.

Yeah I thought so. Figured some clarification might be called for.