On the interminable subject of Writer's Block

[James Marinero]

Sorry if this link has been posted before, but I just stumbled on this piece in the NYT - How to Beat Writer’s Block

I find that a glass of wine helps unblock my thinking. I can be hovering for hours over a crossword and then one glass just releases my thought process and the creative side opens up, the clues are solved. Trouble is, I can't drink wine for breakfast. Yet.

Fortunately, writers block is not something I have experienced in any significant degree. May that means that my books are not imaginative.

 

[Ancora Imparo]

I worked in journalism for 20 years. If anyone had said, Sorry, can't get my feature done for this week's issue, I've got writer's block – well, I'll leave it to you to imagine what would have happened. But the words P45 would have come up. That said, we did have a very talented writer who seemed to thrive on the stress of being forever late with his copy. Once, I threatened to kneecap him; it didn't work So maybe stress works for some. Generally, I'd say just sit down and write, even if you don't like the quality of what you produce. The very act of physically writing/typing/scribbling – whatever – that seems to work for me. It kickstarts the engine.

 

[James Marinero]

@Ancora Imparo I agree. Sit down, churn it out, compress it, polish it. I used to deliver major sales proposals to a deadline - being late was not an option. It's a good discipline, but means I am economical with words.

 

[David Newrick]

I have found entering the flash fiction contest on Litopia works well for helping you to stay in writing mode and FORCE yourself out of writer's block. No excuses - just get on with it. It is all about setting yourself a deadline and coming up with something, anything that meets the requirements. And I think your work is like that, it has it's own requirements in that short, story, MS, scene, section, chapter, paragraph, sentence, or whatever and crafting words that fit those specific requirements. This, I think, fits in with what Ancora Imparo is saying.

I know one thing - it's damned hard work at times!

 

[Carol Rose]

Never had it. Not even once. I don't even understand it. If I don't feel like writing, it's because I'm tired or stressing to the max about some silly thing I can't really control anyway. But that never lasts long. I'm always writing, even if it's only in my head while I'm driving or showering. Which is really annoying because by the time I'm able to get that dialogue, those ideas, or that scene down on paper, it's never in the same form it was when it raced through my mind. Kind of hard to write in the shower, or get out to write and drip water everywhere, be late for work, whatever. And as for driving ... well .... one is not supposed to distract oneself with the speak-to-note app on one's iPhone while navigating rush hour traffic.

 

[AliG]

It's not so much a quantity issue with me, zero or full-on; I can always find something to write about. It's quality - when the words won't line up right, the pole gets sieve-like or the characters won't speak to me. The 3 month bottom drawer isolation helps but is deeply frustrating.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

There are times when I need to let the current novel sit for a day--when something isn't going right and my ideas need to coalesce before I can write more. But at those times, I write other things. Rare is the time when I can't write anything.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I've been taking my time creating a short story for a competition, partly because it's such a gloomy subject, so I've been searching for ways to make it readable without repelling the reader by its very remorselessness. Short stories are peculiar in how they involve the reader sidling into a set of circumstances for the characters without knowing anything about their history.

I'm not blocked and never have been (mouthy git! ), so don't panic when the pace of my writing slows. There's always something else to do, and I've created a few new poems and song lyrics. I deny that these are in any way personal, though a new blues song comes perilously close—I Sold my Soul to Satan (the Bastard gave me change!)