Authors Unlock Writer’s Block
Issue #63, Writers’ Block, 3 of 4
Could it possibly be that easy? Ray Bradbury thinks so.
“If you have writers’ block you can cure it this evening by stopping what you’re doing and writing something else. You picked the wrong subject. [So]…write through the block. That may sound ridiculous, but even when you’re blocked you can still write...Momentum is a writer’s friend.”
Now that Ray has had his say, let’s continue dipping into the well of authorial knowledge, as illustrated by another slew—or bunch—of quotes by writers. This time we’ll focus not on definitions, but on various routes and schemes to lead us OUT of Writer’s Block (want this whole mini-series? Start at Writing Rhythm Issue #61).
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.”
“Give yourself permission to write a bad book…write something anyway, even if it’s awful. Nobody has to know. Maybe it never leaves this room! Just go.”
“I never get writer’s block…I always have a good dozen projects that I’m working on, so if something isn’t working I’ll just switch gears.”
“If you have something to say, then say it. If not, enjoy the silence while it lasts. The noise will return soon enough.”
“…if I’m working on a book and start to feel stuck, it’s usually because I’m doubting myself…[but] it’s not the right time to worry about that. My job right now is to write the next 500 words, not worry what the critics will be saying a year from now.”
“…my process involves writing very badly. My first drafts are filled with lurching, clichéd writing, outright flailing around. Writing that doesn’t have a good voice or any voice. But then there will be good moments.”
“Using your imagination to create a work of fiction involves exercising the mind and the more you do it, the more adept you become…most of my writing is what I have in the bank of memories I’ve accumulated.”
“…all ideas are a combination of preexisting ideas. So if you’re ‘out’ of new ideas it’s probably because you don’t have enough old ideas to combine…don’t show up to the keyboard without a plan and then tell the world you have writer’s block. You’re lying to us and to yourself.”
“You can’t think yourself out of a writing block; you have to write yourself out of a thinking block.”
“I deal with writer’s block by lowering my expectations…the solution is never to…imagine that you will achieve something magical and magnificent. I write a little bit, almost every day, and if it results in two or three or (on a good day) four good paragraphs, I consider myself a lucky man. Never try to be the hare. All hail the tortoise.”
“I believe so strongly that writers need to read…reading is the way you can prevent…or get over writer’s block. You can’t keep writing if you’re not filling your gas tank with whatever you want to read…”
“…beginning any project is the discovery of what matters to me, followed by an attempt to conceive of it in terms of fiction. [It’s] engineering a set of delusions that the act of writing has consequence and simply must be done …”
“Don’t stop because you’ve hit a block. Finish the page, even if you write nothing but your own name. The block will break if you don’t give in to it. Remember, writing is a physical habit as well as whatever you want to think it is—calling, avocation, talent, genius, art.”
“…unless I was willing to just carve out…time for writing, I was never going to get anything done. It is a dilemma…I think everyone faces.”
Don’t worry. We’ll summarize and put all this together next time. I realize that was a whole load of advice—which will lead the clever reader to the definition of the following.
What is slew?
Action Plan
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Next up:
64) Writer’s Block: The Exorcism, Writer’s Block, 4 of 4
See you next time!
—Craig