Writer's Block

Before I get to today's post on Writer's Block, I wanted to direct your attention to this brief talk by Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat, Pray, Love) on genius and the creative process. offered the link in her comment on yesterday's post on The Muse and I found Ms. Gilbert's speech to be very thought provoking and well worth listening to in full.

Part Two: Writer's Block

Note: This is part two of a short series inspired by a long footnote in a previous post. Click here for Part One: The Muse.

In the footnote that inspired this weeks series of posts, I wrote: "I do not believe in Writer's Block...I believe in my ability to make mistakes and plow ahead for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of words, ignoring said mistakes, until I finally hit a wall and my mind refuses to produce anymore words until I fix the mess I made."

I feel really passionately about this.

There are a few different situations that fall under the heading of "Writer's Block," but for the sake of brevity, I'm just going to talk about one of them today. You know the one. Here's how it happens for me: I'm typing along. The story is flowing. The words are coming. Aaaaaaaaand then all of a sudden they're not. (Or they've become utter crap and they're coming at the rate of approximately 20 a day.) Gah! Panic!

Here's what I think really happens and why I don't believe in the idea of Writer's Block.

My creative juice ran out and I need some time to recharge. Maybe I'm pushing myself too hard or too fast. Maybe "real life" events crowded in and I haven't been able to achieve the work/life balance I usually can. Maybe I'm just plain tired. No matter what brought me to this place, if this is the reason the words aren't coming then the only thing that will bring them back is rest and a recharge. I close the laptop, I push the story out of my mind and I submerge myself in whatever activities my body is telling me I need. Sometimes, I just need permission to devote myself wholly to "real life" events. Sometimes I want to go on a reading binge. Sometimes it's video games or movies or time with friends or naps or scrapbooking...

I've found that the key elements here are not to rush the recharge time and to pay attention to what my body is telling me. If my body wants creative input (books, movies, etc.) and I don't provide it, the break won't do me any good when I open the laptop again. Likewise with complete rest, etc. I know from past experience. :)

I screwed up somewhere and need to fix it. Oh, I hate this one. I hate it for two reasons. First, it usually means I've been an idiot. Second, it means I have Hard Work ahead of me. Let me 'splain. I really gave the abbreviated version of the "Writer's Block" situation above. Because, in reality, somewhere between "the words are coming" and "then all of a sudden they're not" is a twinge of "hmmm, that might not be exactly right." The tricky thing here is, these twinges happen to me on a somewhat regular basis throughout the writing process. I'm still learning. My self confidence still wavers--considerably--as I write, and so I question myself all the time.

But here's the thing: if I'm going to be truly honest with myself, I can tell the difference between the twinges of questioning self-confidence and the twinges of "yeah that was stupid" when I'm paying attention. Here's where the idiot part comes in, because when I feel the "yeah that was stupid" twinge, sometimes I just keep on typing. I rationalize the twinge-inducing decision away and just sort of hope it will all work out somehow. *cue eye roll* Except it never does. Instead, I type myself down a rabbit hole and it's not until I've completely tangled the story up that my brain finally comes out of it's denial-induced fog to protest by shutting off the word fountain.

In these cases, I'm able* to trace my way back through the narrative to find the twinge-inducing spot. Usually it's a decision or action made with flimsy motivation, or something that was completely out of character for that particular, er, character (awkward). Once I think my way through the correct course of action and either correct or rewrite the story from that point, I'm golden again.

Or, more likely, the combo platter. I've also found that a lot of times the reason I'm so willing to ignore the twinge and push stubbornly ahead is that I need a break. I've lost sight of the narrative or the characters and I need a little bit of distance from the manuscript to recharge and reassess.

Again, the common theme here is that I am directly responsible for the sudden vanishing of words and equally responsible for the solution.

Thoughts? How do you handle "Writer's Block"?

Tomorrow's post will be Part Three: Who's Driving This Thing, Anyway?


*After much moaning and whining, of course.