#WritingTips Facing Blank Pages and Combatting Blocks #WritersLife
Writer's block in the bane of every writer's existence. There's some debate as to whether or not it's actually "a thing." So let me assure you it is.
However, it's a much more understandable condition than some writers make it out to be.
Often, I believe some writers overexaggerate and romanticize the condition in order to dissuade younger and would-be writers from pursuing what they wish to do. They make it seem as if you don't have it or have never suffered from it, there's something wrong with you. Its in the same canon of writerly clichés as drinking to excess, over-doing it with drugs, suffering from mental illness, having unhappy childhoods and adolescences, and living an extreme and chaotic life that leads to, at minimum, one divorce. (To be fair, writers often hyperbolize, especially fiction writers, and all those clichés are rooted in truth).
From my own experience, I can tell you that writer's block is real though. I've had it in the past, and I'm sure I'll have it in the future. But I persist nonetheless because I know what it really is.
Writer's block isn't a condition that's unique to a particular profession. If that were true, we'd be hearing a lot about outbreaks of "plumber's block," and "police officer's block," and "electrician's block." These conditions don't exist because when these people suffer from what I'm describing, they call it what it is.
Writer's block is merely an onset of severe anxiety, perfectionism, and, quite possibly, depression. In my case, anyway, that's precisely what it is. In other words, it's a state of being unable to do your job.
The writer's main tool is not their word processing program, their computer, their journal, or their writing utensil (although those certainly help). The writer's main tool is their mind. Within our minds reside our imaginations, our memories, and our vocabularies. All of those items are instrumental in the act of writing. They're are to the writer what to trowels, seeds, soil, and fertilizer are to a gardener. With the mind impaired, the job is next to impossible to do.
I suffer from chronic anxiety (as I've discussed in a previous column) that often precipitates into spirals of depression. When I'm in the grip of that condition, I'm lucky if I can push out 100 fresh words a day (with incredibly stubborn concerted effort).
Still, I persist because I've found ways to circumvent the blocks my mind creates. Thus, I feel the need to share my own personal methods. After all, if you're a fellow writer, some might work for you.
1. Change Your Writing Modus Operandi
Neil Gaiman discovered years ago, around the time he wrote his novel Stardust, that if he wrote in notebooks, by hand, with fountain pens, he could produce new work fairly easily. His rationale for it was that, "It wasn't real until [he] keyboarded it." Since then, he's produced every first draft of everything he's written by hand.
I typically write directly on my computer. But there are days when the curser on my screen looks less like a beckoning friend and more like an enemy flipping me the bird with the consistency of a flashing neon sign.
This usually happens when my anxiety kicks in over perfection when it comes to style. I suddenly find myself unable to write because every sentence, every word, I put down looks like the wrong word.
I think this partly comes because copy on a screen looks clean, so clean that it may as well be etched into stone. Of course, all writers intellectually know that nothing written is permanent until its published, but the very look of words on a screen with no chicken-scratch or red ink marks gives it that resemblance. Thus, in settles the form of anxiety we call perfectionism.
My method for getting around this block is to change the way I get words down on the page. As I said, I typically write on my computer. However, if I'm suddenly struck by a case of perfectionism, I turn to my trusty back up tools: a pen and a piece of blank paper.
(My personal preference is a nice piece of scrap paper or clean notebook page with a Paper Mate Ink Joy 0.7mm Gel Pen, with black ink--I almost always have those on me).
Why does this method work? Because, having learned to write before "keyboarding" (what used to be called typing) became standard practice, I know how messy he act of writing by hand--especially in ink--can be. You can't erase good quality ink from paper. Instead, you have to scratch it out. If you suddenly think of a good detail to slip into a paragraph you've already written, you can't go back and easily insert it as you do on a computer; you have to write it in the margins and put and arrow directing your mind to place it in that spot when you go back and keyboard it.
Writing by hand works because unconsciously, you know, you're going to have to go over it again. You're going to get another shot at it. You know, innately, that what you put down isn't permanent, isn't perfect. So just get it down, and then rework it when the time comes.
2. Change Your Writing Space
I've almost always used laptops since I started writing (except my first computer, which was a desktop). This gives me the ability to write almost anywhere, though I do have my preferences. I have a desk in my room that serves as my main writing space, but I can write just as easily at a kitchen table, on a living room couch, or in a tucked-away coffee shop booth.
I've found a change of scenery to be helpful from time to time when writing, even a change in noise level. I listen to music almost all the time when I work, but sometimes, the white noise of a bustling coffee shop does the trick just a well. Other times, I need near complete quiet, so I find someplace where I know I won't be disturbed and write there.
I don't think this has anything to do with Feng Shui, but sometimes just a a minor change like that helps me get through a trick scene or section of whatever I'm working on at the time.
3. Open Up a Blank Document
I've only recently discovered this one.
Since last February, I've been working on a long term project, specifically a heroic fantasy novel titled A Sword Named Sylph. It's my third attempt at writing a novel, and I'm definitely sure the end result (whether or not it gets published), will be something about which I can brag.
However, in the course of writing this opus, I've at times come to points in the story where I either have no clue what will happen next (my method is a hybridized form of outlining & free-writing), and suddenly the anxiety will set in again. My writer's mind will start saying things like, "Well...what now, smartass?"
This is where the blank document method comes into play.
What I'll do is open up a blank word document on my computer and write, what I believe, the next section will be separate from the rest of the manuscript. It gives me the same kind of relief that writing by hand does. Again, since I know I'm going to have to look over it again as I'm adding it to my main document.
I've made whole daily wordcounts using this method (I've even topped them at times).
Also, if you feel as if too many of these tatty, partial documents might clutter up your pristine computer files, you may not wish to use this method to write swatches of your work-in-progress. A good alternative is to use these blank documents almost like a bullet journal. Rather than writing down whole sections of your work, use it to converse with yourself over what you think should happen next. Notate things that you believe should happen in the section with which you're having trouble.
When beginning a new book, famed author David Mitchel (of Cloud Atlas fame) begins by writing a letter to himself, in longhand, from the voice of each of his new characters. This gives him the idea of who they are, how they'll react in situations, and what they might do if a scenario is particularly perilous.
4. Find Your Reset Method
It's always good to have hobbies outside of work, things you can turn to when you need a break.
I find reading the next chapter of the fun book I'm currently making my way through to be a good one, or watching the next episode of a show I'm really into to be handy. Or going for a walk. Or taking a nap. Or listen to some of my favorite music albums, like Kind of Blue, Let My Children Hear Music, Pure Heroine, or Smoke + Mirrors.
These are what I call, and what many other writers call, reset mechanisms.
These are things I do to unwind either after I've done my work for the day, or as a means of reenergizing myself to tackle a particularly difficult scene.
A good example of this from a practiced pro comes from Anne Rice, author of Interview with a Vampire. Whenever she needs to suddenly find the energy to write or the desire to write, she opens a copy of Mario Puzo's The Godfather or Stephen King's Firestarter. The opening pages of those books somehow get her energized to start writing. Her other method is to watch a movie like Amadeus or Immortal Beloved, the visual and narrative power of which compels her to write.
5. Take Time to Stop and Think
I've also only recently discovered this, but there are times--hopefully not to many--when you simply have to give yourself permission to not write. Coming from someone who hopes to claim the appellation of "professional full-time writer," that may sound shocking. But, it's true.
Everyone who does a job--theoretically--takes a little time off. This can be difficult in our work-centric world (especially if you live in America) because we feel as if we should always be working, we should always be doing something.
This can especially be difficult for writers because we live on what we produce. We have no pension, no health care, and no salary to fall back on unless we have a day job; it's all on our shoulders. And because we work at a solitary profession, our chances for developing mental issues due to loneliness only increases. (Humanity is a social species after all.) But agonizing over work, to the point of obsessing, is not healthy.
Thus, there are times when the only recourse is to walk away and allow yourself to think out the problem. Turn your attention to your reset mechanism, whatever that may be. Go to the gym and get some exercise. Go walk the dog in the park. Do anything to get your mind off the work that's been tormenting you (as long as it's healthy).
I personally find that if I've had a particularly bad writing day, going for a long walk (playing Pokémon Go as I do so and listening to jazz music), helps me enormously. I've been able to figure out solutions to problems with a particular piece via this method. And when I do, I make a note of it (hence why I always carry a notebook and a pen on me).
There is, of course, no real universal advice for writing or for facing blank pages and combatting blocks. But these methods have certainly helped me. Maybe some of them help can, and will, help you.
However, it's a much more understandable condition than some writers make it out to be.
Often, I believe some writers overexaggerate and romanticize the condition in order to dissuade younger and would-be writers from pursuing what they wish to do. They make it seem as if you don't have it or have never suffered from it, there's something wrong with you. Its in the same canon of writerly clichés as drinking to excess, over-doing it with drugs, suffering from mental illness, having unhappy childhoods and adolescences, and living an extreme and chaotic life that leads to, at minimum, one divorce. (To be fair, writers often hyperbolize, especially fiction writers, and all those clichés are rooted in truth).
From my own experience, I can tell you that writer's block is real though. I've had it in the past, and I'm sure I'll have it in the future. But I persist nonetheless because I know what it really is.
Writer's block isn't a condition that's unique to a particular profession. If that were true, we'd be hearing a lot about outbreaks of "plumber's block," and "police officer's block," and "electrician's block." These conditions don't exist because when these people suffer from what I'm describing, they call it what it is.
Writer's block is merely an onset of severe anxiety, perfectionism, and, quite possibly, depression. In my case, anyway, that's precisely what it is. In other words, it's a state of being unable to do your job.
The writer's main tool is not their word processing program, their computer, their journal, or their writing utensil (although those certainly help). The writer's main tool is their mind. Within our minds reside our imaginations, our memories, and our vocabularies. All of those items are instrumental in the act of writing. They're are to the writer what to trowels, seeds, soil, and fertilizer are to a gardener. With the mind impaired, the job is next to impossible to do.
I suffer from chronic anxiety (as I've discussed in a previous column) that often precipitates into spirals of depression. When I'm in the grip of that condition, I'm lucky if I can push out 100 fresh words a day (with incredibly stubborn concerted effort).
Still, I persist because I've found ways to circumvent the blocks my mind creates. Thus, I feel the need to share my own personal methods. After all, if you're a fellow writer, some might work for you.
1. Change Your Writing Modus Operandi
Neil Gaiman discovered years ago, around the time he wrote his novel Stardust, that if he wrote in notebooks, by hand, with fountain pens, he could produce new work fairly easily. His rationale for it was that, "It wasn't real until [he] keyboarded it." Since then, he's produced every first draft of everything he's written by hand.
I typically write directly on my computer. But there are days when the curser on my screen looks less like a beckoning friend and more like an enemy flipping me the bird with the consistency of a flashing neon sign.
This usually happens when my anxiety kicks in over perfection when it comes to style. I suddenly find myself unable to write because every sentence, every word, I put down looks like the wrong word.
I think this partly comes because copy on a screen looks clean, so clean that it may as well be etched into stone. Of course, all writers intellectually know that nothing written is permanent until its published, but the very look of words on a screen with no chicken-scratch or red ink marks gives it that resemblance. Thus, in settles the form of anxiety we call perfectionism.
My method for getting around this block is to change the way I get words down on the page. As I said, I typically write on my computer. However, if I'm suddenly struck by a case of perfectionism, I turn to my trusty back up tools: a pen and a piece of blank paper.
(My personal preference is a nice piece of scrap paper or clean notebook page with a Paper Mate Ink Joy 0.7mm Gel Pen, with black ink--I almost always have those on me).
Why does this method work? Because, having learned to write before "keyboarding" (what used to be called typing) became standard practice, I know how messy he act of writing by hand--especially in ink--can be. You can't erase good quality ink from paper. Instead, you have to scratch it out. If you suddenly think of a good detail to slip into a paragraph you've already written, you can't go back and easily insert it as you do on a computer; you have to write it in the margins and put and arrow directing your mind to place it in that spot when you go back and keyboard it.
Writing by hand works because unconsciously, you know, you're going to have to go over it again. You're going to get another shot at it. You know, innately, that what you put down isn't permanent, isn't perfect. So just get it down, and then rework it when the time comes.
2. Change Your Writing Space
I've almost always used laptops since I started writing (except my first computer, which was a desktop). This gives me the ability to write almost anywhere, though I do have my preferences. I have a desk in my room that serves as my main writing space, but I can write just as easily at a kitchen table, on a living room couch, or in a tucked-away coffee shop booth.
I've found a change of scenery to be helpful from time to time when writing, even a change in noise level. I listen to music almost all the time when I work, but sometimes, the white noise of a bustling coffee shop does the trick just a well. Other times, I need near complete quiet, so I find someplace where I know I won't be disturbed and write there.
I don't think this has anything to do with Feng Shui, but sometimes just a a minor change like that helps me get through a trick scene or section of whatever I'm working on at the time.
3. Open Up a Blank Document
I've only recently discovered this one.
Since last February, I've been working on a long term project, specifically a heroic fantasy novel titled A Sword Named Sylph. It's my third attempt at writing a novel, and I'm definitely sure the end result (whether or not it gets published), will be something about which I can brag.
However, in the course of writing this opus, I've at times come to points in the story where I either have no clue what will happen next (my method is a hybridized form of outlining & free-writing), and suddenly the anxiety will set in again. My writer's mind will start saying things like, "Well...what now, smartass?"
This is where the blank document method comes into play.
What I'll do is open up a blank word document on my computer and write, what I believe, the next section will be separate from the rest of the manuscript. It gives me the same kind of relief that writing by hand does. Again, since I know I'm going to have to look over it again as I'm adding it to my main document.
I've made whole daily wordcounts using this method (I've even topped them at times).
Also, if you feel as if too many of these tatty, partial documents might clutter up your pristine computer files, you may not wish to use this method to write swatches of your work-in-progress. A good alternative is to use these blank documents almost like a bullet journal. Rather than writing down whole sections of your work, use it to converse with yourself over what you think should happen next. Notate things that you believe should happen in the section with which you're having trouble.
When beginning a new book, famed author David Mitchel (of Cloud Atlas fame) begins by writing a letter to himself, in longhand, from the voice of each of his new characters. This gives him the idea of who they are, how they'll react in situations, and what they might do if a scenario is particularly perilous.
4. Find Your Reset Method
It's always good to have hobbies outside of work, things you can turn to when you need a break.
I find reading the next chapter of the fun book I'm currently making my way through to be a good one, or watching the next episode of a show I'm really into to be handy. Or going for a walk. Or taking a nap. Or listen to some of my favorite music albums, like Kind of Blue, Let My Children Hear Music, Pure Heroine, or Smoke + Mirrors.
These are what I call, and what many other writers call, reset mechanisms.
These are things I do to unwind either after I've done my work for the day, or as a means of reenergizing myself to tackle a particularly difficult scene.
A good example of this from a practiced pro comes from Anne Rice, author of Interview with a Vampire. Whenever she needs to suddenly find the energy to write or the desire to write, she opens a copy of Mario Puzo's The Godfather or Stephen King's Firestarter. The opening pages of those books somehow get her energized to start writing. Her other method is to watch a movie like Amadeus or Immortal Beloved, the visual and narrative power of which compels her to write.
5. Take Time to Stop and Think
I've also only recently discovered this, but there are times--hopefully not to many--when you simply have to give yourself permission to not write. Coming from someone who hopes to claim the appellation of "professional full-time writer," that may sound shocking. But, it's true.
Everyone who does a job--theoretically--takes a little time off. This can be difficult in our work-centric world (especially if you live in America) because we feel as if we should always be working, we should always be doing something.
This can especially be difficult for writers because we live on what we produce. We have no pension, no health care, and no salary to fall back on unless we have a day job; it's all on our shoulders. And because we work at a solitary profession, our chances for developing mental issues due to loneliness only increases. (Humanity is a social species after all.) But agonizing over work, to the point of obsessing, is not healthy.
Thus, there are times when the only recourse is to walk away and allow yourself to think out the problem. Turn your attention to your reset mechanism, whatever that may be. Go to the gym and get some exercise. Go walk the dog in the park. Do anything to get your mind off the work that's been tormenting you (as long as it's healthy).
I personally find that if I've had a particularly bad writing day, going for a long walk (playing Pokémon Go as I do so and listening to jazz music), helps me enormously. I've been able to figure out solutions to problems with a particular piece via this method. And when I do, I make a note of it (hence why I always carry a notebook and a pen on me).
There is, of course, no real universal advice for writing or for facing blank pages and combatting blocks. But these methods have certainly helped me. Maybe some of them help can, and will, help you.
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