This is part of a blog series on Writer’s Block. Yay! As I write over the next several weeks on the topic, I’ll link them together. Check back here, next week, and the week after for series links.
Serenity now. If you have writer’s block – in any of its forms – you might have a hard time seeing the gift of it. But, like COVID-19, you may also be “symptomless” and still test positive for Writer’s Block.
Why? How?
Writer’s block is not just the much ballyhooed BLANK PAGE SYNDROME. There are 8 kinds of writer’s block that are directly linked to how you and your own creative ability fit or fight the universal creative process.
So, this brings us back to the wrapped and beribboned gift that is writer’s block. Once unwrapped, you can see squarely what is bogging you down. And if you can see that with a diagnostic eye, you can also see what you do very well within the creative process.
It can be hard to see writer’s block at all – like gifts hidden in your mother’s closet. You have to know the gift is there, and you have to look for it.
Many of us DON’T KNOW WE HAVE WRITER’S BLOCK. It can look like “I’ll get to that later…” or “Making money is more important,” or “I’m just too busy.”
Our sweet overworking egos hide the fact that we wish we were writing and that we have somehow failed ourselves in the past. That painful failure – to write, finish, publish, be famous, and have our books made into movies – kicks our egos into action. “Hey, I’m cool. I never wanted all that anyway.”
So this is why actual, detectable, palpable writer’s block is a true gift. You can unwrap it and figure out what the source of YOUR block is, and what might help you glide past it.
And the research exists. We know how to ‘type’ your block, and fix it. The creativity tools and hacks are tried and true. Tested. Evidence-based. They work.
So, if you rush past that blank page with scads of ideas (no writer’s block here, nothing to worry about) then your writer’s block might be TOO MANY IDEAS. Your bugaboo could be getting bogged down by complexity. (Have you ever faced off with the murky middle?) You might rush to finish or never finish. You might research forever, or edit forever. These are all types of writer’s block that I’ll be looking at in this series.
Writer’s block is a gift. Let’s unwrap and see you all shiny and new.