I help writers with writer’s block, whether you call it that or not. I help struggling writers understand their creative process better, so they can write with less fight.

People don’t tend to call it writer’s block, unless it is specifically the “blank page” problem. Some people say, I’m procrastinating. Some say, I have to be more productive. Others say, I start things and I can’t finish them, or I’m just lazy.

Lately, we say, there’s too much going on to settle my brain, and work on my writing.With CV-19, BLM protests, the election, is there room for storytelling? Writing? Indulging myself in creativity?

Those are all writer’s block. Steven Pressfield calls it “resistance,” which has a more temporary aspect to it. (The War of Art, Pressfield) You can overcome resistance, but a block might feel permanent and insurmountable. “Resistance” is probably a better word for it, if you hope to move through it and write. As we do.

Is Writer’s Block Real?

I wholeheartedly believe it is very real. I also believe it can be used as an excuse not to write, bec writing is hard, vulnerable work. People like to deny its existence bec they see themselves (or others) using it as an excuse, and they believe you can just knuckle down and write. No block.

Block is a real thing, that is sometimes used as an excuse not to write. Just like tiredness is real, but sometimes is used as an excuse not to do something.

I’m exploring the experts’ words on writer’s block. Great, accomplished writers. If they acknowledge block, they’ve certainly moved through it and given us their great works. If they deny it… well, they knuckled down and wrote, partially empowered by the belief that the block they were experiencing wasn’t “real.” It’s all in your head, so it’s not real? You make it up, so you can un-make it up? This is the power of a writer’s sense of the world.

The Deniers: Writer’s Block is Not Real

When the muse is ready, you must be at your desk…

“I don’t sit around waiting for passion to strike me. I keep working steadily, because … I trust that creativity is always trying to find me, even when I have lost sight of it.” ~ Elizabeth Gilbert

“When I’m writing, I write. And then it’s as if the muse is convinced that I’m serious and says, ‘Okay. Okay. I’ll come.'” ~ Maya Angelou

I don’t believe – if you do, you’re not working hard enough.

“Nothing will work unless you do.” ~ Maya Angelou

“I don’t believe in writer’s block. Think about it – when you were blocked in college and had to write a paper, didn’t it always manage to fix itself the night before the paper was due? Writer’s block is having too much time on your hands.” ~ Jodi Picoult

“The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair.” ~ Mary Heaton Vorse

“I would also argue that there is a good chance that an outline will help you stave off any onslaught of writer’s block. Let me advise you right up front that I am not a big believer in writer’s block. I think writer’s block is God’s way of telling you one of two things – that you failed to think your material through sufficiently before you started writing, or that you need a day or two off with your family and friends.” ~ Terry Brooks

Real writers don’t have writer’s block…

“Professional writers don’t have muses; they have mortgages.” ~ Larry Kahaner

“There’s no such thing as writer’s block. That was invented by people in California who couldn’t write.”
~ Terry Pratchett

“Writer’s block? I’ve heard of this. This is when a writer cannot write, yes? Then that person isn’t a writer anymore. I’m sorry, but the job is getting up in the fucking morning and writing for a living.” ~ Warren Ellis

Don’t take writer’s block lying down…

“I learned to produce whether I wanted to or not. It would be easy to say oh, I have writer’s block, oh, I have to wait for my muse. I don’t. Chain that muse to your desk and get the job done.” ~ Barbara Kingsolver

“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” ~ Jack London

The Believers: Writer’s Block is Real

“The scariest moment is always just before you start.” ~ Stephen King
“I write because it’s all I know how to do. Writing is my anchor and my purpose. My life is informed by writing, whether the work is going well or I’m stuck in the hell of writer’s block, which I’m happy to report only occurs about once a day.” ~ Sue Grafton

Writer’s block is part of the writing process – but don’t call it writer’s block

“I never have [suffered writer’s block], although I’ve had books that didn’t work out. I had to stop writing them. I just abandoned them. It was depressing, but it wasn’t the end of the world. There’s nothing to be done but go somewhere else.” ~ Margaret Atwood

“I don’t believe in writer’s block. There are good days when you’re writing and less good days. I’ve learned that if it’s not happening to walk away and return later.” ~ Judy Blume

“I don’t think that writer’s block exists really. I think that when you’re trying to do something prematurely, it just won’t come. Certain subjects just need time, as I’ve learned over and over again. You’ve got to wait before you write about them.” ~ Joyce Carol Oates

“As a writer, I need an enormous amount of time alone. Writing is 90 percent procrastination: reading magazines, eating cereal out of the box, watching infomercials. It’s a matter of doing everything you can to avoid writing, until it is about four in the morning and you reach the point where you have to write. Having anybody watching that or attempting to share it with me would be grisly.” ~ Paul Rudnick

“I don’t believe in writer’s block. If I can’t write, I go out and live. Then, if I’m a writer, I’ll find something to write.” ~ Peter Arpesella

Oh, it’s real all right, but just write through it

“You can’t think yourself out of a writing block; you have to write yourself out of a thinking block.” ~ John Rogers

“The best way in the world for breaking up a writer’s block is to write a lot.” ~ John Gardner

“Writing about a writer’s block is better than not writing at all.” ~ Charles Bukowski

Writer’s block is an ego problem

“Writer’s block is only a failure of the ego.” ~ Norman Mailer

“When faced with writer’s block, lower your standards and keep going.” ~ Sandra Tsing Loh

“People have writer’s block not because they can’t write, but because they despair of writing eloquently.” ~ Anna Quindlen

“I’ve only suffered writer’s block badly once, and that was during the writing of Chamber of Secrets. I had my first burst of publicity about the first book and it paralysed me. I was scared the second book wouldn’t measure up, but I got through it!” ~ J. K. Rowling

“Writer’s block results from too much head. Cut off your head. Pegasus, poetry, was born of Medusa when her head was cut off. You have to be reckless when writing. Be as crazy as your conscience allows.” ~ Joseph Campbell
“I deal with writer’s block by lowering my expectations. I think the trouble starts when you sit down to write and imagine that you will achieve something magical and magnificent — and when you don’t, panic sets in. The solution is never to sit down and 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.” ― Malcolm Gladwell

Writer’s block is a gift – a way of telling you something important

“I tell my students there is such a thing as ‘writer’s block,’ and they should respect it. You shouldn’t write through it. It’s blocked because it ought to be blocked, because you haven’t got it right now.” ~ Toni Morrison

“I’ve often said that there’s no such thing as writer’s block; the problem is idea block. When I find myself frozen-whether I’m working on a brief passage in a novel or brainstorming about an entire book-it’s usually because I’m trying to shoehorn an idea into the passage or story where it has no place.” ~ Jeffery Deaver

“Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout with some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.” ~ George Orwell

“The problem is acceptance, which is something we’re taught not to do. We’re taught to improve uncomfortable situations, to change things, alleviate unpleasant feelings. But if you accept the reality that you have been given- that you are not in a productive creative period- you free yourself to begin filling up again.” ~ Anne Lamott 

“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.” ~ Ernest Hemingway
“Writer’s block is my unconscious mind telling me that something I’ve just written is either unbelievable or unimportant to me, and I solve it by going back and reinventing some part of what I’ve already written so that when I write it again, it is believable and interesting to me. Then I can go on. Writer’s block is never solved by forcing oneself to “write through it,” because you haven’t solved the problem that caused your unconscious mind to rebel against the story, so it still won’t work — for you or for the reader.”~ Orson Scott Card
“You know, the whole thing about perfectionism. The perfectionism is very dangerous. Because of course if your fidelity to perfectionism is too high, you never do anything. Because doing anything results in…it’s actually kind of tragic because you sacrifice how gorgeous and perfect it is in your head for what it really is. And there were a couple of years where I really struggled with that.” ― David Foster Wallace

Writer’s block is solveable

“Breaking through writer’s block is like thinking out of the box: Both require an ability to imagine a world outside your four walls or rearranging them to get a better view.” ― Susan J. McIntire
“Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?” ― Kurt Vonnegut

“Pretend that you’re writing not to your editor or to an audience or to a readership, but to someone close, like your sister, or your mother, or someone that you like.” — John Steinbeck

“If you get stuck, get away from your desk. Take a walk, take a bath, go to sleep, make a pie, draw, listen to music, meditate, exercise; whatever you do, don’t just stick there scowling at the problem. But don’t make telephone calls or go to a party; if you do, other people’s words will pour in where your lost words should be.” ~ Hilary Mantel

“Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer.” ~ Barbara Kingsolver

The Takeaway

So, what’s the takeaway? Writer’s block is real – though some deny it, even as they wrestle it to the ground. It is part of the creative process, has something important to tell us, is solveable if you disengage your ego, fear, stasis, self-pity. You can write through it, you can’t write through it. Stay at your desk, get outside. Outline first, don’t force your ideas in where they don’t belong. But it’s solveable and you can go on to write like… John Steinbeck, Elizabeth Gilbert, Maya Angelou, Kurt Vonnegut, Toni Morrison or Ernest Hemingway.

For a discussion on Writer’s Block this week and ways around it – head to the Write Without the Fight FB group. See you in there.