Seriously, friend, writer’s block is no friggin’ joke. I could elucidate that statement at length almost anytime, but this week it’s especially vivid and raw because I was deep down in that pit not 3 days ago. Staring at a half formed thought followed by a blinking cursor, angry, hurting, mentally constipated, just waiting for that ONE F-ING WORD that makes things make SENSE AGAIN.
That’s all it usually takes. One word, or a short series of them, to flow out naturally and set me in a direction I can follow. Without it, I’m pushing a mental boulder up a hill for eternity, punished, desperate, and, I can assure you, extremely over dramatic.
And this week was especially desperate because I had work-writing AND not-work-writing to get done but nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. You get the idea.
Here’s how it normally works:
- I find out I have to write something.
At work it’s about a 75/25 split between topics I’m asked to write and the ones I get to choose myself. The boring detail here is that we do a lot of email marketing, handle (at least) two websites, make ads and do creative for other places, and maintain two blogs. Between all that, there are a lot of words we need.
- I do almost anything other than actually writing the thing I have to write.
The perfect scenario would be that I have some time to percolate on things. There are probably some very normal, not odd at all people out there that can be told “Hey, write about this thing.”, turn away, and actually start writing.
I wish them well, but that’s not me.
AT MINIMUM, I have to stare at the screen, move my fingers in a typing-esque gesture at least six inches about the keyboard, and talk to myself for a little while. If I’m standing, there’s an unconscious little dance. No one should see that, it’s the original forbidden dance. To avoid all that, I just move on to something else and decide I’m come back to it when I have an idea.
- I get an idea.
Here’s the secret sauce: all of that time I’m NOT writing, I’m actually working REALLY HARD on writing, I just can’t prove it. As I’m cruising through my life, my useful little noggin is working on the right words, how it should feel, what it wants to say, all of the good stuff that will eventually be actual writing. Normally, before I strike a single key on my keyboard, I have at least a solid opening line, or a really good line that I know I have to get to, and an outline for whatever it is.
My super power is hanging on to all of that until I get it down on paper.
You know, some people call it a gift, some people call it obsessive rumination.
- I actually write.
At this point, what I’m doing might look easy. Well, if you’re in the room with me, you don’t have that illusion, but if you just ASKED me to write something two days earlier and walked away, it’s almost like magic.
Now, don’t get this twisted, it is NOT easy. I’m just saying it LOOKS that way because I did all of the hard stuff in my brain pan and no one knows how truly freaking gnarly that whole process was. If I’ve thought long and hard, the words rush out of me.
The downside of having a brain like a crock-pot, where you can add the ingredients, turn it on, and then walk away until it produces something tasty, is that it’s doing that ALL OF THE TIME. And, as they say, results may vary.
Sometimes I go to cook something (I’m hanging on to the metaphor, I like it…) and find that my crock-pot-brain is full of something that nobody wants, least of all me. And when I open the top to find pineapple, brussel sprouts, and nacho cheese casserole cooking, I’m always a little at a loss. Yes, I KNOW, I need to clean it out and work on the right recipe, but that feels SO HARD.
It’s not like I don’t know what do, it’s just that it would be a lot more convenient if it would fix itself magically. I still want to believe in magic, especially if it will save my butt.
Instead, after I procrastinate, whine, and self-flagellate for just the right amount of time, I get to work, ONE F-ING WORD at a time.
It’s like this:
Type a word. Look at it. Type one more word. Delete them both. Type a different word. Then a second. Then change the second one. Then look at it again. Delete the first word. Re-type it. Add a word in front of it. Change that word.
You get the idea, right?
Eventually I know that either I will finish at exactly that pace, in mental pain all the way, ot the floodgates will open and it will get easy again. Either way, it gets done, and I get to move on.
Like right now.
When my lovely co-blogger suggested writers block for this week’s topic, I say yes automatically. After about five minutes, I totally regretted my decision. Most of what I writer currently are reviews for comic-watchers.com (check the site out, it’s a lot of fun), and I technically don’t get writer’s block that often, because when you’re reviewing something, there’s always something to talk about. I can write an articaly about a comics that’s really good, and I can also write an article about a comic that’s really bad. Ocasionally, though I read a comic that’s an absolute nightmare. That is, after reading it, I have no reaction at all. It’s a comic that’s just kinda there.
That’s the time what writers block sets in. People say that when faced with writers block, you should walk away from whatever you’re writing for a day or so, don’t think about it and get back to it at a later day. That would be fine, except that with what I do, there’s always a deadline. I can maybe spare a day, but no more than that at all. But, instead of doing the smart thing, I sit there and force myself to finish the article or whatever I’m writing. My thought it always “I do this all the time, this is no different, and it should take me no more than 30 minutes!” So I’ll sit there staring for 90 minutes to 2 hours thinking I can finish whatever it is I’m writing “any minute now”.
But, I seriously think that you should walk away when you get writer’s block. Go for a quick walk. Expose yourself to some other media. TV, radio, a podcast, anything. Just get something else in your brain for a little bit. It’s gonna relax you and it’s gonna put your mind in a different state. Also, read something if you can. If you’re writing a story, then read a newspaper or a non-fiction, and vice-versa. Often time you’ll go back to your writing with a fresh eye and you won’t be as stressed as you were before. Chances are, the writing will come a little bit easier.
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