Mightier than the
pen: how not to let writer’s block bring you down
First published in Carmel Beat, in February 2021
It’s a pleasant day, just the right amount of sunny and you
sit before your computer, fingers poised and ready to type. You have your
beverage of choice, piping hot, on a coaster on your desk. Maybe a snack as well. And your
favourite song is playing.
You are weeks away from your deadline, your back is straight, you're calm, composed and ready to
begin, and that’s it. You
have been ready for a long time but no words come, there are no ideas in
your head and that’s where the nightmare begins.
Your deadline looms; you’ve started slumping forward, ready
to bang your head on the keyboard. Your eyes are puffy, those bags look like
the heavy ones even school children are forced to carry nowadays. You feel
sleepy, smelly and sorry for yourself. You’ve waited for it to pass, you’ve brainstormed,
you’ve even taken breaks; but to no avail.
There it is- writer’s block! And unfortunately, it looks
like it’s here to stay.
We all have different names for it- such as stress, burnout,
etc. Some of us are fortunate to have never experienced it, while for others it
may even take on the appearance of a chronic illness. For me, it is seasonal.
But what is writer’s block really? Is it actually real?
Writer’s block is a condition where someone with the desire
to write finds themselves unable to write, and is a phenomenon that has existed
as long as writing itself. Side effects include procrastination, distraction,
stress, tears and so much more. Not just authors, but academics face it too. So
if that essay you were supposed to submit last week is still only half
finished, now you know why.
It can also be caused by stress, or maybe lack of rest or
fresh ideas.
Over the centuries, different people have found different
ways to deal with writer’s block; some are still effective and some -ahem- are
simply too outdated for this day and age; some work and some do not, depending
on who you are, how you feel, where you are, what you’ve been thinking about
and so on. By now it’s probably very clear that the very nature of writer’s
block is completely random.
For instance, Victor Hugo’s strategy to battle writer’s block was to
write buck naked.
Despite being a dedicated writer and author of Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hugo would also suffer from frequent
bouts of writer’s block at which point he would ask his servants to take all
his clothes away, ensuring that he could not leave the house until he had
written a certain amount.
This may not work for us today, because we don’t need to
leave the house to be entertained. We can just pick up our phones and doom
scroll through social media, getting sucked indefinitely into the bottomless
abyss that is Instagram’s Explore page, which if you ask me, is much more
addictive a distraction than any 19th century partying that Hugo
would have indulged in.
But don’t worry, many authors have suggested various ways of
combating this pesky condition. Some of these are so eccentrically delightful
that I had much rather read about them than actually attempt them.
Dan Brown, author of Da Vinci Code, used to suspend himself upside down from a special
frame, part of his gym equipment, in order to get his mind machine rolling. He
is known to have given this unconventional approach a name: inversion therapy,
and is reported to have said that inversion therapy "does help. You've
just got to relax and let go. The more you do it the more you let go. And then
soon it's just, wow." So everyone suffering from writer’s block, ‘hang in
there!’
Maya Angelou suggests forcing yourself to
write every day, even if it is random and boring. Then once you’re in the
groove, inspiration may very well strike. Neil Gaiman, on the other hand, suggests leaving your work
to its own devices and taking a break for a few days, then returning and
reviewing your work. Perhaps all you need is some time off for your head to
empty a bit or your empty head to fill up a bit.
I have tried a few things to help me battle writer’s block,
usually one of the several hundred remedies that you'll find on Reddit and Tumblr, and sometimes they work,
other times they don’t. My biggest takeaway has been that if anything about
writer’s block can be considered even slightly consistent, it is its
inconsistency. Basically, whatever works today may not work the next time you
have writer’s block.
So technically, I cannot really round up this article by
giving you any solutions, because it may well not work for you, but a couple of tiny suggestions can’t
hurt, can they?
As I
mentioned earlier, writer’s block happens to me every few weeks. I like to try
different methods to combat it each time. The last time I had it, I was working
on a script for a play. I called up a friend and vented to her. Very soon,
while casually talking about my work and why I couldn't progress any further,
and what plans I had for the characters' futures, ideas and words started to
flow again! Of course, this is one of the rare occasions a quick (ish) fix
worked for me.
I would say maybe
stop writing and do something else like watch a movie, read a book, go
for a walk, take a nap, eat a snack, talk to someone and keep doing that till
you are inspired to write something. It may not be the thing you are supposed
to be writing. For example, you may be working on a novel but your little break
may conclude in you feeling inspired to write an ode to soup! That’s great! Go
ahead and write that ode! Maybe once you’re cheered up, some novel-related
ideas will decide to stop over and hold a party in your head.
Having said that, good luck and as Charles Bukowski says,
“Writing about writer’s block is better than not writing at all.”
Oh, wait-
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