Writer's Block? What Utter Nonsense
In no other profession does such an invalid excuse exist
Imagine the scene: You’re racing down the motorway, music blaring, pedal to the metal. Either you’re running late or you have time to waste, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that today’s your lucky day; you’ve just triggered a speed radar.
The policeman dumps his donut and proceeds to flag you down. Naturally, being the law abiding citizen that you are, you pull over nervously and await your reckoning. The policeman arrives at your window and motions to open up.
“Good day officer,” you splutter, barely pulling your syllables together.
“Hello there. You know, I was about to give you a speeding ticket, but, well, I have cop block today.”
Now let’s take a trip to the operating theatre.
Poor little Jimmy lies there unconscious on the table. He has a few hours left to live. Several senior surgeons are gathered round the table. Suddenly they step back as the organ transplant is trolleyed in. One of the surgeons beckons to his colleague to commence the procedure.
“Well, you know,” arises a mumble from behind the surgical mask, “I was feeling ok this morning, but I don’t think I’ll be able to do this one now. I have doc block today.”
How would you feel if the doctors, policemen, pilots, and firefighters of our world suddenly came up with lousy excuses instead of executing their jobs? Pretty cheesed off; at least that’s how I’d feel about it.
So why is it then that writers allow themselves the creative leeway to dump the notepad, close the word doc, push away the keyboard, and blame their procrastination on a missing muse or a lack of inspiration?
The collective wisdom of the internet points to a variety of factors. Personally, I boil it down to two distinct things: desire and habit; two things you need to understand about yourself if you want to get anywhere in life.
Do you desire to be a writer?
Many people have this idea of “The Writer”, an elusive, contemplative figure endowed with supreme literacy skills, perhaps once doused with a sprinkle of magic. They aspire to climb to the heights of notoriety inhabited by the likes of King, Hemingway, Kafka, and (enter your authors of choice here, here, here, and here).
Then they sit down, stare at an empty page, and simply give up. Where is the desire?
Do you really want to write? Do you need to write? Are the words battling for attention in your brain’s parietal lobe, screaming at you to be chosen and be blessed with a position on that page?
If you want to write, write.
If you like writing, write.
If you’re serious about writing, write.
I hate to break it to you but if you don’t want to write, you don’t like writing, and you’re not serious about your writing, then maybe you’re not cut out for this line of work. Your lack of desire will show through and throw off any prospective readers.
Now let’s look at habit.
Make it a (good) habit
It’s no secret that Arnold Schwarzenegger, Cristiano Ronaldo, David Goggins, and (enter your successful person of choice here, here, here, and here) all got to the peak of their profession through an unreal amount of effort and dedication. The desire was with them from the start but habit is what propelled them onwards and upwards.
Let’s take Stephen King for example. I mean, this is a man who writes horror stories on Christmas Day. He simply doesn’t stop. He formed a habit (not that habit, he’s been sober for a long time); a writing habit.
By treating his hobby as a job, and coming to the desk every single day, King built up an enormous catalogue of work. Like dollar-cost averaging into a financial investment, his ability to write creatively compounded over time simply due to the fact that he turned up every day.
A process helps
The best writing often doesn’t happen during the writing session itself, but in random times throughout the day, when ideas enter your head. I use a 5-step writing process to capture fleeting thoughts and turn them into content later, no matter how big or small. You can try it for yourself here:
Have fun getting unblocked!
Jason
the cop/doc block analogy hits