Writers on Writer’s Block
I wish there were some sort of organic chocolate-flavored laxative for writer’s block, but unfortunately for writers, there isn’t. Most writers, at some point or another, complain about not being able to write. The writers who claim they don’t ever have writer’s block are usually laughable lazy terrible less critical writers. Prolific writers like Danielle Steele might come out with several books a year, but no one could ever, with a straight face, compare her to someone like Dorris Lessing.
Some writers, notably famous authors and those who have the option of writing leisurely, can afford to suffer from short bouts of writer’s block. Others, like you students, don’t. For you, deadlines exist, regardless of whether anything exists in your empty document. And, seriously, I get your pain. As a student, whenever I had writer’s block, my grade was docked for turning in assignments late, despite the fact that I came up with some pretty demented explanations for my lateness, which included everything from fictionary dead relatives to hospital trips for imaginary kidney stones to every type of disgusting indigestion/food poisoning imaginable (I assumed that if I grossed my teachers out enough, they wouldn’t pry too far into my reasons for needing an extension). Weirdly, I had the imagination to invent whole scenarios explaining why my paper wasn’t done, yet no mental capacity to actually sit down and write it. And, no surprise, my teachers never bought my excuse. In fact, I probably offended their intelligence by even assuming that they would.
I used to feel royally sorry for myself, having writer’s block so often, until I discovered the schadenfreude of realizing all writer’s, even the really talented ones, do as well. Perversely, by realizing how miserable writer’s block makes, for example, Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Thomas Mann, I felt a lot better about not being able to write.
For all you students out there suffering from mental constipation, here’s a little something to feed your schadenfreude. Writers on writer’s block: join the club.
So, getting started really is the hardest part of writing.
“One of the most difficult things is the first paragraph. I have spent many months on a first paragraph, and once I get it, the rest just comes out very easily.”
(Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.”
(Mark Twain)
“In writing, there is first a creating stage–a time you look for ideas, you explore, you cast around for what you want to say. Like the first phase of building, this creating stage is full of possibilities.”
(Ralph Waldo Emerson)
Don’t worry about perfection at first, and just write! The true writing doesn’t really come until the point of editing anyway.
“I’m a rewriter. That’s the part I like best…once I have a pile of paper to work with, it’s like having the pieces of a puzzle. I just have to put the pieces together to make a picture.”
(Judy Blume)
“I rewrite a great deal. I’m always fiddling, always changing something. I’ll write a few words–then I’ll change them. I add. I subtract. I work and fiddle and keep working and fiddling, and I only stop at the deadline.
(Ellen Goodman)
PS: Writer’s block can be sort of funny (as long as you’re not the one suffering from it).
“Writer’s block is a fancy term made up by whiners so they can have an excuse to drink alcohol.”
(Steve Martin)
“To write is to write is to write is to write is to write is to write is to write is to write.”
(Gertrude Stein)
Reading other people can help you get over your own writerly blockage (seriously).
“Becoming the reader is the essence of becoming a writer.”
(John O’Hara)
“Read a lot. Write a lot. Have fun.”
(Daniel Pinkwater)
And, by the way, it’s hard for everyone.
“There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.”
(Walter Wellesley Smith)
“Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.”
(Gene Fowler)
“A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.”
(Thomas Mann)
“I do not like to write – I like to have written.”
(Gloria Steinem)
“The only cure for writer’s block is insomnia.”
(Merrit Antares)
“Every writer I know has trouble writing.”
(Joseph Heller)
“The wastebasket is a writer’s best friend.”
(Isaac Bashevis Singer)
Sometimes, in order to write, you actually do need to take a break from writing and come back later.
“Loafing is the most productive part of a writer’s life.”
(James Norman Hall)
“When I’m looking for an idea, I’ll do anything–clean the closet, mow the lawn, work in the garden.”
(Kevin Henkes)
“Writer’s block is the greatest side effect of boredom.”
(Jason Zebehazy)
“Writer’s block is a disease for which there is no cure, only respite.”
(Laurie Wordholt)
Just don’t procrastinate too much…
“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.” (Paul Rudnick)
“My block was due to two overlapping factors: laziness and lack of discipline. If you really want to write, then shut yourself in a room, close the door, and WRITE. If you don’t want to write, do something else. It’s as simple as that.”
(Mary Garden)
Some writers claim they never have writer’s block, but they’re probably lying.
“I only write when I am inspired. Fortunately I am inspired at 9 o’clock every morning.”
(William Faulkner)
“All through my career I’ve written 1,000 words a day–even if I’ve got a hangover. You’ve got to discipline yourself if you’re professional. There’s no other way.”
(J.G. Ballard)
“I set myself 600 words a day as a minimum output, regardless of the weather, my state of mind or if I’m sick or well.”
(Arthur Hailey)
“The cure for writer’s cramp is writer’s block.”
(Inigo DeLeon)
“Writers have two main problems. One is writer’s block, when the words won’t come at all and the other is logorrhea, when the words come so fast that they can hardly get to the wastebasket in time.”
(Cecilia Bartholomew)
The most important thing is that you keep trying.
“What I try to do is write. I may write for two weeks ‘the cat sat on the mat, that is that, not a rat.’ And it might be just the most boring and awful stuff. But I try. 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)
“People have writer’s block not because they can’t write, but because they despair of writing eloquently.”
(Anna Quindlen)
“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”
(Sylvia Plath)
“Writing is a struggle against silence.”
(Carlos Fuentes)
“The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible. ”
(Vladimir Nabokov)
