Writer's Block

Saw a discussion about writer's block on a page and someone made an interesting point. They said something to the tune of "there's no such thing as writer's block; you're just expecting whatever you write to be perfect". And I started thinking.

First off, I don't agree that writer's block isn't a thing, or is just an excuse to not write. Well, for some it can be an excuse to not write, but I digress. I had a case of writer’s block for about 20 years, from roughly 1991/92 til 2012. It wasn’t because I didn’t want to write; believe me, I wanted to.

It was because I didn’t have anything to write about. Hell, in ’91, I was six. What the hell does a six year old have to write about? So yeah, I was blocked until twenty years of reading and life experience coalesced into a story. Then another. And another ad nauseum.

Wow, I told that story and got no closer to my point. Writer’s block can take the form of worry; worrying that you’re not a good enough writer to get through that book or story. Or that you can barely write your name, let alone fiction and that you shouldn’t put anything more complicated on paper than “Milk, eggs, bread, pick up dry cleaning”. I think every writer has these thoughts; any one of my friends can attest to the fact that I’ve had them.

But here’s the thing: you have to let go of these worries and just get the words on the page. It’s ok to write complete garbage. Garbage can be edited and sometimes, it even sells as is. There’s no accounting for taste, after all.

But why do writers seem to think that we have to write perfectly right off the bat? No practitioner of any other art form thinks this way. No painter thinks he’ll be able to replicate Rembrandt the first time he picks up a brush. No musician thinks that he’ll be playing flawlessly as soon as he picks up the instrument. Why are writers so dead set on perfection the first time out of the gate?

I think it’s because writing is such an important part of our society, of how it functions, that we think it should be easy. We learn how to write at such an early age, learning first the shapes of letters, then of words, then grammar, relentlessly marching toward literacy. So, because we learn so early, we think “hey, writing’s not that hard. Why, I think I could write a book without much trouble.” And we’re wrong. It’s a difficult thing, telling stories about people who never existed (sometimes) and putting them on paper.

Don’t get me wrong, there are people for whom these things are easy. But I think for most of us, it truly is a Herculean task, especially if you plan to try and make money from your writing, like most writers do.

 So, yes, give yourself permission to write shitty scenes, wooden dialogue, asinine plots. Some things can be fixed with editing, some can’t. Consider the shitty things you’re writing as practice and remember what your first grade, hell, maybe kindergarten, teacher said: Practice makes perfect.