Saw a discussion about writer's
block on a page and someone made an interesting point. They said things like:
"there's no such thing as writer's block; you're expecting what 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 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 dealt with a block 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
shouldn’t put anything more complicated on paper than “Milk, eggs, bread, pick
up dry cleaning”. 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 get the words on the page. It’s ok to write
complete garbage. Editing can fix problems with garbage writing, and sometimes,
it sells as is. There’s no accounting for taste, after all.
The real question is this: Why do
writers seem to think that we have to write perfect 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 a virtuoso as soon as he picks up the instrument. Why are
writers so dead set on perfection the first time out of the gate?
It’s because writing is such an
important part of our society, of how it functions, that it should be easy. We
learn how to write at an early age: first the shapes of letters, then of words,
marching ever onward to literacy. Because we learn so early, it's natural to
think “hey, writing’s not that hard. I could write a book without much
trouble.” And we’re wrong. It’s a difficult thing, telling stories and putting
them on paper.
Don’t get me wrong, there are people
for whom these things are easy. But for most of us, it is difficult, especially
if you want to make money from your writing. So give yourself permission to
write shitty scenes, wooden dialogue, asinine plots. Some things editing can
fix, some it can’t. Think of that garbage as practice. And remember what your
first grade teacher said: Practice makes perfect.
For those who want to compare this and the original, it was posted on June 22, 2016.
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