Writer’s Block
March 14th, 2007 | by Paolo |I’ve seen writers who say they don’t believe in writers block. I believe in it.
I believe.
But it’s not this bogus stuff about not being able to write. For me, it’s the process of not being able to move forward. Which is, trust me, different. I can generate lots of words, it’s just that they don’t actually solve the problem at hand and must then be deleted — again and again and again.
In my case, it’s often related to a realization that there’s a plot or character problem, but I don’t know what the problem is. Or, more often, I know what the problem is, but I don’t like how much work it’s going to take for me to acknowledge it and fix it. So I delay, and try to avoid making the decision.
And here’s where the real indication of writer’s block happens: I start thinking of a whole new way to write the entire story from scratch that would avoid the problem I’ve got with the current version entirely. Brilliant! It’s the equivalent of scoping women in the grocery store when you’re having marital problems at home. “Yeah, that one over there, I’ll bet we could have a beautiful relationship…” And of course, you could. Because it’s all a fantasy.
I’m trying to get better at realizing when I’m hitting a difficult puzzle, acknowledging it, and then making the hard decisions that will salvage what I’ve already done, rather than throw it all out and start afresh with a newer shinier story that will also, inevitably betray me.
4 Responses to “Writer’s Block”
By Trent Hergenrader on Mar 15, 2007 | Reply
Hey Paolo,
I didn’t know you had a blog! I just googled you to see if I could find your bibliography and look where I wound up. I’m taking a seminar on sci-fi & utopia/dystopia and I’m pretty sure you’re going to the focus of my term paper, analyzing the variety of rosy futures you offered in your fiction.
And to make a comment relevant to your post, I’ve had this blocking experience myself. Awhile back I was working on a story where I found a logic problem but decided to just keep writing. Note: this does not work. The characters eventually got stuck trying to remove a stubborn tree stump from a field they were tilling, which had almost nothing to do with the story. I actually laughed out loud when I realized this stump was a manifestation of the nagging problem I’d tried to ignore. I’ve got a solution but it requires the rewriting of a great many words and I haven’t yet taken it back off the shelf.
By Shara Saunsaucie on Mar 15, 2007 | Reply
Amen…sadly, I am initimately familiar with this process…
By Paolo on Mar 15, 2007 | Reply
Hi Trent! Great to hear from you. I saw you had a story in Realms of Fantasy recently. It showed up in my local bookstore.
You’re going to write a term paper about me? Aren’t the people who are the focus of term papers supposed to dead? I was sure that was a qualifying criteria.
Lemme know if you have any questions about my stories. I’ll lie and give conflicting responses. :-)
By Chang, in space! on Mar 28, 2007 | Reply
Huh. When I first read this, I got kind of cynical and thought ot myself writer’s block is a state of mind. Well, yeah, but something you can get past just by writing it out - the writer’s version of walking it off.
Uh, that was before I wrote a couple THOUSAND words yesterday and suddenly hit a point in the writing where I though to myself, “Does this need to be here?” ANd I’ve not written anything since then. I mean, it was only yesterday, but… I tend to write through a scene and wait a bit then write the next scene. I think I need a bit to process the scene before I move on.
Well, I have to go now and figure out if the scenne fits into the story or not and see if it’s worth keeping or if I need some surgery.