Writing when it feels effortless and it just flows is great.
Our ideas are out of our heads and onto paper, to inspire and amuse others.
Not writing when we need to write; when we want to write, is frustrating.
‘Not feeling it’ has been a problem for me. I’d just chalk it up to ‘writer’s block’ and find something else to be distracted by.
Now, I never get writer’s block, and I’m writing more than ever. But I’m still the same guy.
. . .
Here’s the raw reality: you are either writing or you are not writing.
When you are writing you are typing or handwriting words so that they are brought into reality on the page.
When you are not writing you might be playing tennis, or sitting and reading a book or eating an orange.
You are either writing or you are not writing.
This is writer’s block:
‘Writer’s block’ is the moment you know you should be writing and you can write, but you aren’t writing.
It is often thought of as a ‘thing,’ but it really is not a thing. You are simply just not writing at the moment when you could or should, or want to be writing.
“Writing about a writer’s block is better than not writing at all.” ~Charles Bukowski
It’s a handy term that people have ascribed to that awkward moment when the paper is blank and you have the pen in your hand but the pen is not being applied to paper.
How to overcome writer’s block? You write.
You write anything that comes to mind. You demonstrate to your mind and body that you are a writer, not a non-writer.
This sounds incredibly easy, and I’ll bet you already knew this, but it is incredibly hard…if you keep thinking there’s a more complex, more clever way of doing any of this. There isn’t. Stop looking for it. It is always easy if you just move.
Start small, get into the flow, and the answers and gold will come to you.
Act now and you automatically are a writer. You move your hands and your fingers. Writing pure gibberish is writing. Poor writing and nonsense is the start of writing.
I’ve been known to write five thousand words of garbage that I didn’t use before extracting the good stuff that I carved into a five hundred word article.
I just got better at seeing that excess is not excess, it’s part of the full process. Excess is necessary.
Writing crap is writing. Keep writing and you will start finding gems in the crap. Continue that writing. Be ok with using up lots of paper and electricity on your laptop for slamming down words.
“Don’t waste time waiting for inspiration. Begin, and inspiration will find you.” ~H. Jackson Brown Jr.
As long as you write when you can write, you cannot have writer’s block.
Good luck.
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