I went to a doctor the other day for a routine checkup and he talked about how he has been writing a book–for years.
He said he suffered from a terrible case of writer’s block and asked me how to get over it.
My prescription to the doctor was simple.
Just keep on writing. Write when you don’t feel like it. Do free writing. Write in your journal. Write letters. Write around the chapter on which you are stuck. Have lunch with a writing buddy and talk about the craft, then go home and write a poem or a short story.
Just keep on writing.
I know writer’s block so well we are on a first name basis. In fact, I call him WB. He is caused by all manner of things from fear of success to fear of failure and everything in between.
A few weeks ago, I came down with a case. Everything I wrote seemed to read like crap (I hope it wasn’t.) and I began to question myself as a writer–which is a sure sign of WB.
But I kept on writing. I sat down and just said ‘to hell with it’ and kept going. Even if I only wrote a paragraph.
Eventually, I finished the rewrite of a book, and old WB retreated in his dark cave. Will I see him again?
Of course. But as much as I hate wrestling with that devil, what I hate more is not writing. If I don’t write, it is as if a part of me has been removed and I feel the pain of its absence. I don’t feel complete.
So, to all you come down with a case of writer’s block, my prescription is this. Just keep on writing.