Writer's Block in Disguise

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In one of her recent Facebook posts, author and author success coach Deborah Riley-Magnus posed this question:

Author survey question of the day ... I don't believe in writer's block, but I do believe in fear that can paralyze the fingers. What are your tricks to get over the blank page and get the ball rolling on those rare occasions when you're uncertain or concerned about the project at hand?

My response came quickly and easily:

Just write. Anything. Words on the page are easier to edit (even if you delete them all when better words show up) than a blank page. 

I believe that. And, like Deb, I don't believe in writer's block, or, at least, I refuse to call it that. Sure there are extenuating circumstances, but when it comes to day-to-day writing roadblocks, it's much easier to slap a handy label on them and go do something that's not as much work than it is to sit down and put words -- any words -- on a page or screen.

It only occurred to me after I responded to Deb's post that my writer's block (again, assuming there is such a thing) comes in a different form.

Procrastination.

I'm very good at following my own write something -- anything advice once my butt is in my chair. Unfortunately, I'm equally good at not sitting down to write in the first place. I can create a day's worth of things I should do instead, thus completely circumventing Deb's question in the first place.

In theory, the answer to this dilemma is equally plain and simple:

1. Stop doing everything else.
2. Sit down.
3. Write.

It's not that writing is that easy; some days, pushing a rock up a mountain would be less difficult and more fulfilling. But there's only one way to get better at it, only one way to fill pages with words, only one way to turn those words into stories and books and articles and that is to sit down and write. Write messy, write nonsensical, write garbage. 

Just. Write.

Now all I need to do is practice what I preach.

Just Keep Typing....

I am one of those writers who thinks that the cure for writer's block is simply to write. It's not that I don't believe that people get stuck -- I've been there, and it is a terrible feeling -- it's that I've somehow always managed to find my way around the roadblock imposed by a blank page.

But lately, I've been struggling with this blog. Used to coming up with topics fairly easily, I've had a hard time dealing with the fact that some days, no topic shows up. At least not in time for me to post on the schedule I've set for myself.

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Part of the problem is that I'm immersed in other things. I tend to forget that when I worked full-time,
I wasn't posting two or three times a week, and topics were sometimes scarce. It was only when I retired and had plenty of time to write that I got myself on a posting schedule. The myriad topics that magically appeared then had little to do with a schedule and everything to do with the fact that I'd made a major life change, which lent itself to all sorts of introspection and new insights.

But now, things have settled into a new normal. Though I'm still figuring out my life schedule (which has changed three times in as many years), I'm trying to stick to a posting schedule. And since my readers don't want to hear about developmental theorists, research methods in psychology or brain development from the prenatal period to the end of middle childhood, there are many days where I have difficulty shifting from class planning to blog posts.

One thing that has remained consistent, though, is that the only way around is through. If I want to continue to post regularly (and I do), I just have to write something -- anything -- even if it's at 7:00 at night instead of 7:00 in the morning. In addition, I have to accept that no matter how big a hurry I am in -- or perhaps because of that -- some posts just won't gel. For now, they'll need to be stashed away until the time I can massage them into shape and bring them to the level they need to be to see the light of, well, this site.

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I worry that I'll lose readers. That if I don't post on Monday and Wednesday mornings, people will stop visiting me here and reading my posts. But mostly, I worry about what will happen if all I can come up with is a blank screen.

And all of that worrying just backs me into a figurative corner, where I sit and stare at a blank screen I can't fill because panic has rendered my fingers incapable of typing.

So, I've decided the only way to handle things is to chill out. To see what comes out of my fingers if I simply start typing. To maybe revisit some old posts, shine them up a bit, and repost them on occasion when life is too busy for the new stuff to take root.

Meanwhile, I hope you'll bear with me, because while I know all writers get stuck, I refuse to accept the notion that a temporary shortage of ideas is a permanent state of affairs.

And if you'd like to suggest a topic, well, that'd be just grand. I can't promise to write something spectacular on everything that gets suggested, but who knows what we can spark together?

It'll definitely trump a blank page.