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I have a few words about writer's block. Three words, to be precise:
It doesn't exist.
That's right. Writer's block does not exist.
If
a writer says she has writer's block, it doesn't mean she can't write.
It doesn't mean that some outside force beyond her control is keeping
her from putting pen to paper and getting the story written.
It
means that, consciously or unconsciously, she has put obstacles in her
own path that are keeping her from writing her story. In my
observation, those obstacles usually come from one of two things: Fear
or laziness.
Fear is downright paralyzing, especially when it
comes to writing: Fear of rejection. Fear of creating something that is
garbage. Fear of being unable to see a project through to the end. Fear
of others judging you as a person because of what you've written. Fear
that someone will call you out as a phony, that they'll see that you're
really just a wannabe writer.
One of the hardest - but most important - things that a writer must do is to work through those fears. You will get rejected. You will create crap. You won't finish every project. People will judge you (as someone who writes sexually explicit romances, rest assured, I feel your pain). And some people will call you a wannabe.
You have to move past those fears, not hide behind them.
The
other "block" is laziness. This is usually tucked inside an excuse
about waiting for the muse to strike, or waiting for inspiration, or
waiting until you have more time.
If you're waiting for
anything, it's not writer's block, it's laziness. It's an excuse. I'm
as guilty of this as anyone: It kills me to think of how much time I
wasted because I gave myself reasons not to write. I could have skipped
an hour or two of television every night, or squeezed some writing out
of my lunch breaks at work. That's one of the reasons I write like a
madwoman now. I wasted too much time, and I'm trying to make up for as
much of that as I can.
The excuses about the muse annoy me to no end. There is no
muse, folks. Don't leave it up to someone else - real or imagined - to
give you something to write about. Inspiration must be found, and like
most things worth finding, you have to seek it out, not wait for it to
show up on your doorstep.
Bottom line: There is no such thing as
writer's block. Only you can make yourself write, and if you're not
writing, the only thing keeping you from writing is you.
You
have to put your need to write ahead of your fear of writing. You have
to look inside yourself for inspiration rather than waiting for the
mythical muse to show up and give it to you.
If you find yourself hiding behind writer's block, ask yourself what you're afraid of.
Then sit down.
Pick up your pen.
And write.
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