“I don’t get writer’s block. Ever. It’s a complete myth.”
I have to bite my tongue every time I go to say that. There are a few others, too:
“Writers write every day.”
“If you’re a writer, you write.”
“If you write you are a writer.”
Oh, yes, I really believe in all of that. And then there are
all the exceptions.
My own routine
I try to write for the first two hours of every working day
and at some point on weekends and during holidays. Sometimes it’s not possible.
Then, I’ll try and write as soon as I can.
Sometimes, like today, I can only manage about forty minutes because my
day job demands that I go off and do something else. The problem then is that
by the time I get to my laptop my mind is so cluttered with other thoughts that
I can’t find the creative energy to write. Having a break helps usually: maybe
the drive home from the office or stopping to have supper.
Some days it’s easier, some days it’s harder
I’m now confident that no matter how empty-headed I feel once
I start writing the words and the ideas will come. I’m mainly right but not
always. Sometimes it’s a real struggle and everything I write seems very poor
and I’m dying for the two hours to go by. Interestingly, I’ve found that on
these occasions I’m often actually writing better. Okay, it’s that inner critic
chuntering but actually he has a point.
Some notable exceptions
Some writers I respect a lot have recently suffered from
what we might call “writer’s block”. One is a well-established author who in
recent years had a group of “break-though” novels. How do you follow that? That was his problem.
A friend obtained the coveted PhD, and having gone to his personal
limit on that, couldn’t work out for several months how to go on forward.
Another friend is also a brilliant administrator and organiser
and full of an energy that is extremely creative leaving little creative space for
anything else. He admits to not writing every day.
Again interestingly, as these three got back to work their
writing was even richer and even more fine-tuned. They seem to have gone through
some sort of incubation period.
The fragile discipline
Yes we have to be disciplined. Much of the time this seems
easy enough. Yet we fear losing that control. A couple of bad days and a few
rejections and we might lose our will to go on. Then we must get back up, brush
ourselves down and get on with it. It might be worth remembering though that
the occasional fallow period can also be ultimately quite productive.
