To all authors out there: How often do you encounter writer’s block?
I just want to know how many people encounter this. To us, it is our greatest fear.
I, myself, hardly ever encounter writer’s block. My head is always filled with ideas, so it doesn’t happen to me much. How about you?
- BlackMetalFreak
Tags: Authors, Fear, How Many People, Writer S Block
June 14th, 2009 at 11:19 pm
It happens a lot but me, it’s more like I have to many ideas and its hard getting them down on paper. I should write my novel more often.
June 17th, 2009 at 7:14 am
Well, I never used to have a problem with writer’s block, and I actually tend to suffer from “too many ideas syndrome”, so I would have four to six stories I could work on simultaneously without mixing them up, but I had to get a different job, and I was always too busy to develop my ideas the way I’ve wanted to over the last few years. So, I was writing, but not as effectively as I’d hoped…nothing worth even publishing on “free sites”, let alone trying to publish and market.
Nowadays, I still have the ideas…and since I’ve been laid off, I also have the time…but I just don’t have the confidence that anything I tried to write would be worth the effort. Mine is a confidence issue, really. The ideas are there…and if I got off my duff and did it, I could probably write, but I guess I just can’t seem to pull it out of myself at the one time I could really use my talent and skill to move forward with my dreams.
June 20th, 2009 at 4:12 am
I have the problem of too many ideas trying to overlap unto the other and the occasional brick wall in the middle of my street.
When this brick wall goes up I tend to sit on it a while, if I’m still stuck I read. Reading always seems to refresh my brain rather than fill it up with that author’s ideas. Again if I can’t find my ladder over the wall I make tea and simply re-read everything I have written.
At this point I either find the key to unlocking that ever present iron door on the brick wall or…I’m still stuck.
If I continue to be stuck what I do is very anti-climatic, I sleep. All of my ideas come from dreams I have and it may seem odd but they almost always give me the clues I need to continue my story or give me a new plot point.
June 20th, 2009 at 11:08 am
You’re lucky
I normally get writers block when I’m under pressure, typically when I’m in an exam and I’m stressing, clawing at my hair and wanting to scream at the stupid piece of paper in front of me.
I’ll actually seize up whenever I’m under pressure …
June 23rd, 2009 at 8:58 pm
I hardly ever encounter it as well. My greatest fear is editing. I hate having to discuss my writing and being FORCED to cut all my favorite bits out and do the same story over and over and over and over again until it’s ‘crispier’.
WTH DOES CRISPIER EVEN MEAN???!!! STUPID EVIL EDITOR!!!
Sorry. Rant over. *coughs* er…I’ve got heaps of ideas too I guess that’s why I don’t experience much of the dreaded writer’s block.
June 24th, 2009 at 3:03 am
I don’t believe in writer’s block. Most of the ’serious’ writers I’ve known don’t, either. I agree with the one who says it’s an indulgence of amateurs–when you’ve got a contract with a deadline and you either turn in a manuscript or return your advance, you may find writing difficult and your results unsatisfying, but you do it anyway, because that’s what professional writers do: write.
However, I do believe in the realization that your current work is of such poor quality that you should abandon it. (Don’t delete it–the idea may be worthwhile even if the execution isn’t.)
I believe in inadequate preparation.
I believe in inadequate organization, too.
I believe in writing yourself into a corner so tight that you either need to start over or abandon it. (“Damn, this only works if it was all a dream!”)
I believe in lost enthusiasm for a particular work.
I believe in lack of focus, in not knowing what your story’s really about and why these characters should tell it.
I believe in increasing boredom with an entire genre that’s become too familiar.
I believe in well-crafted characters you don’t want to spend time with. (Nobody else will, either.)
I believe in stories that require a daunting amount of preliminary research before you can write. (“Sure, that’s it, a police procedural following a serial killer who’s targeting milliners in 1910 Belgium!”)
I believe in shyness and lack of confidence that makes seeking expert advice or background hideously difficult or impossible.
I believe in not knowing how to start, or where to start, or even if you should start.
I believe in finding the need to learn basic writing mechanics so boring or off-putting that you’d rather procrastinate than spend the time it takes.
I believe in concluding that your whole concept is stupid, immature, derivative, impractical, embarrassing, too personal, legally actionable, or any of a host of other fatal flaws.
I believe in realizing that you’re not as good as other people, the ones who ought to know, like teachers and fellow writers, think you are.
I believe in realizing that you’re not as good as *you* think you are–or ought to be.
I believe in that ‘what’s-the-use’ attitude after you learn that your first several stories or novels are probably going to be pretty bad.
I believe in the inability of young writers to write characters well beyond their own age and situations well beyond their experiences (regardless of research)–and I believe in the incredible frustration of being young and bursting with ideas that you shouldn’t tackle yet.
Any of those can stop you dead in your tracks and keep you stopped, but none of them is writer’s block.