Writer's Block

 I will be brief:

There is no such thing as writer’s block.

THE END

 

 

AFTERWORD

Writer’s block can safely be attributed to a writer’s desire to either

A>  Procrastinate.

B>  Make writing appear to be a more exalted job than it is.

I’ll not waste time on procrastination. We can always find things to do to put off writing. Dishes, dusting, going down an internet wormhole, watching old movies. Why, just the other day I –

I’ll not waste any more  time on procrastination.

A more exalted job? “It’s not a job, you cretin. It’s a calling. It’s a career. It’s the air I breathe.”

Calm down. Those may be the reasons you do it. Doing it is a job. You sit your ass down and write. Period.

Acknowledging that it’s a job removes the cache from saying “I’m blocked,” which too often makes the writer present him- or herself as a tragic hero/heroine. Get over yourself. You’re not William The Wallace or Joan of Arc. You’re a writer.

To borrow an analogy from Reed Farrel Coleman, do teachers get Teacher’s Block? “Take a study hall today, kids. I’m blocked.” Ask a journalist if they get Journalist’s Block. “Sorry, Editor, I can’t give you those twelve inches you need on the president’s speech. I just don’t know where to start.”

I’ve written a Nick Forte private eye novel and a Western since I last spent time on my Penns River series. I’m well into two Fortes and have a heist novel about half plotted; the next Penns River novels isn’t coming to me. Am I blocked?

If I was, I’m not anymore.

The problem I had (past tense) moving forward with Penns River was that I was looking at too large a scope. I wanted to include police corruption, the growing power of the biker gang, and an old acquaintance of Doc’s coming back to town to become his nemesis. I was hung up trying to find stories I could hang from those.

That’s not how I work. My process is to find a lodgepole story and then find the other stuff to hang from it. I’d been looking at it ass backward.

Problem solved. I still have the work to do, but that’s only a matter of putting ass in seat and doing my job.

What people call writer’s block is no more than looking at too big a problem to be solved. Break it down. Eat the elephant one bite at a time, dumbass.