Thursday, April 15, 2010

Writer's Block is Bull....


Pucky.

Yep a bunch of cow dung.

Do writers get blocked, oh heck ya.

Is it some mystical, magical curse that can only be lifted by praying to the writing gods and sacrificing your first born? Um, no #notsomuch

It is fear.

That's all. That's it. Just fear.

Afraid you aren't as good a writer as you would like to be. Afraid you were stupid to even start writing in the first place.

And if you think this 'curse' lifts once you become rich and famous?

Well, unless you have confronted your fears and quieted those voices whispering in the back of your mind that you will never measure up to Faulkner, your superstitions only grow.

Now you worry that people will finally realize you are a fraud and should never have paid you that advance. That now that money is coming in, you actually have to earn it.

Talk about paralyzing? I've seen a big fat advance choke the creativity out of writer faster than a cheetah on a smooth savanna.

So stop giving writer's "block" more power than it deserves.

If you feel stuck. You are feeling fear.

Ok, great. So has ever other writer in the history of mankind. Do you think William come out of the womb as "FAULKNER?"

The beauty is we've all been afraid before and will all be afraid again.

How do we move through this fearful phase?

We talk to the fear. Find out why it is showing up, then if it doesn't want to go away permanently, we very nicely ask it to please take a seat in the back so you can get on with the writing phase.

You've got a story to tell!
#andyouknowhowIfeelifastoryisn'tbeingtold

3 comments:

  1. Unfortunately I've never had writer's block, but maybe that's because no one has ever paid me a big fat advance in order to write something!! :-)) I have always written when the mood hit me, and so far I've been pretty prolific doing that. Maybe someone will pay me a big fat advance one of these days so I can test my theory! Ha!

    I would love to hear your thoughts on my poetry though, since you've had training. A poem is at the bottom of every posting.
    http://poetesswug-thewugsbackyardblogspot.blogspot.com/

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  2. Every time I get what could be called writers block I start working on something else...having two projects going at once is great for keeping the gears loose.
    Eileen

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