Any fans of The Cure out there?!
If you have ever written anything ever, then surely you can relate to this. Staring at a blank screen and a menacing cursor, with no words coming out, potentially wanting to shoot your computer.
I spend a lot of time staring at the screen. But writer’s block doesn’t upset me. In fact, I am here today to argue that writer’s block is still productive.
I don’t know how brains work. I remember in my very first college class, long before I had the idea to become a writer, the professor said that our brains work on things even when we are not consciously thinking about them. Subconscious, conscious, whatever–much smarter people than me surely have blogs about that. What stuck with me was the idea that my brain was still working on stuff behind the scenes. I LOVED that concept.
When I first started writing with the intent of becoming a writer, I really struggled to come up with things to write about. My stories mostly came from bits and pieces of family lore. A coat I found that my mom wore when she was a showgirl on the Strip. The time my sister got hit on by Ice Cube’s older brother while on a plane. The writer’s block was strong in those days. I would spend hours staring at a blank screen, or a blank page, or my own blank expression in the mirror when I was sure all the other MFAs were gonna laugh at me.
Then I’d get a little idea, something to cling to. After hours, days, of my brain dredging the depths of every story I had ever heard, waiting until my dad got stoned to ask him about his days in the casinos, anything to get a spark. Eventually, something would come through and I’d get just enough of an idea to put a few words on the page.
It wasn’t usually instant success, more like a little crack in the dam. But if I stayed with it (usually depending on how desperate I was to make a deadline), I would have that moment when all those ideas that I had put into my brain would come bursting out in some weird floodlike concoction. Casinos, Ice Cube’s brother, stripper coats, The Cure. Wherever the focus may have landed, I was always surprised how the little ideas stayed, weaving their ways through the writing, making it richer, fuller, and getting me through one whole cycle of plot.
Now I’m a little more practiced. A little more focused. I still stare and stare at screens. Creative work is like none other in that it can’t always be forced. But absence of a product doesn’t mean you’re not being productive.
So, my point is, if you find yourself staring at the screen (with a gun in your hand), don’t think of that time as being wasted. Your amazing brain is working on something.
Here are my tips for getting through the writer’s block!
1. Give yourself a small goal: 10 minutes of hard focus or 100 words. Force it, even if it hurts. (sorry been reading too many dirty romance novels)
2. Be consistent: small goal every day until something breaks. 100 words once a month isn’t going to help. But 100 words a day for a week will start to get you somewhere.
3. Don’t throw away ideas: write down or record everything. Let your mind go wherever it wants to.
4. Rest! You have to step away. You need to sleep! The small goals will help you feel productive while your brain has time to figure things out.
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