Hello, I am Ron Snider, author of the Wizards of Covington Series. Today, I am writing about Writer's block, or (dis-am-big-uation).
Writer's block occurs when a writer loses the ability to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown.
Let's face it: sooner or later, writer's block comes to all of us. If you are a writer who has yet to experience it, you are indeed fortunate. I once suffered from writer's block; that is the reason for this week's podcast.
Some writers say it is just a myth. However, writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald, who wrote The Great Gatsby, once suffered from it. So did journalist Joseph Mitchell, who wrote for the magazine The New Yorker, and comic strip cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, who was at the age of 27 did the Charlie Brown cartoons, and songwriter Adele, who gave an interview in November 2015 Rolling Stone cover story, she said, while making the album 25, it was delayed due to writer's block.
The condition was first described in 1947 by psyc-ho-ana-lyst Edmund Bergler. However, some great writers may have already suffered from writer's block years before Bergler described it, such as Herman Melville, who quit writing novels just a few years after writing Moby-Dick, one of my favorite books.
Psychologists say that Writer's block is a non-medical psychological condition that prevents a writer from continuing to work on a piece or causes a creative slowdown. It can feel like staring at a blank page for a long time and being unable to find the right words. Other symptoms include feeling unable to focus, second-guessing yourself, or feeling like your creativity has dried up. Writer's block can range in severity from having trouble coming up with ideas to being unable to produce work for years, and it can last from a few minutes to years.
Writer's block can be caused by several issues, including motivation, distraction, writing anxiety, fears, and your inner critic. However, it's not a monolithic disease with one cause and one cure, and overcoming it is a highly subjective process that depends on the individual.
If you are suffering from writer's block, some writers who have experienced it discover ways to overcome it. They have learned that distractions can reduce focus, interrupt the flow, or keep you from starting a project. Minimize distractions when you write. Try unplugging from digital distractions by turning off your smartphone and internet while you write. Remove distractions from your work area by cleaning your desk; a clean desk can improve calm and focus. Use time-blocking to schedule time for writing. Ask co-workers and family members to respect that time and not interrupt you. Try ''Turning off the TV,'' while others say, ''Step back from your email,'' I say, ''Cut back on your social media.'' Don't give it up; just cut back. I recently learned that in 2024, the ''typical'' internet user spends almost 2 hours daily using social media platforms.
Instead of spending the time that you have set aside for writing, you find yourself on Facebook reading sad stories of people's misery, which in turn will cause you to be depressed. Or someone's opinion on politics, which is also depressing, or clicking on links that will take you to see pictures and videos of funny cats and dogs doing hilarious things. And then what time you set aside for writing has slipped by.
A recent study of 2500 writers looking for solutions suggests changing the time of day you write. For many people, creative tasks are most accessible in the morning when it's quiet, and emails are not piling up. Others prefer writing late at night. Plan to write when you're naturally most creative, at 6 AM or 10 PM. I write at 10 PM. and usually stop at 2 or 3 AM.
Ask other writers how they overcome writer's block. Some suggest lowering your expectations, which is what I choose to do. Stressing yourself out doesn't help. The worst way to combat insomnia is to stay in bed and think about falling asleep. Fighting writer's block is similar to fighting insomnia. Staring at a blank page or screen and hoping words appear won't work. One way to break out of this mental paralysis is to talk to a friend, real or imaginary. As you speak, write down everything you say. Once on paper, that conversation may make a decent first draft.
If you are a writer who uses an outline for your book, that is, you have already created the characters, you have already created what the characters will be doing in your book, and you have written down how the plot will begin and end. Then you start writing, and a hundred pages into your book, writer's block happens.
Try writing by the seat of your pants. Yes, that is the actual term for writers like me, and it is called the seat of your pants writing.
We write without planning out the plot. This makes it adventitious; you create your own worlds and fill them with mysterious characters, and if you have an imagination, even a small one, the plot will open for you. To most writers, this sounds really scary. That's why they sit down, make an outline, and create the plot.
I view life as one big incredible adventure; it is like a book full of chapters about the people you have met and shared parts of your life with, and then a new chapter begins.
Where is the adventure of the writing when there is an outline? You already know how each chapter is and have already shared the people you created their lives with. In other words, the adventure is over before you begin.
If writer's block is now occurring to you, It merely means that outlining and plotting may not be the correct writing method for you.
Writers known as panster authors write by the seat of their pants.
Writers that do not are known as plotter authors.
A few authors that do write by the seat of their paints are:
George R.R. Martin --- the author of Game of Thrones.
Steven King is another panster.
Margaret Attwood, the author of The Handmaid's Tale, is a panster.
JRR Tolkien is the man who wrote The Lord of the Rings. He created a vast and complicated world and filled it by writing by the seat of his pants.
Most plotters oppose the panster method of writing; they claim that plotting is better for developing a story and other vital elements of a story. However, they are primarily incorrect; for both methods, either the plotters or the pansters will reach the same goal, and that is the ending of a story, and the difference is only in how you got there.
So, if you are suffering from writer's block, try the method of writing by the seat of your pants. Your imagination may expand enough that it will go busting through the block.
In a nutshell, no writing method in the world will save you from writer's block. As I said, some writers say it is just a myth, or there is no such thing, even though it has been proven that it is a reality. Writers will at least suffer this mental block at least once in their writing life.
Try writing freely instead of plotting scene after scene; you might be creating stress on yourself due to the way that it was outlined is not fitting precisely how it was intended to do. At least try it until you can write your story again.
Now, my friends, we have come to the end. I appreciate you taking the time to read my blog, and I hope it will help you.
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