Recently asked my thoughts on writer’s block and how do I deal with it.
I wrote the following response and then figured it might be a good thing
to share…
1) If it is fear of rejection by others then consider the ultimate in
rejection... death... and say fuck it and write what you feel like
writing. A few years back I almost died, from a congenital heart
syndrome... and the experience gave me the energy to try harder to
write. Some days I win, some days I lose. I am alive, so fuck it, I'm
writing today.
2) If it is fear of coming up to your own literary standards... then be
a slut and lower your standards. Play games with yourself... I mean,
fool yourself into writing the most terrible horrendous lousy
embarrassing crap that you can possibly come up with... then show it to
everyone and anyone you can find... but show it quickly before you have
a chance to think very much about what you are doing. After you have
made a complete mess of everything then start over... you will feel
better. It is like getting drunk at a party and having a case of the dry
heaves in the front yard... you feel better when it is over. Nobody ever
got to writing good by not writing badly. I did not know anything to
begin with and some days I seriously suspect I know less than the day
before... it helps to be well read... a writer should first be a
reader... a good reader... but a formal education in creative writing
can often be an impediment to self exploratory writing -- to writing
that goes to what it means to be alive... sometimes too easily blinded
by form and technique and debt and wage slavery. So if you don’t have a
formal education don’t worry, if you got one then get over it. Read.
3) If you take the time to be conscious of the world that you live in
and you write as best you can with specific detail about your world...
then you will be writing something unique and wonderful because we are
all of us unique and wonderful. I do not know what it is to be you. When
you give us a story... even if it is a letter... even an elaborate
fictional letter -- epistolary form of a short story... that is from
you... then you are sharing, and what you are sharing is the opportunity
for the reader (for me if I am the reader) to find that which is other
than themselves (myself… this voice in your head). It is only from our
encountering the "other" in ourselves that we ourselves become realized
as human. This also gives you an opportunity to explore who you are
because unless you use the writing as a tool of self exploration then
you will never know who you are to be writing from the world that is
uniquely you. Start from the center of yourself and write outward...
then write inward... then write around the yard... then write while
walking... then write... well, whenever. Writing during sex is not
exactly a good idea.
4) I used to get depressed because I would walk into a bookstore and
there are SO MANY books already out there and like... who the hell wants
more books to read? What business do I have trying to make one more
book? It goes back to me being me and me rejecting the ultimate
rejection and me wanting to really get to the bottom of what me is
about. One time I walked into a used bookstore and absent mindedly asked
the proprietor if they had a copy of the book that I was writing… then
it came to me what I had said so I went on to say, “Oh, yeah, that’s
right… I haven’t finished writing it yet.” I then turned about rather
quickly and left the store.
5) Laugh. If you can get yourself into a position where you laugh at
yourself and you laugh at your own writing then there is not a hell of a
lot that can come along in the fashion of “pain” and put you off your
stride. Get up, kick the devil in the teeth... or at least try to... and
write. I spend time waiting for someone reading one of my stories to
come around and try to kick me in my teeth. I’ll bite them when I see them.
6) You don't need to share your writing with anyone... but it sure helps
one feel better about writing when we share. A little hint of
recognition... and when someone takes the time to tell you that what you
wrote is a piece of shit crap and their boot starts flying towards your
smiling face then it has to be understood that they took the time to
recognize your work... a hell of a lot better then dead silence... makes
it easier to go on to the next story. If you get dead silence... then
try harder. It helps to learn how to write things that will piss people
off.
7) Every day of every morning I say to myself that I must be a complete
idiot... a fool... a dumb bastard to think that I have any business
writing. I spend an incredible... and I mean an incredible amount of
time doing everything that I can do to avoid working on my writing...
like writing this here gives me time to avoid working on a rewrite of a
story (now up in the 10,000 word range and still going strong -- I
rarely can sustain a story for this long)... when I am not writing or
working on a story then I have a great deal of resistance getting
started... I would rather do almost anything but work on my writing...
it is why I think a lot of writers get drunk, me included... but... and
this is an important but... when I finally get past all the barriers and
avoidances that I have set up for myself and I start writing and I get
into the FLOW of the story then I am in this special place that I simply
adore being at. How do I deal with it? I set up habits, I put up
reminder signs, I make it harder to do the other things that I would do
besides writing... I hide the bottle, or empty it quicker... on my
computer in front of my eyes above the screen it says, "First thought.
Best thought. Keep moving. Fast. Don't stop." On the front of the
computer it says in BIG BOLD letters, "HUMOROUS NOVEL." I have my own
writing space, I have surrounded myself with books about writing, with
my favorite dictionaries, with the books that I find inspiring... and
inspiring books need not be great books... and my family has learned
that I am working when I am writing... I am encouraged by my family to
keep writing.
8) Learn to build an audience. My first audience was my mother. She had
no idea what the hell my gibberish was about but she paid attention. A
goal in my life has been to write a story that my mother will
understand. It is unfortunate but the story she understood... an ironic
rant about the torment of piano lessons... that I wrote over 30 years
ago... is long lost and I have not been able to find the draft ever
again... but it is the story that she remembers and loves and continues
to laugh over. If you develop an audience of one then it is fairly easy
in short time to get an audience of two hundred, but you have to work at
it.
9) Every life is boring. What I find important about writing is that we
get to express something else besides our boredom... that is... if we
want to. What is important is the story... we get to make a story – a
bunch of lies and deceptions. When we make a story then our lives are
transformed and seen for a brief time not quite as boring as they really
are. It is within us to decide how we want to see the world and
ourselves in the world.
10) Telepathic chickens leave no traces.
][<
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