2/28/2005
Writer’s Block?
… that given current conditions writer’s block is contagious, even though I’m not really a writer (yet ?)
All for now … back later, maybe .. when things change.
Reminded me of a note I had somewhere around here that I thought I’d post.
45 Ways to Smash Writer’s Block
1. Read something you’d never dream of reading: even Richard Nixon’s memoirs.
2. Listen to something new and unexpected.
3. Ask yourself if you may be trying to say too much.
4. Write the last sentence of your piece. Think backwards to where you’re stuck. How does it fit?
5. Find the best word in your piece. Insert it where you’re stuck. How does it feel in its new location?
6. Just imagine how you’d feel if your piece caught fire.
7. Lie on the floor, pillowless. Suffer for your art.
8. Stare at the sky.
9. Accept a distraction.
10. Consider the next point on your journey. Why now, of all times, are you standing still?
11. Listen to a favorite song, or even a song you detest.
12. Write something, anything–a recipe, a love or hate letter, a poem, a shopping list–in the white space where you’re stuck.
13. Find the information you’re missing.
14. Change rooms.
15. Do something so dull that your mind will scream to get back to writing. Washing the car, watching religious broadcasting, or working return are all good candidates.
16. Ask yourself if you like what you’re doing. If not, stop.
17. Talk yourself over the spot where you’re stuck. Then write what you learn–fast.
18. Put your notes in a drawer. Shun them for a while.
19. Sprint! Write anything, anything, as fast as you can forlfive minutes.
20. Breathe. (Apologies to Yoko.)
21. Call someone you love. Ask that person how to proceed. Chances are you’ll have the right answer in no time.
22. Deny yourself absolutely nothing. Start with first-rate tools.
23. Stretch.
24. Fool yourself.
25. Delight yourself.
26. Listen to your narrator. How would s/he get out of this jam? What would Ahab do?
27. Write a one-sentence prcis of your piece, striving forlexactly the right words. Where are you in that sentence?
28. Eat something hot, just as Satchel Paige said.
29. Fill the page with a picture of the thing you’re trying to get at. Spare no detail whatever.
30. Tell yourself why you’re stuck.
31. Change writing tools. If you’re writing on a computer, switch it off and find a pencil.
32. Know yourself.
33. Think the clearest thought you can.
34. Walk somewhere. Put one thing from your walk into the text, right where you’re stuck.
35. Imagine the look on your reader’s face.
36. Work on something new.
37. Stop: but only in mid-sentence, where you can pick up next time.
38. Write in a different direction on the page.
39. Imagine the exhilaration of finishing, the rewards you’ll shower on yourself for having gone the distance.
40. Close your eyes.
41. Sit quietly, ignoring the problem.
42. Read something unconnected to what you’re working on. Louis Pasteur: “Chance favors the prepared mind.”
43. Reverse all engines.
44. Chase down the Muse. Then do exactly as she says.
45. Remember that writer’s block is nothing more than a failure of nerve. But don’t let that bother you.
Gregory McNamee is the author of a new collection of essays, THE
RETURN OF RICHARD NIXON (Harbinger House, 1990), and of several other books.
This article will appear in WHOLE EARTH REVIEW in the summer of
1990.
Copyright (c) 1989 by Gregory McNamee. All rights reserved.
3/5/05 Playing with trackback trying tio figure out why didn’t send one to Jon.
Filed by Ken at 8:48 pm under General
