Every writer I know has trouble writing. – Joseph Heller
I never thought I’d experienced writer’s block, assumed it meant you couldn’t think of anything to write. For me, there was always something flowing out my pen, even if it wasn’t great literature. One sunny day this summer, I was procrastinating on my writing and picked up a book I’d been gifted: Write. 10 Days to overcome Writer’s Block. Period, by Karen E. Peterson, Ph.D.
I quickly learned what I thought of as “resistance to writing” was in fact WRITER’S BLOCK!!! Who was I kidding? I was constantly fighting writer’s block. There are many real things to keep us from writing: day jobs, kids, partners, parents, social obligations. But the real demons can often be found in our own heads.
We dream of having a block of fully un-interrupted time where we are immersed in our writing and hours go by without our noticing. Or anyone interrupting. We are able to achieve the illusive “creative flow”. But the reality is, though we may have those days from time-to-time, most of our writing happens between things.
Writing a novel is a big project. Learning to write a novel is an even bigger project. (Here’s hoping the next one goes faster!) It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the immensity of it. How can one fit it into small spaces of writing time? And once you sit down with pen (or computer) in hand, where should you start, should you even be bothering? There are so many good books out there, no one really cares about yours.
Resistance is writer’s block.
Peterson takes us through some right-brain, left-brain activities on why we resist writing and doubt ourselves. She also talks about the effect mood has on our perception of our tasks ahead, identifying four specific energy moods: Tense-tired, Tense-energy, Calm-energy, Calm-tired. These moods were documented by: Robert E. Thayer, Ph.D. in his book, The Origin of Everyday Moods: Managing Energy, Tension, and Stress. I immediately had to buy that book.
I’ve been fascinated by how different moods and energy levels, affect my ability to get things done. And I’ve worked to get in tune with these energies, finding it easier to work with them then against them. Everything has gotten done in time with less stress on myself. I’ve rarely had to “push-through”.
Within the first 40 pages of her book, Peterson has us write a “to-do list” of our writing tasks, including estimated time for each task. I love to-do lists and have used them since university to manage a multitude of responsibilities, making sure not to miss anything. And this way, I don’t waste energy trying to remember what needs to be done. And I sleep better. This has helped me successfully in my working career and my personal life, why not in my writing life?
I’ve always had big goals that I didn’t need to write down, such as: edit this section, read and edit next section, finish climax. But Peterson has us break down these goals into separate tasks. For example: edit this scene, print out next scene, read next scene, edit next scene, research writing contest, brainstorm blog ideas, type up written scene for short story.
I’ve always loved writing in spiral-bound notebooks and I’ve incorporated smaller spiral-bound notebooks for my “to-do” lists. They are a perfect list-size and you can’t lose them like you’d lose a list. You can also look back to see if there’s anything you didn’t get done, that might be missed. I’ve started one just for my writing tasks, a running list of things I want to accomplish. When it’s time to write: I look down that list, and depending on my mood and time available, I can quickly pick something off the list I can get done, pushing past any resistance.
Having the to-do list encouraged me to set deadlines for when I wanted to (or needed to) accomplish certain tasks. Sometimes it is good to push-through, to motivate yourself to get something done. The to-do list helps get me going when my resistance, or writer’s block, is throwing up every excuse of why I shouldn’t be writing. And I’ve been so busy writing, I haven’t gotten past page 44 of Peterson’s book on overcoming writer’s block.
