From time to time, I edit other people’s fiction. Fellow writers send me passages of a work-in-progress and it’s obvious to me what the work needs in the same way it’s never clear how to juice up my own work. It’s like being a frog that can’t kiss itself into a prince. But I feel comfortable in that mentoring role.
Coming from a similar place, I'm going to write a little on writer’s block, which is something people ask me about from time to time (along with ‘Do you write for a living now?’, a question that never fails to make me well up. NO, I DON’T. STOP ASKING.) I recorded a video on the subject of writer’s block a few years back for Legend Press and the basic gist was as follows:
This is the bit I’ll be calling PART ONE
The concept of writer’s block gets a lot of attention, is often misunderstood and arguably doesn’t even exist.
Every writer, at some point, struggles with a lack of ideas or motivation. It’s something you have to force in the same way an alarm needs to be programmed to slap you out of bed on a cold winter’s morning. It’s a normal and healthy condition to suffer and you simply need to know where to dig for inspiration. Ideas, frankly, are everywhere. They must be, or book shops would be empty.
Hunt for inspiration in your own life. Take that wish-fulfillment and sprinkle it with fiction. (The Art Teacher was birthed out of my own experience in the teaching profession and Blame was a highly fictionalised version of my own childhood.) Sometimes, the desire to write is stronger than the material you have. Remind yourself that you’re not a writer, you’re a storyteller. A writer is anyone who sends emails or text messages or slides into your DMs to inform you you’re a fraud. A storyteller sells dreams.
Most importantly, remember these three tips:
Write
Write
Write
Ask yourself the big ‘What If…?’ questions, once you’ve found your character. (Again, with The Art Teacher, I started with a teacher by the name of Patrick Owen. He was depressed, isolated, hounded, and I asked myself what would happen if he actually punched a pupil; where would the consequences of that terrible action take him?) Essentially: what gives when Y happens to X?
Motivation won’t come flying at you out of nowhere, but two separate ideas will often crash into one another and create a whole. As John le Carré said:
"The cat sat on the mat" is not a story. "The cat sat on the dog's mat" is a story. And I have a sense of atmosphere, the environment in which I want to set them, and a sense of how the ending will be. From there the story takes over by itself.
This is le Carré asking himself the ‘What If…?’ question with far more elegance than I’m capable.
Most writing comes from writing, so start and see what comes. Often, I try to plan a piece, but only once I sit and write does the story becomes its own story.
This is the bit I’ll be calling PART TWO
Something else I do if I find myself out of ideas is read. (Lots of books I was reading before starting Blame involved children and childhood and I figured this was clearly something I was drawn to at that moment so settled down to write about childhood without even having to question myself. My reading habits had pointed the way.)
In retrospect, the writing process always seems very organic, but at the time it can feel like a desperate scribble in the dark. Ignore all previous advice and follow these top three tips:
Read
Read
Read
(If you weren’t one of those children who read with a torch after lights out, who wasn’t awoken by the flump of a book falling on your face, the writing bug might not be in you. I hate to say it. You could have come to the party too late. But if you want to force it, start reading now.)
Read through the writer’s block.
Writers feel guilty about not writing, but it’s essential to step away from the work at times, for as long as you need. Reading is the same discipline as writing. We go on holiday when we’re worn out and need a break from the nine-to-five, and you can take a holiday from writing, to let the desire to write build again, to fix those errors you couldn’t see the first time round.
I find having a word count quite dangerous, because if you don’t hit your arbitrary target you’re going to feel bad about it. And sometimes you shovel crap just to get that word count up. Deadlines can be useful, but a blank page never is, so let the desire to write return and if that involves time out, so be it. When you come back to it, you’ll know what it needs. (spoiler alert: it might need throwing away)
This is the bit I’ll be calling PART THREE
Taking into account everything that’s gone before, my top three, copper-bottomed, inviolable, must-do pieces of anti-writer’s block advice are:
Open wine bottle
Bury your phone
Sell the kids
This is the bit I’ll be calling PART FOUR
You know what? I’m going to commit myself to a future article on the documented history of writer’s block, to see how famous voices have dealt with it over the centuries. It’s going to be well-researched, informative and a serious(ish) quasi-scientific study. I think it deserves more than me simply enabling voice-typing on my laptop whilst playing that video I recorded for my publisher years ago. Is it a neurological malfunction or laziness? Is it a lack of skills or fear? Is it a commitment problem or wholly down to a lack of originality?
Stay tuned.
I don’t know when I’ll get around to it, but get around to it I shall. Much like writing in general, ladies and gentlemen.
('there are three rules for writing... Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.'
Somerset Maugham)
Update: 27/02/24
Broken thumbnail necessitated a new photo, hence recent update - thanks Wix
Comments