Why There's No Such Thing as Writer's Block

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I love BoingBoing and have for years, so much so that I get an RSS feed of the stories. But it’s disappointing to click on a story with a title like “Why There’s No Such Thing as Writer’s Block” and find that I have to wade through a podcast to find the answer.
I suggest that titles mention that a post is a link to a podcast if that’s really what a post is about. Maybe something like “Podcast: Why There’s No Such Thing as Writer’s Block” in this case. I think I’ve seen some posts titled that way before on BB. Best, OO

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I haven’t listened, yet, but these seem to be the most common interruptions for me:

  • Stopped because sick/ because suffering worse arm pain/ because suffering worse migraines/ etc.

  • Stopped because busy with something else.

  • Stopped because changing interests.

  • Couldn’t continue because couldn’t find info I needed: unavailable, only available at ridiculous costs, proxy data inadaquate, etc.

  • Couldn’t restart quickly because couldn’t organize notes.

  • Can’t think of a solution to lack of data.

  • Going in circles trying several inadaquate solutions to lack of data and trying some again because need solution somehow.

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I wanted to talk about what he said about writer’s block. The trend seems to be there is no writer’s block. Yes, you can free write and write about anything and use writing prompts, etc. Yes, you are writing but what I want to know is what about writer’s block relating to what you are currently writing as it pertains to your story/novel? I personally believe there is no writer’s block but idea block!

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Please describe your writer’s block in 500,000 words, or more.

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My own writer’s block usually arrives via:

  • self loathing
  • inner critic
  • fear that I’ll lack originality/cleverness, which I guess is also inner critic (“Oh, I have an awesome idea… Wait, some other guy did that. He did it quite well. Bastard.”)
  • “I could spend a year writing this novel only to have it turn out to be a) crap, or b) good but constantly rejected; therefore the year will be wasted.” So then I waste the same amount of time by not writing.
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Uh… well… that’s just… great!

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Anyone got helpful proofreading advice?

I need to check a database against some other stuff. I use LibreOffice Calc for databases, because spreadsheet software works once you set all fields to text, while database software doesn’t work so easily. Unfortunately, it erases the row and column numbers on export to pdf and printing, and it can’t fit the results on one page.

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Is there a thing that exists that is essentially the opposite of writers block? Perhaps writers flood?

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