Is writer’s block real? There’s no brick wall between you and the page, but the barrier can sure feel as imposing, if only in your imagination. And that makes it real enough.
If you’re afflicted, then you’re stuck, wordless, idea-less, perhaps with pen and paper in hand. You’ve shown up to the page with the right equipment—but not the right approach.
You’re there to find the best words and ideas and turn them into something that goes somewhere. What else would you want to write–your worst work? Mediocre work? Of course not. But here’s the kicker: when nothing is forthcoming, when you and the blank page are in a staring match, it’s fine to blink. Accept something. Any something. Even mediocre words. Even bad ideas.
So to bust through writer’s block, give yourself permission to lower your great expectations. You need to get your fingers moving. Tickle the keyboard until it giggles up something silly. Until it burps something wretched or embarrassing. Sputters or moans something drab or funky or weird. Great. Tell your keyboard, thanks, I’ll take it. Ask it to cough up some more. And more.
Yup, this is a “shitty” writing phase, though not quite what Ann Lamott talks about in her “shitty first draft” entreaty. A block can happen if you’re on draft one or twenty-one. In fact you don’t even need to be drafting a thing, and poof, there’s a big pre-draft block preventing you from getting to it.
The solution is the same though: lower your high expectations. Even if they’ve been raised because of years of experience, the draft number you’re on, or that good day you had last week. No matter. Drop back to beginner’s mind: anything goes. Return to exploration mode. Get anything down right now.
Even Pip from Dickens’ Great Expectations, who got what he thought he wanted—wealth and education and a name for himself—came to realize that the humble life he lived before achieving all that greatness, which he looked down on back in the day, wasn’t nearly as bad as he’d thought.
So clack away, even if it just feels like typing. It may be just that. But you may later find it’s not nearly as bad as you thought. And there’s something great about that.
What’s the first Writers’ Block Buster? Find out here: