On Writers Block

The term ‘writers block’ is one that who has tried to write can relate to. One of the most descriptive—and twisted and warped—examples of writers block is told in the Stephen King’s novel (and visually depicted vividly by actor Jack Nicholson in Stanley Kubrick’s movie) ‘The Shining.’ We see recovering alcoholic and would-be writer Jack Torrance as he maniacally keys his typewriter in the cavernous Colorado Lounge of the haunted Overlook Hotel, cut off from the world by fierce Rocky Mountain blizzards.

For all his typing, Jack only gets a single word goes on the paper, and it is psychotically repeated line after line, page after page. The word Jack typed was ‘redrum’, which of course is ‘murder’ spelled backwards, and it was the only word that the crazed and increasingly homicidal writer was able to get on paper.

Wanting—needing—to write and being unable to get words down on paper can drive indeed you crazy, and you don’t have to be in a haunted hotel for it to happen to you, either. My experience of it is a result of feeling that I just don’t have anything worth say. However, when I dig deeper, I have always found that my inner censor, that little man who sits on my shoulder and tells me that whatever I might think of writing about has already been ‘done’ by somebody.

Originality is not that difficult to achieve; we are unique individuals who each perceive things in our own unique way. If several people all sat down with the same outline and each wrote a story, you would end up with as many original stories as you had people. Each person would write from that outline in a uniquely different way. That’s not to say that any of these hypothetical people would produce a story you would really want to read, but at least they would manage to write it differently and it would be original.

So, worrying about originality is really a pretty poor excuse for a writer not writing. In my experience, I think my biggest cause of writer’s block is just plain laziness. Writing takes effort, just like exercise in a way. When you write you exercise your powers of concentration (and your fingers) in a very particular way, and it takes effort. The better you want to write, the more effort you have to expend.

Being a creative person is pretty easy; to do that I (or anyone) can just hang a label on myself saying ‘Creative Person-Kick Here’. But actually being creative—actually writing something you think someone else might like to read and find worthwhile—is a lot harder, because you have to reach down inside yourself and find the energy to tap into your muse and then actively do the writing itself.

Writing is not a state of being, it is something you actively do. Note to self: remember this and act accordingly.