Writer's Block

Writer's block: fact or fiction. As someone who writes, or more often lately, purports to write versus actually doing it, I am pondering the idea of wrtiter's block. Is it a real affliction? Or the result of being tired? Or some wacky form of self sabatoge?

I have so much to say through words - fiction, an idea for a non-fiction book, children's stories. Some works are finished, some in research phase and some are just ideas (very persistent ideas) floating around in my gray matter.

Perhaps to overcome writer's block, one must research and write about it. Hopefully, this is not another attempt to avoid actually writing. LOL.

Here is some content (not written by me) dicovered on the concept of writer's block:

"Most writers will have trouble with writer's block at some point in their lives. The possible reasons for writer's block are myriad: fear, loss of inspireation,anxiety, a life change, the end of a project, the beginning of a project…almost anything, it seems, can cause that particular feeling of fear and frustration. Fortunately there are as many ways to deal with writer's block as there are causes."

Of the possible solutions- these made the most sense to me

"Implement a Writing Schedule.
Carve out a time to write and then ignore the writer's block. Show up to write, even if nothing comes right away. When your body shows up to the page at the same time and place every day, eventually your mind -- and your muse -- will do the same. Graham Greene famously wrote 500 words, and only 500 words, every morning. Five hundred words is only about a page, but with those mere 500 words per day, Greene wrote and published over 30 books."

"2. Don’t Be Too Hard on Yourself.
In fact, don’t be hard on yourself at all while writing. Anna Quindlin wrote, “People have writer’s block not because they can’t write, but because they despair of writing eloquently.” Turn the critical brain off. There is a time and place for criticism: it’s called editing."

I write best when it I do not censor or edit during the creative process. Those are the times when I get lost in the research or the act of putting thoughts into words and on paper. Time seems to disappear. Perhaps the issue is exactly that - disappearing time..a precious commodity to me. Perhaps, I am not letting myself disappear into China in the 18th century, my stacks of research on footbinding and the precious connection between mother and daughter for my unfinished novel. Perhaps rewriting a children's book manuscript on adoption and soul connections is a seen by some part of me as a waste of time since it is incredibly tough to get a children's book published. Perhaps I procrastinated too long on my non-fiction book idea "Spirit Connects Us All" - a compilation of amazing adoption stories (since I saw that Chicken Soup for the Adopted Soul is already out there.) Perhaps, I let the more rational and logical parts of my personality take over which squashes the creative. "You do not have time to work on this- there is real work to do, laundry to be done, a house to clean and kids to care for."

This leads to the first suggestion listed above - establish a writing schedule and stick to it. Maybe that is a way of using my logical side instead of going to war with it. Building writing time and a sacred space in which to do it (another challenge altogether) would put the structure around the creativity.

My daughter Lily is an avid reader and had begun writing in the evenings. I have peeked at it (after all she uses my laptop) and am amazed at how well she has written her short stories. They are truly interesting and always have a bit of fantasy or magic woven into the storyline. Watching her at work (or should I say at play) on them is fascinating. She loses herself and track of time and seems to be writing for the fun of it and as she has said "I have a great new idea for a story and just have to use the computer right now."

Maybe my answer to writer's block sits with my daughter...