Today we will step back and look at a selection of relevant quotes by working writers. We should treasure their candid takes about the process of writing.
Is Writer’s Block Even Real?
Many writers push back on the idea that there’s anything special about writer’s block. Many say it’s not real! We wouldn’t go that far—having written about it here, here, and here—but thinking this way seems to help at least some of them. Take, for instance, Patrick Rothfuss:
…who’s heard of writer’s block? I really don’t think it exists. Actually, no, sorry, I’m going to take that back: it does not exist. We’ll state it flatly. Sometimes, writing is super hard. Just like any other job. Or, if it’s not your job, sometimes it’s hard to do a thing even if it is your hobby. But no plumber ever gets to call in to work, and they’re like “Jake, I have plumber’s block,” you know? What would your boss say?! I have teacher’s block. I have accounting block. They would say “You are fired! You have problems and you are fired. Get your ass in here and plumb some stuff, Jerry!”
Rumaan Alam echoes and develops this idea:
Writer’s block is a fiction. That’s not to say I always feel like writing, or that I have some big idea percolating. I don’t know if you can force out good sentences or great ideas, but that doesn’t mean you cannot write. You can always write garbage; goodness knows, I write plenty of that. Sure, there are days I don’t feel like looking at my computer or picking up a pencil. Such days, I read; reading is inextricably linked with writing, so you can grade yourself on a curve and say that counts. And there are days I can’t even read—I have a day job, I have a family, I have a life, like anyone. But you never stop thinking, and thinking is a part of writing too. I’ll probably develop a case now that I’m saying this on the record but writer’s block is a delicious myth and nothing more.
The question of whether it’s real, for both of these writers, actually seems secondary to the question of attitude. Both of these quotes encourage us to view writer’s block as less solid than it appears to be. And we could all use more reminders of that!
The Morrison-Kafka Spectrum
Even if writer’s block isn’t especially solid, the havoc it wreaks on people’s lives falls on a spectrum. Let’s call this, a bit cheekily, the Morrison-Kafka spectrum. On one end we have writers like Toni Morrison whose thriving writing output came in the midst of a packed, often chaotic, busy, distraction-filled life:
Time is the problem, not the activities. Apparently it’s a facility that I have to tune out the chaos and routine events if I’m thinking about the writing. I never have had sustained time to write, long periods or a week away to do anything—I never had that. So I would always write under conditions that probably are unbearable when people think of how one writes.
On the other end we have writers like Franz Kafka whose struggle seemed to genuinely drain his life of meaning, as suggested in this excerpt from his recently published diary:
JANUARY 20, 1915: The end of writing. When will it take me up again?
JANUARY 29, 1915: Again tried to write, virtually useless.
JANUARY 30, 1915: The old incapacity. Interrupted my writing for barely ten days and already cast out. Once again prodigious efforts stand before me. You have to dive down, as it were, and sink more rapidly than that which sinks in advance of you.
FEBRUARY 7, 1915: Complete standstill. Unending torments.
MARCH 11, 1915: How time flies; another ten days and I have achieved nothing. It doesn’t come off. A page now and then is successful, but I can’t keep it up, the next day I am powerless.
As writers, in whatever genre and level of professionalism, we can expect to drift between the extremes of Morrison’s energetic tenaciousness and Kafka’s tormented passion. (We hope your struggle is not so heightened!)
How to Engage the Block
We’ve already talked about some strategies for dealing with writer’s block here. Danez Smith captures all that discussion concisely and beautifully:
I don’t believe in writer’s block. When I am experiencing what feels like it, I know I need to do one of a few things. The first would be to stop writing and to focus on absorbing art. When I’m not happy with my writing, I know I need to spend more time listening, looking, reading, touching, & tasting other people’s creativity to feed my own. The other thing I have to do is ask questions. (Why am I stuck? Is it the piece? Am I feeling balanced enough in other areas in my life to flourish in my writing? Am I hungry? Am I tired? Are the idea and the genre of what I’m working on agreeing with each other? Am I experiencing a road block or a directive to try something else?) Another option is to write through it, to write every ugly, horrible sentence that comes to mind and just work until I find something of value. I am a firm believer that every bit of writing is a necessary part of the process, and I’ve come to trust that on the other side of the “block” is something new and exciting waiting for me.
May the words of those who have been in the depths of the struggle serve to help you in your own inevitable struggles with this hard, hard task! If you’d like to peruse a varied selection of in-depth quotes about writer’s block, see here and here. Happy reading! May it help you get back to writing.