How to Push Through Writer´s Block

writer´s block

A few months ago, I read about one person’s experiences writing his book. I won’t go into specifics, but their description was a bit odd: “When I woke up, I started writing. When I got hungry, I stopped to eat. When I got tired, I slept. Otherwise, I kept writing. It was a blast.”

I really respect this person and their work, and decided to give that methodology a chance. It was one of the most discouraging, terrible days I have ever had. At first, I thought maybe I didn’t have the endurance to work at that rate, and wrote it off as a difference in work styles.

For the last few days, I’ve been completely stagnant in my work. I haven’t written much of anything, and each word was painfully difficult to put down. So there I am, with all the time in the world, unable to write. It’s a beautiful irony, the kind I’d love to write about if I could but I can’t, hence the irony in the first place. So instead, I started thinking about the craft and science of writing, which brought me back to this particular person’s work style.

This person (who again, I respect and admire) is slightly full of shit. Never have I heard a writer describe writing as “a blast.” Personally, writing is one of the most painful, tortuous, soul-sapping experiences I put myself through on a daily basis. I physically cringe through my first drafts, convinced I’m a complete hack, and oh my god, I tell everyone I meet I’m a writer, which makes me a liar and a horrible person, which is why (along with being self-centered, arrogant, and devoid of emotion) I’m single. Between sentences, I pray for a chemical-imbalance, or perhaps a drug dependency, so I’ll have an excuse when the paramedics find my crumbled body after I hurl myself off the nearest building.

Those are the good days.

Moments of clarity happen, of course. Brief periods where all the pieces of the puzzle magically fall into their places, and all you need to do is write down exactly what you see slash hear slash feel, and not f*ck anything up. But for every 20 minutes where I am coherent and cohesive and actually humorous, I spend 10 hours in physical and mental limbo. That is the nature or writing – and most of the time, it’s all worth it. Which is why I do it. And for anyone who says otherwise, who claims writing for them is “a blast,” I have two questions: one, what drug(s) are you on? and two, where may I purchase it/them?

So for those who are mere mortals such as myself, and consider various creative methods of suicide between the second and third drafts, here are three of my methods to push through writer’s block:

1. Stop trying to force it

This alone can be tough for people who write everyday. It takes force and self-discipline to get into that seat everyday, especially the first 20 minutes, so when do you know to put on the brakes? You’ll know when those 20 minutes become an hour, that hour becomes five, and those five hours become a few days – well, the problem isn’t your self-discipline, is it?

I’d been blocked for some time, and finally, I let go of my ego, telling me I should be able to produce everyday. Instead, I got some ice cream with friends, went to a bar to see the Boca Juniors beat San Lorenzo. I watched The Princess Bride.

The other day, I went downhill biking in Alta Gracia and didn’t have time to even think about putting words down.

Downhill Biking in Alta Gracia

Skyline shot in Alta Gracia

The next morning, I woke up slightly hung over, but managed to drag myself to a cafe. It took 20 minutes, and it wasn’t pretty, but words were falling to the page again.

2. Write something unrelated to work

If you’re anal retentive like me, you feel compelled to write everyday, damn the forces trying to stop you. If so, go ahead and write, but try choosing a topic completely separate from your work. Think of it as cross training, an opportunity to write like back when you did it for the joy of writing. Before, you know, all those moments of despair and agony facing you today.

For example, I spent an hour or two writing postcards, and the whole experience was therapeutic. But that just might have been the beer.

3. Trust the process

This is the most important thing to remember, when struggling with writer’s block. No matter how miserable the situation, you have to believe you’ll push through. Blocks and stagnation are part of the proces – they’re growing pains. I won’t get into a discussion about creative muses – there are plenty of good books for that – but if you believe they’ll be there to get you through the day, the hour, the piece, paragraph, sentence… then they will.

What are your thoughts on the writing process? How do you push through writer’s block?

Bonus for Writers – Three Best Books On Writing

I said plenty of other authors talk about how the creative muses work – here are the three best examples I’ve read thus far:

1. On Writing, by Stephen King
2. Bird By Bird, by Anne Lamott
3. Character and Viewpoint, by Orson Scott Card – more about the technical aspects of storytelling, but excellent nonetheless.