“Don’t get it right, just get it written.” ~James Thurber, The New Yorker
Awhile back, a guest blogger proclaimed writer’s block a lie. And many of you weighed in for or against this notion. I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and I have another theory: often what we think is writer’s block is actually our brains over-thinking the project.
I don’t always agree 100% with my guest posters, and in this case, I respect Daryl, but I disagree with his idea that you should love every single project you tackle and if you don’t, that might be why you’re feeling blocked.
Look: if you write for a living, you’re probably going to have to do some projects that don’t excite your inner muse. Unless you’re independently wealthy (or incredibly lucky), there will be times you accept projects because you need the paycheck.
The fabulous Lori Widmer recently published a post about getting through projects she describes as spaghetti squash (they don’t taste good, but you need to do them anyway). I suggested that you think about the paycheck as dessert and let that motivate you. And I’m going to give you the same advice you’ll hear from some nutritionists: don’t settle for crappy dessert. Go for the good stuff. If you’re writing for the paycheck, then make sure it’s really worth your while and you won’t need to swallow so much spaghetti squash in the future because you’ll have that heavenly dessert to sustain you.
But back to my original point: over-thinking. Many times we have ideas and phrases floating around our heads, but our inner editor dismisses them. (I observed this in a writer friend recently, and I’m certainly guilty of it myself sometimes.) We spend two hours laboring over the first three sentences, staring at an empty computer screen, because we think none of our ideas are good enough. This isn’t writer’s block at all! This is us obsessing about finding the absolute perfect word when it would come if we let it.
Don’t over-think it. Let the words flow. Remember Anne Lamott’s theory about shitty first drafts (all good writers have them, she says, and they are necessary for the writer to move forward). If you don’t have a deadline looming and you need to step away from your keyboard and go outside or shift gears and work on another project, do it. If you’re up against a deadline, then it’s usually better to have a mediocre something than nothing at all. You can always polish, nip, and tuck later.
What do you think? Have you ever found yourself obsessing over a writing project? Or do you find that you’re still plagued by writer’s block?
Flickr photo courtesy of - reuben -
Contrary to my guest post about writer's block being a lie, I completely agree with you here. I geared my post to more of a novel approach. People who are writing short stories and novels need to feel their way through the journey of finding their voice. Once they write from their heart, where the passion hides, writer's block becomes a thing of the past.
When I say I agree with you here, I mean not every project can come from the right place when writing for the paycheck. We all experience that as far back as high school when a writing assignment was due. One that we didn't care about. One that was being forced upon us. So, as you stated here, it is better to hand in something than nothing.
Thanks for listening.
And now for some dessert…
Love this advice: Let the words flow.
I went to a talk at our library this week called Transformation: Life into Art and one of the things the speakers said was to listen to one's intuition.
OMG – This is too funny. I am working on a blogpost RIGHT NOW about overthinking and I also mention shitty first drafts!!! I will send it to you once it is done. Would love your thougths.
Sometimes for me it's about overly high expectations from myself. I crank out a lot of words every day, and I seem to expect myself to continually crank out more of them. Usually whenever I'm just staring at a blank screen, I'm really just tired or burned out for the day. Sometimes a short break — a walk, a tea, a something – is all I need to undo the block.
I think there's a difference between loving the project and loving the work.
I love both developmental and line editing of fiction. Those projects are a joy to work on. The writers are a joy to work with. It's a wonderful job.
However, I also do a lot of contract work in the computer industry, and, in spite of my education in computer science, those jobs frequently bore me to tears.
What doesn't bore me is the love of language. Even in technical documentation, I'm working with the translation of information into words, and, just as with fiction, I'm always focused on communicating as simply and clearly and succinctly as humanly possible.
You throw all the information on the page, and then you sort out the puzzle.
And that puzzle never bores me.
I obsess over projects all the time. The worst is when I think it's good and then realize it actually SUCKS. But it is so true that you have to just write and fix it later…
We must all be on the same page. I started to read the blog and then detoured to Google to find a link to Anne Lamott's chapter on Shitty First Drafts. When I got back, I continued to find your reference and that of another commenter. Over the years, this has been my magic spell to thwart writer's block – just write and don't worry if it starts out as crap. Thanks for the very nice post.
I had major writer's block when writing my dissertation. What helped was truly to realize that for me, writing shitty first drafts really really helps. Sometimes I have a moment of panic worrying about what would happen if someone stumbled across my computer and actually read that shitty first draft before it got turned into something else, but I think I'm at a point where even that wouldn't bother me anymore. For me, now, the challenge with writing is not fear, but time – the sheer lack of it.
Susan, this is spot on. I was nodding my head at every paragraph. And it's well-timed. I'm at a brief writing residency, intent on meeting a deadline for a novel. In order to attend a workshop in October, I was required to come up with 15 pages and an outline. I needed the time away to gather up the mental space to begin fleshing it out, but there was so much pressure initially that that actually kept me frozen for a little bit. I responded by starting by reading, a book about plot and structure. Sure enough, the author gave the same advice you did — that at some point, you just have to start writing. And so I did, and a couple days into it I feel very confident I'm going to meet my goal. A few things must come together to be at the right place, but we can do things to control the frozen feeling we get sometimes as we approach a new project, and it's very empowering to realize that.
You're on to something here–facing the blank page, it's too many words flowing through my head oftentimes not the lack of words that at times becomes overwhelming. Interesting.
I think over-thinking is a result of perfectionism. At least that's the case in my experience.
This describes me to a T. I call it writers block but you're right, I'm just over-thinking things. I can't tell you how much time I sit staring at the screen trying to get one sentence just right. Thankfully I'm learning to get up and away from the keyboard now when I get stuck like that but its taken a lot of wasted time and energy to get there.
This is a really good post, and makes me feel better about always "over-thinking" when I write. I love reading this blog because it makes me feel like I'm not alone in all the feelings I get, whether it's self-doubt, obsession over a character, writer's block or purely over-thinking. I always get inspiration from this blog.
Thank you.
~TRA
http://xtheredangelx.blogspot.com
"Don’t get it right, just get it written." ~James Thurber, The New Yorker
I love this quote. It's so true – you just need to get it all down, and then edit it later. I'm certainly guilty of stewing for hours on a single sentence, and really, that takes a lot of the joy out of writing.
I'm also inclined to think that when you simply have to write for a living, you learn to get over writer's block rather quickly — say, five minutes or so. You learn you can't afford to do otherwise.
Call it over-thinking, fear or perfectionism…I think they all result in freezing up and not being as productive and creative as you are really capable of. I hate those moments (or hours, or days…)!
@Roxane: Didn't realize you were at a writer's residency, but that's awesome!! Hope you're enjoying it.
Thanks to everyone else who weighed in. I agree that this often plagues people who suffer from perfectionism.