Sixteen years as a freelance journalist
has taught me that neither the absence
of ‘the muse’ nor the presence of ‘the block’
should be allowed to hinder the orderly progress of a book.
Jim Crace
One thing that helps is to give myself permission to write badly.
I tell myself that I’m going to do my five or 10 pages no matter what
and that I can always tear them up the following morning if I want.
I’ll have lost nothing—writing and tearing up five pages would leave me
no further behind than if I took the day off.
Lawrence Block
Being a freelance writer is not easy work. Some never make it. Some never try. But there are some that push through their fear of where their next paycheck will come from. They push back against the blank page. They write. Even knowing that it might be crap. They write because the very act of getting words down will move them one tiny step forward. Even if five pages of work only nets them one useable sentence….it’s one sentence closer to the goal.
What Will You Do in the Presence of the Block?
Are you going to let the presence of the block affect your writing? Or will you do something about it? What is your goal today? How many words? How many pages?
For me, the procrastination is a far bigger beast than the block! Also, not having a dedicated writing space in my home hinders me greatly. One day soon I hope to have a desk to call my own ? I liked this, snappy and to the point, and really quite motivational!
I found that the procrastination for me was actually the block. I kept putting it off because I didn’t know what I wanted to write. I only recently got a desk to write on. Previously, I either sat at the kitchen table, or I sat in my living room chair with a small table in front of me and books, notebooks, etc., piled high on the end table next to me.
I think my problem is that to write, I need to be alone. The house we moved to last year has a large living room and a large kitchen…but that is all downstairs, so I don’t have “my” space. I’m hoping to sort out a corner of my bedroom to call my own very soon ?
Yeah, I don’t have a separate room but I am an early morning writer. I get up at 5am in order to have quiet time to write. On the weekends, I bribe my husband with coffee so that he’ll stay in the bedroom longer while I write in the living room.
I like the thought of writing badly, as long as you are writing. I will be sharing with my resident writer. 🙂
Yes. Please share it. We torture ourselves when we try to edit the sentence while we’re writing it. That’s for the second draft.
I still need to make writing a daily habit. I never thought I would resort to writing to begin with. I am more of a visual kinda gal. I wonder if there’s a limit on how many times WP can handle a post’s edit…
I don’t know, so far WP has handled all my edits. Including the ones I make after I publish a post and realize something is still wrong g. Lol
I am having the block right now. Trying to compose a post about my blog conference on Saturday. Not having much luck.
Just start writing. I know it seems like ridiculous advice, but sometimes our blocks come because we’re trying to force a POV that maybe isn’t the way to go. By just writing without a sensor and letting it flow out there you might find a different direction to write.
I suffer from this on a weekly basis anymore :(, write complete frontier gibberish at times lately.
You are allowed to write as much gibberish as you want….just as long as you go back and edit or your First Mate does. 🙂