Advice for Dealing With Writer’s Block
By: Harry Seitz
Tags: Communication, Editing, Improvement, Writing, Writers Block

The Stallone Method, Among Others

Many argue that writer’s block doesn’t exist, but that’s mostly a matter of semantics, and I completely disagree. I’d even argue that if you’ve never been blocked or exhausted or just sick of your own voice, you have a problem. You’ve either grown robotic and stagnant, or are so confident in your voice that you no longer question it, ever.

We’ve all had days when we just don’t feel like writing or doing anything, or when we try to write and just sit there staring at the screen.

Here a few solutions that have worked for me.

The Stallone Method

When Sylvester Stallone gets stuck, he has his characters take a break from the story. They stop to get coffee and have a cigarette, or go to a diner for lunch. He tries to let his characters figure it out.

I like the Stallone method because it works for me. There’s something very realistic about it, which helps to ground my stories. Sometimes, nothing is happening, and you don’t know what to do, so you smoke a cigarette and have a coffee. And usually, your characters become more developed as they bounce ideas off of each other and figure it out.

Write Anyway

Write lists of random words or just plain garbage. Sometimes nothing comes out of it. But usually, you get at least one or two decent sentences or ideas.

At the very least, you can write a stream-of-consciousness about why you feel like a husk of your former self, with no new ideas and nothing to say. You can admit that when it comes right down to it, you just don’t care about anything, at least not right now.

Then you can have a coffee and smoke a cigarette, and try to figure it out.

Give Up

Some of the seemingly best ideas just die on the page. Maybe I’m not the right author, or it isn’t the right time.

It can be difficult to let go after investing several months or years and hundreds of pages, but usually, you know much sooner that it just isn’t working for you. And there’s no rule that says you have to give up forever.

Plow on for a little longer, because maybe you will figure it out, but if three months have passed and you haven’t moved forward, either you aren’t ready to write it, or you just don’t want to. That’s when you know that it’s time to hit pause.

It’s noble to keep going and try hammering through, but if it isn’t working, it isn’t working, and you can always go back and torture yourself again in the future.

Save Everything

Go back over all those stories and articles that died on the page, or the piles of garbage you produced at your dullest moments. Maybe something will click with one of them.

You were trying to say something, but didn’t know how, or maybe you weren’t sure back then, but know better now.

With all the cheap storage space available, there’s no excuse to delete anything. Even your most embarrassing pieces of crap may be the manure from which the seeds of new ideas sprout.

Even if it seems long and lousy, read it anyway. There’s got to be at least a sentence or two that’s usable in there somewhere.

Edit

If you can’t think of anything new, you can always go back and edit, even to the work that’s already been published. Chances are, you’ll notice weak spots you didn’t before, or other ways in which you’ve changed and hopefully grown as a writer.

Also, some of those old duds might succeed if you’re now more popular. Maybe your more recent short stories have been getting some traction, so if there are a few older ones you think deserve better, polish them up and give them another chance.

We all have to edit and proofread our work anyway, and we can always learn something from what we’ve written in the past.

Conclusion

Claiming that writer’s block doesn’t exist is a kind of defense mechanism, or a way to keep up morale. But if you press them, most authors will admit that yes, of course they get stuck, but eventually find a way to get through it.

The first step to resolving any problem is admitting that you have it. I know that I do, and I know that being told that it’s imaginary doesn’t help. Would you do that to a child who’s afraid to sleep because of a ghost? Insisting that ghosts don’t exist isn’t going to make the kid any less jittery, and as an adult, aren’t there some fears and regrets that keep you up at night? What are they if not ghosts of the past and the future?

Writing well, like solving problems, is a matter of finding common ground and communicating. If you’re one of the few who has never had writer’s block, I’m happy for you. But just because you haven’t had it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist, and claiming that it doesn’t is a passive-aggressive way of asserting that those who experience it aren’t “real” writers.

There are guys who write on bathroom stalls who are never at a loss for words, but most authors either admit that writer’s block exists, or re-contextualize it. And the ones who deny it the most appear to be the ones who are the most afraid of it.

Sometimes, we just aren’t up to the task, and that’s okay. How you can learn from anything or improve if you never fail?

To me, writer’s block is a sign that you’re ready to do better, but just need some more time. But just because you get past it doesn’t mean it never happened.