Writer's block, an owner's guide: It’s not all block (again)

A pause in writing isn’t writer’s block. You are allowed to go to the bathroom. You are allowed to go to a movie. You are allowed to go away for the weekend. You are allowed to stumble through bereavement. You are allowed to be chronically ill.

People talk about writer’s block as though all of that was not obvious. Here’s one. An anonymous writer reports that novelist Tom Sharpe moved to Spain and “found the place where he could break a 20-year writer’s block”. Read down a little and you find that, on the contrary, “Sharpe did not publish a book for 20 years principally because of a series of health problems.” Which of these is the truth? Your guess is as good as mine. But I think it would be good to know.

And most of all you are allowed to think and plan and edit: you are allowed to pause and let the ideas come by themselves: these things are what writers do. If you were just scribbling what came easily perhaps you wouldn’t be the writer you like being.

Published on February 27, 2007 at 10:31 pm. Linking to this article? Thank you! The permanent address is http://www.todayiwrite.com/journal/its-not-all-block-again.html