Writer's block, an owner's guide: Memento / Six Feet Under

Starting with what came into my mind most recently, and then let’s work back until I recall wtf I originally wanted to tell you:

I feel like whining at you again with another semi-apology for not having written anything here in recent days, because of being so pitiably busy. And yes, I do feel overwhelmed by how much I “have to” do.

But three other things are true besides the overwhelm. One thing is that I am enjoying a lot of this busy time, because the job of developing the psychotherapy office I’ve dreamed of for eight years, and of establishing it in Sherman Oaks (also in Woodland Hills) is a paratelic job. At last I’ve been set free to create my own thing, to do my very best for people around me in a fulfilling way, to face my own growth opportunites, and I have a rather smart engraved certificate from Arnold that says all this (in different words, for some reason). The second is that I have nothing much to say about the subject area of this web site these days (”the psychology of writer’s block”) because I am still on a planned six-month break from my graduate research on the subject. The third is that I just finished the new Harry Potter book. As friends told me, nothing happened for five hundred pages but then it became fairly gripping and I had to organize my life so as to take the climactic sections in one bite. And, who dies this time? not anyone I’d predicted but, in hindsight, someone whose absence is absolutely necessary for Harry’s future, and it gives hope that the final book will complete a stronger series than we might have expected. I hope the person doesn’t reappear.

Anyway, the point is, life has not been all work and no play.

And all of that came into my mind because I was thinking about how much of Harry’s and Hermione’s adventuring over the years has turned on searching libraries and dusty tomes to discover forgotten events and long-lost information. And I found myself, repeatedly, thinking “Why don’t they just Google it?”

You know how, after getting used to the TiVo for a year or two, you automatically reach for the replay button when you’ve missed what the anouncer just said on your car radio? And the button’s not there. I guess I am getting like that with Google. If I want to know something, I reflexively reach for the laptop and find it out. Why wouldn’t I. How different from my childhood when research was an adventure in itself. Kids today don’t… excuse me.

And why I was thinking about all that was that I was reading Oliver Kamm’s weblog with interest and enjoyment. He was commenting on British (possibly I mean United Kingdom) current affairs and seemed to take a particular interest in the work of journalists, some of whom he appeared to know personally. But I came across no factual information about who Kamm was.

And I felt like writing an entry here, in my own blog, about something interesting he had mentioned. And when I started to draft the entry in my mind, I noticed that it was going to begin “I’m not exactly sure who Oliver Kamm is, but he wrote something interesting…”

So, in relation to writer’s block (screeching the steering wheel around desperately) the point of all this is: how come I can take the time and trouble to write these 795 (count ‘em, I dare you) words after being inspired by an interesting writer, but I cannot be bothered to Google him and find out who he is and be able to write a more professional commentary for you?

I’m unsure of the answer. One theory would be that the pressure to write here has been building up and I’m aware of you, the reader, wondering if I’m alive. So I’m motivated by guilt and / or embarrassment to do what I’m doing right now, even if I only do it in a half-assed way. The Google research is pure play (afternote: that’s not true. it’s not only play. but it felt true when I wrote it so it’s valid psychology) and can wait until I get a little more “work” done on designing forms for the Wodland Hills office and fun stuff like that. I’m sure there are other theories, though.

And the thing that triggered all of that was what Kamm said about the Plain English Campaign. Simply because it caught my attention and includes some delightful sauce-for-the-goose moments. If it did have any connection with writer’s block, the connection would be, and feel free to think about this in your own time: to what extent is the possibility of criticism, some other day when you may not even be alive, and maybe by people who simply don’t get you, a consideration that impedes the flow of your writing today?

Published on July 31, 2005 at 10:54 am. Linking to this article? Thank you! The permanent address is http://www.todayiwrite.com/journal/memento-six-feet-under.html

Today I Write