Writer's block, an owner's guide: The Courage to Write

Like I said before, I’ve been reading The Courage to Write by Ralph Keyes (1995).

This is all about fear and courage. Keyes argues, forcefully, that writers all face fear. This is denied by my journalist friends, but the book seems to be mainly about fiction and essays, where Keyes’s point of view is definitely worthy of attention.

He begins by normalizing this fear. If his reader wants to write, and write well, he hints, the reader must join the company of the courageous, who dare face their own worst demons. He does this argument no favors by opening with a portrait of E. B. White. White apparently was multi-phobic throughout his life. I see no reason to conclude that the rest of us are doomed to share his possibly pathological fears about writing, any more than we would share his other oddities. But the book quickly becomes more convincing and is packed with illustrations from other writing lives.

The fear of completing a work - of putting it in the mailbox, putting it beyond our control, never being able to perfect it - is well described and well illustrated. Yes: I believe this same fear is one of the reasons why deadlines defeat block. When I write to a deadline, seeing the final version swallowed up by the fax machine gives me a sense of relief and release, rather than dread. I’ve done my best within the parameters and it doesn’t say anything about whether I would write well or badly (or at all) if I had all the time in the world. Let the editor come back to me with comments, I have my answer, and my answer is thanks.

Also, this is one of the fears that blogging overcomes; I love the freedom to go back and improve my posts, and you may be sure that I use it.

Keyes goes on to describe the courage needed to imagine the reaction of friends and family. Our internal “censor in chief” is usually a spouse or parent, sometimes a relative, friend or old teacher. He lists many examples of writers whose families were hurt by appearing in the writing; and some others who were reconciled or helped by it. I wanted to ask whether you really have to write about your own family. The book replied, “Many start writing fiction as a dodge, thinking it will provide a good hideout from themselves. Yet those who write stories and novels to escape from themselves invariably discover that this is who they stumble over at every turn… they are the most self-exposed authors of all.”

“Successful writers rarely emerge from the ranks of the popular. Those who went to the prom seldom take up the pen.” Is this true? I’m not sure. If writing is a symptom of a social disability, then I’m against writing. If it’s a way of growing out of a childhood lack of skills, then I’m for it. But anyway… is that true, or are we speaking of a subset of writers (the book seems, to my immigrant eye, to concentrate on the more patrician or “literary” American writers)? I wish I could hear from thriller writers and some others on this question.

In my many years practicing law I fought the hopeless battle against jargon and obfuscation. The excuse second-rate lawyers give for writing business letters in the same phrases their grandfathers used is that there can be no question about what it all means. Rubbish! The poor paying customer has nothing but questions about what the hell it all means. To this day Scottish lawyers write to ordinary blue-collar paying customers in Latin phrases: my favorite is when they say that they have done something “per incuriam.” The poor paying customer has no idea that this means “carelessly.” It’s rude, and it’s cowardly.

Things sound so much better when nobody knows what you are telling them anyway. In the end, though, I learned a use for obscurity. As a senior official in local government, I quickly learned to look forward to scary-looking public meetings as a welcome break from the cubicle. The trick to enjoying was simply to give some sort of answer to every question I was asked. Nobody cared what the answer was. Local politicians wanted voters to see them being awake and taking an active part in the meetings; by responding in a respectful tone and in long words my job was done.

Keyes has a lot to say about (often unconscious) deliberate obscurity. It protects us - academics, upmarket novelists, business thinkers - from the risk of someone noticing that what we are actually saying is wrong or trivial.

A final personal note is that I am going to adopt from Keyes the word “counterphobia.” The most important thing I know, and a thing I often tell therapy clients but which you can have today for free, is this: fear is not, in itself, a reason for not doing something The most exciting growth opportunities I have known came from seeking out those activities that cause anxiety. And now I have a name for that.

This book won’t tell you what to do, this is not a self-help manual; but it will tell you many tales of things that have worked for other writers. The chapter on “Should you write in the nude?” is full of behavioral aids and it reminds me of that fear which used to cripple me as a younger adult, and which is another of the fears that the computer has swept away: what if I die and someone sees how awful this first draft is!

The author’s personal web site is fun, too.

Published on August 8, 2004 at 10:41 am. Linking to this article? Thank you! The permanent address is http://www.todayiwrite.com/journal/the-courage-to-write.html

Today I Write