Writer's block, an owner's guide: Writing as part of who you are

Here’s an interesting story I came across in my adventures in block. Susan X. Day, who had done some research on writer’s block, decided to do more.

Through an editor she contacted four suitable creative writers. Picture them if you want to: a 19-year old writer of drama, fiction and poetry, who’d recently had a play produced at his university; two established poets in their mid-40s, male and female, both with day jobs as professors; and an unpublished novelist in his mid-30s.

She met each of them four times, first to focus on writing history and current projects; then on best and worst writing experiences; then on each individual’s writing process; and lastly for an in-depth discussion of the evolution of a particular piece of work.

Here’s what she found. Each one had felt isolated from peers as a child. Each one had a strong sense of being odd, of being an outsider. Because they were also competent and intelligent, each one managed to elevate oddity to a virtue, in what she calls a self-protecting maneuver. They also became fascinated with oddity in the outside world and integrated this interest into their identities and their writing.

So, what did these people say about writer’s block?

As much as Aristotle did (we were talking about him yesterday, ok?).

None of them identified block as a major challenge.

Once she realized this, she changed the original direction of her research and she wrote a report about something else. So Susan X Day goes out of our story.

But not really. Really I think her report could end up being a key part of whatever it is I’m building here. Look, here we have a group of adult writers who don’t report that blocking is a problem. Isn’t that great? If we knew what it is that keeps them immune, we’d have something that most writers would trade us their souls for! And then we’d have a lot of souls! We could start our own paradise! We could… wait, I’m ok.

Day says that

1) none of her people expect to make a living at writing. They all have day jobs. I think this hints at something important - not at some well-known depressing fact about the writing life, no no, at an essential shining clear insight into the wonders of your vocation - look, it’s not that you mustn’t make a living out of writing, not even that you mustn’t want to, it’s simply that good writing happens when you’re doing writing for its own sake.

This, I suspect, ‘ll be a major group of threads as my blog grows towards whatever its critical mass is: (1) the relationship between the psychology of productive writing and the psychology of flow (2) its relationship with other motivational theories (3) “second novel syndrome”.

2) also, writers face rejections and disappointments: few are published in major channels. So why do we bother” Day says, “Something else must drive their persistence.” (I’m not sure that’s true - I’ve met enough Hollywood folks to know that a lot of talented creative people live on hope. But anyway.) Day believes that to have this something else inside you, creative writing must be a part of who you are. Part of how you make sense of life. And a big part - so big that it is “fully imbued in [your] sense of self, as perhaps gender is for most of us, and not to be a creative writer would feel alien and inauthentic in a most disturbing way.” The experience of writing like that, of expressing your very self, of being authentic, must be far more satisfying than what most of us find in our jobs or, let’s face it, in our writing.

Time to wrap this up. What’s my point today?

I think the only point is a nugget of worthy advice which would be hard for someone like me to follow. Write for the pleasure of it, not for the fame and money! Yeah, right.

But there is something else here. Why is it easier for me to write about Susan X Day in a blog entry than in an academic paper (I know it is, I have done both)? It’s definitely not about fame or money. I have two ideas; one, here I am free of other people’s goals and rules, and I can write freely like the unblocked writer I was as a child; and two, these 778 words today are a tiny patch for an intimidatingly huge quilt that I am aware of wanting to sew, but by writing them as one little blog post I don’t have to think about that.

Not today. Today I write.

Published on August 1, 2004 at 9:03 am. Linking to this article? Thank you! The permanent address is http://www.todayiwrite.com/journal/writing-as-part-of-who-you-are.html

Today I Write