Wednesday, February 25, 2009

On Writer's Block

"I've got writer's block."

I've heard this complaint from numerous places this week, mostly from students who won't be handing in projects. It's been so familiar recently that I just have to go on public record:

There's no such thing as writer's block.

Here's a weird conundrum for you: you actually have to be a writer to claim writer's block, but no real writer actually ever claims to be blocked. You know why? Because writers write. If you aren't writing, you're not a writer.

"Writer's Block" is a euphemism that non-writers use when then want to say: I'm too lazy to do that work you wanted, but I'm creative. If you're working as a writer, you're usually under some sort of deadline or another and if you use the blocked excuse - or any other - it's a euphemism for "I really don't want to ever work again." Being blocked is simply not an option for a professional writer.

If you're too lazy to do the writing you're getting paid (or a grade) for, maybe you should stop posting all the crap on your facebook page, your blog, and any other electronic hidey-hole you have. Even if you're tweeting, you're writing, so then you aren't blocked.

Better yet, stop thinking of yourself as a writer and start facing up to the fact that you should get a real life because claiming to be a blocked writer is like claiming to be a steroid-free ball player: nobody believes you any more and no one cares. Except, of course, those ball players enjoy a level of celebrity no writer - unblocked or not - ever enjoys.

Anyway, stop whining, do your work. We don't care about how tortured you are - that's for the biographers - we only care about what's on the page. Oh, wait, there's nothing there because you're blocked...

2 comments:

  1. Couldn't agree more completely. I feel like it sucks in school though, so much of the college experience is being coddled that it's hard to not fall into that trap... being a good little filmmaker means "suffering" for your art, by thinking about how hard it would be to actually sit down and do your work... i feel like the romance behind the idea of being a writer tends to cloud people's vision a lot. plus, there's a big fish in the little pond element about college that deludes you from how the real world really is... i know i had to relearn a ton of stuff when i got on a set for the first time out here. writing's the same way, once you realize you arent automatically top dog because you can throw a few coherent sentences together, you either work harder at it or you go work for your parents. i know way too many in that second category... but not enough yet. blech.

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  2. Matt, you're my hero. I remember reading one of UK LeGuin's essays, and she said she pisses people off when they ask her how to become a writer and she answers,"well, you find some paper, and a pencil, and you write."

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