"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...
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.
ReplyDeleteMatt, 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."
ReplyDelete