Building blocks

[This is the first in a series of posts I'm planning to write on the writing and publishing processes. Thanks for your topic suggestions, everyone! I hope these are helpful.]

Blocks are horrible. When tumbleweed is drifting across your mind; when you wonder if you ever really knew how to speak English because none of these words look familiar; when you want to kill anyone who is having a productive day; when you would rather spend an hour cleaning the toilet cistern with a toothbrush than sit in front of the screen for ONE MORE SECOND. "I am blocked" becomes "I am a terrible, worthless, lazy writer with no good ideas and I am going to starve to death and be eaten by weasels." People who say "Suck it up and keep going," are not really helping, either. We all know that if we were doing any other kind of job there would be no excuse for moping around and doing no work. Electricians can't get electrician's block (as far as I know). But, to some degree, writing is different. It is imaginative play as much as it is work, and imaginative play is hard to force.

I have a theory (the lesser-known "I have a theory" speech). My theory is that writer's block isn't something that just happens. It isn't forced on you by outside circumstances. It isn't because your muse (who I always picture as a Carmen Miranda-type figure in a fruit hat) has decided to take annual leave. I think that we construct blocks for ourselves like kids building towers out of Lego, because, however unpleasant writer's block is, it is less scary and unpleasant than whatever we are trying to avoid. Blocks are caused by fear.

Here is how I deal with writer's block.

1. Take a reality check

It's just writing. You're not a heart surgeon or a pilot trying to land a passenger craft in heavy snow. No one is going to die if you don't do your job properly. I know that's not hugely comforting, but at least it will put things in perspective a little bit.

2. Examine the motives

I'm currently going through a bit of a block, caused by receiving a few publisher rejections in a row. When this happens, I complain for a while and eat lots of fattening food, and then I sit down and try to examine my motives for the block. This time around, I know it is caused by a feeling of futility - I'm tired of the whole process, and when I sit down to write I think, "What's the point? It will never be published anyway because I'm a terrible writer." Which is a silly attitude, I know, but being blocked is easier than writing something that (in my confused little brain) will inevitably be rejected. While that silly fear is festering away inside, it's going to be damaging and discourage me from working. Once it's out in the cold light of my logic, I can dispel it.

Here are some of the hidden motives for creating a block that I have noticed. Yes, they are mostly ridiculous. But that's why you need to track them down!

1) Fear of success - "If I am a productive writer then I will publish this book and become really successful and everyone will hate me/I'll be too stressed/I'll be too shy to do book signings/I'll get bad reviews/my life will change too much," and so on.
2) Fear of rejection
3) Fear of failure
4) Fear of being happy - "If I am a productive writer then I will be happy and I will have to stop complaining/be a nicer person/face my problems in other areas of life/won't be a tortured artist anymore and so my work will suffer."
5) Fear of being unhappy - "If I am a productive writer I will have to become an alcoholic/leave my partner/get sick/be tortured and angst-ridden."
And just to show how deeply odd these things can be, here's a weird block of mine that rears its ugly head occasionally:
6) Fear of pleasing my father - "If I am a productive writer my father will be thrilled and it will prove him right and he'll be smug and tell everyone about it and I'll be annoyed and give it all up to become a plumber."

There are many, many more. It's important that you find out what your particular fear is, though, in order to deal with it.These blocks can manifest in different ways. They all stop you writing, but some of them send you into a desperate panic while others give you a feeling of futility, lassitude, even boredom. Just different responses to the same thing. I have found that affirmations can work wonders with these, no matter how silly you may feel doing them. Go on, try it. My affirmation at the moment is "I am a genuinely talented writer and my work is worthwhile." If you were blocked by a fear of success, your affirmation could be "It is safe to succeed as a writer, and I deserve to succeed." Write it down and stick it on your computer screen so that you can see it while you're working.

3. Start small

We like to make grand plans. Dramatic, sweeping changes. "From this day forward I am going to write 2,000 words a day," we announce, accompanied by a fanfare of trumpets and the soaring voices of choirboys. And we do, for a while, with great enthusiasm. Then a block comes up, and we write nothing one day. Nothing the next. And we get caught in a spiral of freak-out. We add up the days of no-writing like a prisoner notching his cell wall. The longer we leave it, the more insurmountable the block seems.

So, here's my quick-fix solution to writer's block. Start small. Make tiny, unambitious, mundane plans rather than huge, epic ones. Get out your cellphone, or a timer. Set it to ring in fifteen minutes' time. Sit down and write for fifteen minutes. Even if it's not very good, just keep writing until the timer goes. Then take a break. And then, if you feel up to it, set the timer again. It's amazing how much you can accomplish by doing it in bite-size chunks.

4. Be gentle

If a friend told you they had only written a hundred words (or fifty, or twenty, or ten) that day, you wouldn't whack them upside the head with a rolled newspaper and tell them what a worthless, pathetic excuse for a writer they are (I hope). You would say, "Great job! Just keep trucking along, it will get easier. The important thing is that you wrote something." Say this to yourself as well. Shouting and screaming at your psyche does not help in the long run.

5. Do something different

Writer's block is writer's constipation. You need to take some (metaphorical) laxatives and get things moving. And relax!

Here are some of those metaphorical laxatives:

1) If you're stuck in a particular scene that just doesn't work, jump ahead and write a later scene that excites you. You can always come back later. (When I've left a scene out, I mark it with 'xxx' so that I can do a Find search for it later on. When my husband first saw these, he thought I was planning to put sex scenes in there).
2) Take a Busman's holiday. Do something different. Work on another novel for a while; write poems or a short story. Or a dirty limerick.
3) Stop just before the exciting climax of a scene - I know, I know, it's hard - and leave that for the next day. That way you have a clear starting point and some momentum, which will make it easier to get into the groove.
4) Write something FUN, for goodness' sake. Turn away from your harrowing, bloodcurdling, socially-commenting refugee epic and write a story about a bunny. Or a circus performer. Or a cat with wings. Or write fan fiction! I was horribly, painfully blocked for over a year when I worked as a writer and editor on a magazine. I could do my work just fine, but my creative juices had completely dried up, and not a word of fiction could I write. So I wrote fan fiction. About Captain Planet and the Planeteers. It was completely frivolous and ridiculous, but it was fun. And it worked!

Helpful articles:
Holly Lisle on Writer's Block, Part I and II
Timothy Hallinan on Good Days and Bad Days
Laini Taylor on Surviving the Suck and How to Fall Back in Love with Your Story.
Anne Mini on Writer's Block
Simon Haynes on How to Beat Writer's Block