Writer's Block

[fieryjen]

No, I'm serious about this. How come there's no "Painter's Block" or "Musician's Block" or "Dancer's Block"? No Baseball Player's or Cab Driver's or Teacher's or Actor's block? Butchers don't get blocked, nor do stock boys or plumbers. Why only writers?

Why? Because no one ever calls it what it really is!!! Now, either you can't think of what to say, or you can't think of how to say it, or you simply don't want to do it. It's one (or all) of those three. And until you figure out which it is, no one can help you.

I'm going to start the Mabeusian Writer's Block Gulag where for $5000 I'll get a bunch of convicted Blackwater Security felons to tape electrodes to your testicles and we'll get results

I don't have the required anatomy for this. Or the money.

Guess I'll just have to keep whining.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

It will never be popular.

And I suspect most of your 'clients' won't be writers.

I don't know about that, Rob. Some of the people who write over in the BDSM forum are pretty weird.

 

[rgraham666]

I don't know about that, Rob. Some of the people who write over in the BDSM forum are pretty weird.

True. But I rarely go there.

Not because they're weird but I find many of them have the 'Only I have the proper understanding of BDSM. It works like this and no other way' attitude.

Feh.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I don't have the required anatomy for this. Or the money.

Guess I'll just have to keep whining.

Send for my CD. It's pretty impressive.

No, I always get upset when people talk about writer's block. No one ever stops to really look at the problem and try and figure out what it is. It's like waking up one morning and being really sick and saying you have "liver's block". What good does that do? Give it some thought and figure out what the problem is and then ask for help. Are you discouraged, bored, lazy, out of ideas, stumped, written into a corner...? It must be something.

In any case, it is a problem, and the first step in solving a problem is identifying it. Calling it "writer's block" does nothing towards identifying it and just perpetuates your helplessness, which is why testicular torture is so surprisingly efficacious. Or at least moderately entertaining.

 

[Omerikon]

No, I'm serious about this. How come there's no "Painter's Block" or "Musician's Block" or "Dancer's Block"? No Baseball Player's or Cab Driver's or Teacher's or Actor's block? Butchers don't get blocked, nor do stock boys or plumbers. Why only writers?

Because writers have a wonderful way with words, and are cunning when disguising apathy and laziness.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

Because writers have a wonderful way with words, and are cunning when disguising apathy and laziness.

truer words never spoken...

 

[JamieB]

When I get writer's block

There are usually three causes.

1. I'm afraid the story is good up to this point, but now that I'm at a critical juncture I'll fuck it up. This is the cause of my block in most instances. It's ludicrous, of course. How can I fuck up something that hasn't been created yet? It's not like I'm inadvertently spray-painting the "C" word across The Pieta here.

2. The story is dead and I don't want it to be.

3. The story is so wide open I don't know what should happen next.

J