Going to War with Writer’s Block? Put Down Your Weapons, There Are Gentler Ways to Get Creativity Flowing
No more blaming, shaming and fighting. A different approach is needed.
I’ve just emerged dazed and blinking into the daylight after eight months in the shadowy no-man’s land of writer’s block. In fact, I wouldn’t even call it writer’s block because it affected everything, not just writing. I would term it “creative indifference.” Usually prolific in making all kinds of arty things — orgone pyramids, robot paintings, woven wallhangings — I produced absolutely nothing from March to the end of October. Most chillingly of all, I wasn’t writing and I didn’t care.
I cured myself in a strange way, which I will tell you about later, but first I want to talk about writer’s block, because much of the advice on how to tackle it is wrong in my opinion.
A common approach is couched in the language of the battlefield. It’s a war, a fight. You need to wrestle your creativity into submission, you have to force your muse to make music at gunpoint. Your inner critic screams at your quivering inner artist, a Sergeant Major bullying an unwilling conscript to take up arms or else.
Another tactic is to shame you by comparison, usually along the lines of: “What’s the…
