To many writers, writer’s block doesn’t exist: it’s either just plain old procrastination or it’s bad planning or a sign that the scene’s gone wrong and you need to start over, but the idea of this ‘disease’ crippling a writer’s creativity and ability to write does not ring true to them.
I do think writer’s block does exist as a separate entity to procrastination – procrastination, for me, being a definite symptom of writer’s block, but not the same thing. But then, I have most often found my blocks occur when, yes, things have gone wrong and I need to delete a few pages and try again.
The ABC Radio National Book Show has recently had a great discussion on writer’s block, procrastination, hypergraphia and creativity, and you can read the transcript or listen to the program here.
One of the interviewees says this about the relationship between writer’s block and procrastination: “I think they overlap a lot, of course. One difference with procrastination, you’re doing something else while you’re not writing. Writer’s block is in a way a more furious and painful enterprise because you just sit there and drops of blood form on your forehead and fall on to the paper. Whereas a procrastinator in a way is more productive, because he decides he has to get up and clean the curtains or he’s going to go off on safari.”
The difference can be summed at as avoiding writing on purpose vs really wanting to write and not being able to get the words out (a “constipatory metaphor” as is said in that interview).
I do see procrastinating as potentially productive, when I am using it to avoid facing a block rather than avoiding doing something I don’t want to do. This is because while I am off cleaning the microwave or filing or other busywork that all of a sudden must be done right now this instant, I am turning over ideas and snatches of dialogues and character motivations in my head, either on purpose or because my mind is working away at trying to get past the sticking point. This creative energy will eventually be used, so it’s not entirely wasted time.
The discussion also touches on how emotion can affect writer’s block, in that depression can stop writing dead, not surprisingly. I think this is when writer’s block does become a real ‘physical’ problem, a symptom of actual chemical changes in the brain. That’s more serious than just not being sure what to write next. So maybe when we say ‘I’ve got writer’s block’ in the offhand way writers tend to use it, we’re as guilty of over-stating things as when people claim the flu instead of just a cold, or a migraine instead of just a headache.
In the next few weeks, I will post some tips for tackling procrastination and for tackling writer’s block.
Wendy, you present great perspective on writers’ block and procrastination. One of the easiest ways to tackle our why-do now-what-I-can-do-later habit is to make a beginning. One practice I have adopted is to commit to work for just 10 minutes on a task I have been procrastinating on or an article/essay I have been putting-off. I realize that beginning a task can build momentum; there is a good chance I get absorbed in the tasks. Quite often, seemingly difficult tasks get easier once I get working on them.
That’s great advice and, really, the main way of tackling procrastination – just find a way to make that start. I’ll be going into it into more detail next Thursday.
I set mini deadlines, be it just editing one chapter a day or writing a four pages a day in my notebooks while I’m commuting. I find it good to work according to those lines that even when my writing isn’t hugely “happening” the point is that I’m still producing and often I go back and discover some real gems hidden among the dross.
I’m not a slavedriver, tho’. I take time out on the weekends to just relax, do silly things like model for my husband’s photography, play with the dogs or bake scones.
I think it’s important to maintain momentum as far as possible; once it’s lost it can be impossible to find your way back into a project. And the habit is the most important thing of all.
[...] Admit it. There’s no shame in it, and sometimes it can be positive (as I touched on last week). We just want to eliminate it when it is not helpful, by replacing the habit of procrastinating [...]