Writer’s Block – The Experts Speak

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Writer’s Block – The Experts Speak

By Deb Gallardo

It’s one thing for everyday working writers to offer our opinions about writer’s block. It’s another thing entirely when best-selling authors who’ve been through it and still succeeded big-time offer their take on this scourge that afflicts so many writers. Here are six such experts, each with a slightly different view or solution.

Late-19th/early-20th century popular author and satirist Samuel L. Clemens, aka Mark Twain, said:

“As long as a book would write itself, I was a faithful and interested amanuensis and my industry did not flag; but the minute the book tried to shift to my head the labor of contriving its situations, inventing its adventures, and conducting its conversations I put it away and dropped it out of my mind. The reason was very simple… my tank had run dry; the story…could not be wrought out of nothing.”

Sci Fi/Fantasy/Alternate History author Howard Waldrop says:

“When I was a young guy just starting out, I’d find I couldn’t finish a story. Then I figured out the story wasn’t ready so, I waited until it was ready and then I wrote it.”

Fantasy and Literary Fiction author Ray Vukcevich says:

“Here is the concept: first, anyone can write one page a day, so that is my minimum. I write a page of fiction every day no matter what. The kicker is that no one can write just one page, so I usually end up writing more… [Once] I cheated in that I typed in and did some small rewrites on what I’d done in a workshop. I decided that the rule must be firm. No cheating! One page a day no matter what! And it’s been working ever since.”

SciFi/Fantasy artist and writer Michael Dashow says:

“If I don’t have that idea, or if I’m stuck on a section of a story, I find it really difficult to progress. So I guess my way of dealing with writer’s block is more of a ‘take a breather, go for a walk, put it out of your head for a while’ kind of approach.”

The late Damon Knight, SciFi author, editor and critic said:

“I used to be blocked routinely somewhere after the middle of every novel, but it occurred to me just now that it hasn’t happened since I began working on a computer. I don’t think that’s the reason, though. What I think it is is that I began following my wife’s example and gave up trying to write the novel in sequence. My hunch is that if you can’t write the next scene, and you can’t write any other scene till you write that scene, that’s a block.”

Novelist and Non-Fiction Author Anne Lamott says:

“The word block suggests that you are constipated or stuck, when in truth you’re empty. You feel the writing gods gave you just so many good days, maybe even enough of them to write one good book, and then part of another. But now you are having some days or weeks of emptiness, as if suddenly the writing gods are saying, “Enough! Don’t bother me! I have given to you until it hurts! Please. I’ve got problems of my own. “

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