Source: IAN LURIE at Portent

If you enjoyed this article, why not share it with all your friends, online connections and groups - GO ON - you KNOW you WANT to!

11 thoughts on “Writer’s Block – The curse that keeps you cursing – Infographic…”

Reblogged this on The Owl Lady.

I agree that the best cure for writer’s block is to write. I think writers get blocked because they want every sentence they write to come out perfect. A writer just has to write whatever comes to mind and then rewrite and improve it later.

LikeLiked by 1 person

Pingback: Writer’s Block – The curse that keeps you cursing – Infographic… — Chris The Story Reading Ape’s Blog | Site Title

I am certain writers before 1900 had blockages – there just wasn’t a name for it and they probably wouldn’t want to talk about it! EVERY writer has times when they stop to think and reconsider…. don’t you think? We aren’t robots!

LikeLiked by 1 person

The Story Reading Ape says:

December 23, 2016 at 08:05

I’d tend to agree with you Noelle 😀

LikeLike

Reply

He left no place to go and vent or rant he closed the door on writers blocked… Despicable. I so far have not been plagued in such a way, wordily constipated or lost for letters. But I avoid anyone with symptoms. Not being touched by the fog doesn’t mean you wont one day when you least expect it … begin to doubt, forget to dress, become a mess. And then the dreaded ‘B’ slips under the door. Personally i have been disheartened disillusioned and have… dillydallied but not been ‘Blocked’

LikeLiked by 1 person

The Story Reading Ape says:

December 22, 2016 at 21:51

GOOD Ellen 👍😃🎉

LikeLiked by 1 person

Reply

Reblogged this on Wind Eggs and commented:
Sadly, Ian closed his blog to comments, so we have to comment and reblog from here. I suppose he was afraid all of the blocked writers would suddenly vent in the comments to his post.

I have never been blocked. I have, however been too lazy to write and know the difference. This doesn’t mean the perception of being blocked isn’t real and sometimes crippling. Ironically, the best laxitive for writer’s block is to write. I was fortunate enough to learn this from the late John Vandezande, short story writer whose out of print collection can still be found at resellers for far too little money than his estate deserves. John taught the first fiction class I enrolled in.

When anyone complained of being blocked, John said to start writing anything anywhere at any point in your story. It doesn’t matter how bad it is, when you get to be a good writer, you’ll throw it away in the rewrites anyway. He’s never been wrong.

I learned this teaching writing and visual design courses for more than twenty-five years. (In the design courses I told students to sketch thumbnails, at least fifteen to twenty, no matter how bad.) When I reviewed assignments requiring students to submit all of their work before their final grade, the students who wrote rough drafts (and you can tell who did it and who faked one after the fact) that showed their struggle to get the words out, but they wrote them anyway, always fared better on their assignments.

Similarly, the students who drew thumbnails (many of them truly awful) tended to score at least a grade point higher than their classmates who didn’t.

Think of blockage as a clogged drain. You have to get that crap moving to unplug your drain for the creative flow. Writing out the sludge might feel tedious, but when the last paragraph of crap plops onto the page and you feel the flow pushing your words out faster than you can type, it’s like, well, a feeling of relief not unlike moving past real constipation.

My motto is: “You can’t fix what you haven’t written.” But I also have seen cow patties made into jewelry. Some of that crap you move might actually be polished into shining prose and that gem of a poetic line you always wanted to publish.

LikeLiked by 2 people

The Story Reading Ape says:

December 22, 2016 at 19:40

Thanks for sharing Phillip 👍😃

LikeLike

Reply

Sadly, Ian closed his blog to comments, so we have to comment and reblog from here. I suppose he was afraid all of the blocked writers would suddenly vent in the comments to his post.

I have never been blocked. I have, however been too lazy to write and know the difference. This doesn’t mean the perception of being blocked isn’t real and sometimes crippling.

LikeLiked by 1 person