Smashing My Head Against the Writer's Block

"Nulla dies sine linea"
- Horace

Have you ever heard that old adage “If you don’t use it, you lose it”? Well, it turns out that it is something that affects writing just as much as it affects everything else in life. Writing ability is just like muscle development; the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets.

Whenever I teach a freshman composition class, on the first week of class someone inevitably approaches me apologetically, and informs me that they haven’t written anything in a long time and to “go easy on me.” Said student usually approaches me when others are out of earshot and they seem very sorry or upset to let me know this (as if I will be angry). Unfortunately, I tell the students, “No, I can’t go easy on you. I’m a mean person,” which usually results in laughter since I look and act as one of the meekest people you will ever want to meet. Afterwards, I reassure them that writing ability is something that develops the more that the writer does it. Also, I tell them that the process is different for everyone and the journey is just as different. As such, there isn’t a “right” way or a “wrong” way to go about writing.

Sometimes that is a bitter pill to swallow when on the receiving end of it. I freely admit to not writing on a daily basis (as I feel that I should). I admit to feeling like a hypocrite when writing this blog posting knowing full well that I find it difficult to write every single day. Where does this problem stem from? Where does it stem from for college writers? I would guess the same place.

One of the biggest reasons that I find myself wanting to turn on the television instead of writing something productive is that Law and Order: SVU is on. Benson and Stabler (played exceptionally well by Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni) are more than able to pull me away from my writing tasks. I even find myself sabotaging my writing when I enable the distraction. “It’s great storytelling!” I tell myself. “If I watch the show, I’ll learn about plot pacing, character development, and realistic dialogue.” As such, it won’t be a waste of time. Of course, by the end of the episode, I am so wrapped up with how horrible the villains on the show were (not to mention the depression in knowing that the Benson/Stabler duo will soon to come to an end).

As the example shows, it is easy to be swayed by outside stimuli to forego writing for that day. One day can turn into two; two can turn into three. Before you know it, you haven’t written in a month and when you return to write something, the process is much more difficult to do than it has ever been before. To get in the habit of writing, keep a journal. When I began working on my journal, I foundt hat the more I wrote, the better my writing became and the easier it was to write on something else. Upon reflection, as I looked at past papers that students turned in, on the first essay, students would not meet the page range. When the second and third essays were written, I found that more students met (and exceeded) the page range. Writing is infectious. Writing begets more writing!

Another problem that forces me to stop writing is when I am working on a piece and right in the middle of the essay (sometimes even while writing!), I will not know how to continue. What word should I use next? What was I writing? I lost my train of thought! At that moment, I will panic. On a few occasions, I would feel this way when I wrote Demon in My Head. There was a reason that it took exactly one year to write that first draft!

This problem still plagues me, however, a wise professor of English taught me a trick over fifteen years ago, and that still helps me to this day. “Don’t finish the sentence,” he told me (and about twenty other undergraduate English students). His thinking is that if the writer returns to the piece the next day, they will be able to finish the thought and continue the next one. On many occasions, I have been able to pick up my thought and continue to the next thought. Most writing is linear. If the line is broken, the writer may be able to continue the logical line of thinking.

It is my intention to give these tips and tricks to help the writing process move along for you. Ultimately, this would be futile unless you are motivated to write. There has to be a message that you have that fuels moving that pen on the paper (or those fingers on a keyboard). Keep writing! The adage is true: if you don’t use it, you lose it.

Here’s to keeping it.