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Words of Inspiration #2 - Writer's Block

Especially as NaNoWriMo is here, we will quickly discuss Writer's Block - which is a myth.

There is no such thing as Writer's Block.

I'd like for you to remember this.

At any point in time, you can, for instance, pick up a pen, put it against a piece of paper and write a single word. Pick up your phone and tweet something. Anything, just write it. You have successfully broken Writer's Block.

Think about it that way. Take away your critical mind, tap into your subconscious and pure instinct. Just write a stream of consciousness. Write about the fact that you think you have writer's block. Write about the fact that you don't know what you can write next. Write. Just write. Tell yourself to write now. And you realize that there is no such thing as "Writer's Block". It is not actually a condition or a disease or an issue at all.

The real problems are here:

- Lack of concentration

- Lack of responsibility, serious intent

- Lack of a daily goals, schedule and quota

- Lack of confidence in skill

- Lack of confidence in instinct or the subconscious

- Lack of vision

- Lack of planning or research

- Lack of reading and reference

- Lack of fresh air?

- Lack of food?

- Lack of a warm coffee?

- Lack of _________

It has nothing to do with the actual writing, or your actual skill, or your actual content. It is all the factors surrounding it. So take heart in that at least. There is always an excuse, an external or internal factor that is causing you hesitation.

*

Here is a little "Mindbleed" I did a while ago in about 8 minutes 39 seconds, and had no idea what I wrote afterwards:

Sometimes it's just necessary to not think - sit in front of this glaring screen in strange hours in the morning, no time to even make coffee or pour a tea, and just bleed. Hemingway once said that, "just bleed". And probably a whole lot of other writers. A lot of writing for someone who's naturally inclined - maybe "talented" is something people would say to describe those writers - comes subconsciously like instinct. This is no doubt necessary, but perhaps most people don't ask why this happens. Why is it that artists are talented in one way, why are musicians talented in another, why do writers work that way?

Writing is like the art of recording the self onto paper. It's the most direct way, for the most part, there's no true need to re-interpret or reconstruct. It is just the conscious and the subconscious and the unconscious all converging like a flow of rivers into the ocean. This is the ocean of writing.

If you can write fast enough, the mind directly flows onto the page without even a single conscious thought about it, like I'm doing now. This is a remarkable and extraordinary feat if you think about it. In visual arts, you have to sit there, visualize what you're going to do with your paintbrush or your pencil or your tablet for that matter, and come up with the concept. Music is perhaps the same way, there is improvisation but the mind has to translate the feeling, the instinct, your skills, style and rhythms and so on into physical movements and operations, whether you are playing a piano, a guitar or moving your diaphragm and mouth to sing.

However, this is not the case with writing. It's possible to just bleed, at least for the first draft or a ramble like this one. But the question remains, how come it is possible for my mind, to bleed like that? It's not possible for every person, at least as instinct, and people will relate this to "talent". But fundamentally, the word for it shouldn't be talent. Talent will put labels on people and channel things into strict rigid boxes like cheap plastic packaging for action figures or metal shipment containers on a freighter. Talent takes on the connotation that it is only available to exclusive people and select groups. This is not quite true.