Writer’s block? I sit here now I began to ponder on the mythical entity known as writer’s block. Of course there is nothing special about the word writer, or so I thought. A writer as defined by Webster is somebody who enjoys writing. Enjoyment? Can there be such a thing as raw enjoyment in putting words on the paper? Surely not! No one enjoys writing for hours on end, and then you get that annoying cramp around your wrist that runs up your middle finger. Wait maybe it’s not in the enjoyment in the physicality of writing but rather the enjoyment of using words. Playing with nouns and verbs, making them perform like little marionettes on a college ruled stage. Yes this is the enjoyment that Webster speaks of. Now to the next portion of this entity: block. The first definition of the word spoke of a solid piece of a hard substance. No this isn’t the meaning I was looking for; I’ve already come to the conclusion that it is not a physical thing. Ah this definition is interesting it reads: failure to remember something. Yes this is the definition I was looking for. So writer’s block can be defined as the affliction of someone who enjoys writing but had forgotten how. How to write? No that’s not what it means at all, it’s not physical thing. Perhaps they have forgotten the enjoyment. Yes that’s it they have forgotten how to enjoy writing. They have forgotten how to pull the strings that make the nouns and verbs leap across the page. They have forgotten the fun that can be found in verse, in prose, in scripts. Yes that is writer’s block, the buzz kill of literature. Now the question is. How do you defeat it? Hmm. . . now is not the time though. I have an appointment with fun. Excuse me.
"making them perform like little marionettes on a college ruled stage" - I love this! It is clever and I actually pictured these little teeny tiny marrionettes dancng in-between the lines of college ruled paper. It gives you the sense of fun you are trying to aspire to.
ReplyDelete"Perhaps they have forgotten the enjoyment. Yes that’s it they have forgotten how to enjoy writing. They have forgotten how to pull the strings that make the nouns and verbs leap across the page." Again, a reference to the strings of the marrionettes. I like how you came back to this.
:)
Fun to read!
Writers block? Like, a writer stop?
ReplyDeleteHold on hold on, was a writer shot?
Cause if we talking bout the same thing
Youre not the balla with a social glacier melting through yo damn chain
Youre that honors student who couldn’t stop writing about that, that, that thing
Town lawn expert Will, even offer to make you soup outta road kill
Or the feeling of running down a gray hill next to a landfill
Now that’s spring
High school flings that didn’t mean a thing
That’s Love
Wiping without a pinky for your gift from above
That’s Real
Writers block I’m convinced is something writers invent
Create your own cell, have a new story to tell
Avoid red button discussions, like kissing cousins
Ever thought about a cousin to kiss?
Chill, blizzard an unfilled notebook is not a thing resist
Calling for your markings, stabs, jabs and slices it wants you to explore like
A girl twice your age
Speak to the notebook
If it responds let the pen roll out your palm
Nothing?
You fronting, you didn’t tell it enough for it to reply with something
Or at least that’s my answer
But who am I to speak
I'm the one waiting till the end of the week
thats weak
that meek
but that aint we
or me, or you
what to do, what to do?
Drika, I really like this post because I constantly find myself having “writers block.” Usually what happens to me is that I start off big (something warned not to do) or I start with an end point instead of just writing to write, and getting good enough at writing that the topics I want to write about are supercharged by the legitimacy of own good writing. This improv-piece I did above (which is not my actual improv I just got inspired) is another strategy I sue to try and break out of writers block. I just see how I can play around with words concepts; try to incorporate the problem I’m facing into a piece. I hope you can look at this and get inspired somehow someway.
Obviously, you DON'T have writer's block, since you just wrote that. Thing is, we can't put restrictions on what we write and how well we write it. If we say we have writer's block, it doesn't mean we can't write (physically can't put the pen to the paper). What we mean is that we can't write anything good. Don't put any sort of restriction on what you write. Just write.
ReplyDeleteAs the novelist Richard Bausch says, "At the end of the day, you're only question should be, 'Have I written, today.' If the answer is yes, then end of questions."