Writer's Block

More than thirty years ago, while taking writing courses at Indiana State University, I recall a session with a visiting writer who discussed the phenomenon of "writer's block." As I recall, there was a question regarding a student's inability to get started on a book, and the visiting writer made the point that writing is mathematical. "Write every day," she said, "and your consistency will produce."

I've never forgotten the advice and have, for the past thirty+ years, approached writing in this same vein. If a writer writes, then there's no such thing as writer's block. If a writer writes every day, as a writer should, then the circulation of words, thoughts, ideas, outlines, and vision never clogs . . . the output is consistent and unrelenting. Witness John Updike in his humble office space over a New York restaurant, smoking endless cigarettes (which I would not advise for creativity), and writing hour after hour with no end in sight. Picture Tolstoy in a Russian park, watching the peasants, notepad in hand, writing away or making notations on his novels and characters.

There will be challenges to this consistency, of course. Some writers have wives who want to know, "When are you knocking off for the evening so we can make whoopie?" (It never actually happens but it's a great thought.) Other writers have sons or daughters who ask, "Why do you waste you time writing books no one is going to buy?"

There will be challenges.

But writer's block? Can't happen. Won't. Not as long as the writer writes . . . every day. And in no time flat, a writer, taking this lesson to heart, will turn out a book every year, two books a year, four, eight, or even twelve (a book a month).

Just do the math.