Ah, Writer's Block! I hear so many writers talk about it. Novelists talk about it. So do playwrights. Journalists and bloggers. Musical lyric writers and poets. Even in our industry, I hear screenwriters and teleplay writers discuss writer's block all the time. I was reading a book by the master himself, Syd Field, and HE talked about it for a few pages.

 

So I guess it must exist. It must! But there's one little problem for me. I've never seen it. Oh, earlier in my career I thought I had writer's block a lot. But it turns out, I never did! I understand everything I was doing wrong. I think, in context of Mr. Field's writing about it, he addresses it as one of many problems to solve, and it got me thinking about it. About how to solve it. For me, its hard to try and solve a problem I don't believe exists. It's like trying to solve how to capture Bigfoot. Or the Loch Ness Monster.

 

Right about now a lot of you are flat out angry at me. Your face is turning bright red. You are cursing my name and comparing me to historical and fictional villains alike. Who is worse, Darth Vader or Alan Zatkow? Who is worse Attila the Hun or Alan Zatkow?

 

I know, right? Me. I'm worse. Because those guys did terrible things, but none of them to you, directly. Me, I'm about to do a terrible thing to you.

 

I am going to take away your excuses. I am going to explain to you exactly why you think you have writer's block and then also explain to you exactly why you don't.

 

And you will curse my name because the way to solve these problems, these issues, is by treating them as symptoms to different kinds of problems. We will identify each of these individually and then work out a solution so that you can get back to what you do best -- making and then drinking hot cocoa! But then after the cocoa is made we can write again! Woo Hoo!

 

I know, I am the villain in this blog. Because we all like to have suitable excuses for why we can't get the job done. "I have writer's block" is the biggest excuse ever invented. And really, the reason it has spread so well is because it was invented by a fiction writer and the rest of us fiction writers adopted it as our excuse as well. And then the non-fiction writers were all like "Heeeeey, that's nifty. Yeah, I've got writer's block too." And then somehow it spread to poets and musicians which is pretty much impossible. But so is most fiction! But people who don't write have no idea what's going on, so fooling them with a plausible lie works every time. Here's the problem. It's a lie that you have told yourself. You say out loud "I can't fill this piece of paper or this blank screen in front of me with words. What's wrong with me? Oh, I know. I have writer's block. Well, let me go do something else now."

 

"Hey Milton, did you get any pages done in your screenplay?" "Nope. Writer's Block."

 

And people buy it. And mostly they buy it because of the conviction in your voice. It doesn't sound like you've just deceived them. And that's because, essentially, you haven't. What you have done is, you have deceived yourself! You believe the myth, the superstition, the rumor, and the urban legend that is Writer's Block.

 

But in this blog I am going to destroy the myth, the superstition, the rumor, and the urban legend and teach you that there are lots of reason why your productivity is down. It isn't Writer's Block. It can't be. Here's why.

 

The definition of Writer's Block is as follows:

 

The temporary inability of a writer to write.

 

SAY WHUT NOW?

 

Hmmm...I can understand the permanent inability of a writer to write, if he has been in a car accident or lost his hands or his mind has gone soft from old age or too much whiskey or that new designer drug he got from his pimp/drug dealer melted half his grey cells.

 

The permanent inability of a writer to write. Yeah, I can buy that. Things happen to people. Sometimes, writers craft a story that had something to do with their own experience, and they wanted to get it out of their system and they wrote a book or a screenplay about it. And then it's done. And that's it. They have no more stories in them that they passionately want to tell. So they get permanent writer's block.

 

I can buy it. There are plenty of non-writers who have a great story to tell, and they write a novel that they need a real writer to re-craft but usually don't get one. But anyway, they write that story and it takes them six years but they write it. And then they finish it. And its a sort of fictionalized giant embellishment of a story they used to tell at a party. And its two thousand pages long. And only certain parts of it are interesting but the rest of it they felt was necessary for context, though usually they are wrong about that.

 

And now its done, and they are content. They got that off their bucket list. And now they move on with their lives and never again consider writing anything, ever.

 

Those people have permanent writer's block. They had one story in them. They didn't have two. So they wrote it. And now, the party's over. Cool.

 

But..the temporary inability of a writer to write?

 

Really?

 

That's impossible, in my mind. And I have an extremely vivid imagination. I write stories involving global zombie plagues or space adventures through the universe. I can fathom four million different kinds of alien species and every kind of supernatural creature interacting with each other at a tea party hosted by a chicken.

 

I cannot fathom the temporary inability of a writer to write.

 

This does not mean that I can sit down and craft 40 pages a day. I am not a robot. Like you, there are days when the screen is blank and it mostly stays that way. I'll take a rudimentary stab at crafting for 30 minutes just to tell myself I did that. I wasn't a slug today. But I don't tell myself I have writer's block because I don't. There is a reason why I didn't get the job done that day, and other days I can write for five or six hours passionately and the day disappears and I got 15-25 pages in, or on a truly explosive day, 40 pages! My average per day is 10 pages. I think that's pretty typical for people who have the time and the skill, and a good outline. I read an interview with Stephen King and he used to do 20 pages a day, which is why he has like 80 books and is a billionaire. If you wondered how to do it you now know. Go be the next Stephen King.

 

My average for screenplay or teleplay pages is 10. Some days I get 8. Some days I get 4. Some days I get 22. I am streaky, and can go two or three weeks really hot, and then a few frustrating days of cold. I average 50 pages a week though, so I can write an entire screenplay draft in 2 weeks, and a finished one in 6, if need be.

 

And every now and again I burn out and need to rest and refuel my energy. Other days I need to just outline the story, understand what I am trying to accomplish, work out the problems that have arisen in my story. Solve those problems like they are math.

 

I hate math!

 

But every day, I can try to write and see what happens. I never have an inability to write. Sometimes I have a symptom that prevents me from writing at my best. And that is very different then losing your skill and talent like someone just took an axe and chopped the part of your brain that is your writing skills out.

 

So, in this blog, we're going to fully explore Writer's Block. Join me on this journey and feel free to hate me every single time out. Because in order to overcome what you call Writer's Block, you will need to fix and change certain things you are doing. Writing can be a hobby, a fun one. But for the professional, writing is a lifestyle. Prepare for a lifestyle change or three. Here we go.