It's Not Writer's Block. It's the Writer Blaahs.
- May 12
- 3 min read
I’m going to state an unpopular opinion:
I don’t believe in writer’s block.
I believe in being stuck, I believe in being confused, I believe in being all turned around and sad and anxious and depressed and convinced you’ll never write another decent line of prose or poetry.
But I don’t believe that the thing that is happening when you invoke writer’s block — the inability to move forward, to solve a problem, to spark an idea — means that you are blocked from getting words on the page.
I believe you’re looking at the problem all wrong.
You don’t have writer’s block. You have the writer blaahs.
The writer blaahs are what’s happening when you stare and stare at a scene, and you can’t write forward. (The problem is behind you, my friend.) The writer blaahs are what’s happening when you’re writing in circles. (You’re writing from the wrong angle, honey.) The writer blaahs are what’s happening when you can’t even conceive of an idea to to write.
I’ll be your accountability partner.
I’ll keep you writing, reading, and getting your work out there in the world — even as it falls apart.
You can always write, ideas or no.
Here’s how:
Can’t move forward chronologically? Skip ahead in your story, or have a conversation with your characters and ask them what on earth is going wrong here? Write: What do I do, why is this such a mess? And let your protagonist answer you back. On paper! This is not a thought exercise.
Voila, you’re writing.
Can’t say what you’re trying to say? Pull out a notebook and pity dump. Complain about the problem. Complain about yourself. Do this for days and days if you have to — but do it on paper. You will find your answers.
Voila, you’re writing.
Can’t come up with a single idea? Worried you will never write another word again?
Once more with feeling:
Pull out a notebook and start writing those worries. Do this for days and days — you’ll find what you want to say.
Voila, you’re writing.
In between all that writing, here are some other strategies for curing the writer blaahs:
Some folks will tell you it’s fear that’s stopping you — well, we’re all (most of us) afraid. You can’t let that stop you. Examine those fears on paper and keep writing.
Some folks will tell you it’s perfectionism that’s stopping you — well, again — work that out in the pages of a cheap notebook, and keep writing.
If it’s loneliness that’s stopping you, buy a copy of Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones, and keep writing.
If it’s a fear you just don’t know how to write, buy a copy of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, and keep writing.
The answer is in you.
The only way to fix the blaahs is to keep writing.
Write through it, write around it, write I HATE THIS I HATE THIS I HATE THIS a thousand times until you write BUT YOU KNOW WHAT I LOVE? I love the way the light filters the gloom out my kitchen window in early summer, and how it hits the flowers on my counter and reminds me this house is loud and messy and falling slowly apart around me and this city oh don’t get me started on this city but here right now there is light and it’s early summer and the coffee maker is doing it’s thing and how grand to be alive and still writing.
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