I was reading a friend's blog today and he asked this question. "What causes writers block?"
I don't have a clue, but what I told him was to just write. Even if its just your thoughts or a poem, random ideas from a past story, just write. No matter what it is, it doesn't even have to make sense. Just write something every day and it will help.
This wasn't my idea. I took it from one of my favorite authors Octavia E. Butler. She once said." First, forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you're inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won't. Habit is persistence in practice.”
Octavia E. Butler
I don't have a clue, but what I told him was to just write. Even if its just your thoughts or a poem, random ideas from a past story, just write. No matter what it is, it doesn't even have to make sense. Just write something every day and it will help.
This wasn't my idea. I took it from one of my favorite authors Octavia E. Butler. She once said." First, forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you're inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won't. Habit is persistence in practice.”
Definition of habit-n
1. an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it
has become almost involuntary.
2. customary practice or use: Daily bathing is an American
habit.
3. a particular practice, custom, or usage: the habit of
shaking hands.
4. a dominant or regular disposition or tendency; prevailing
character or quality: She has a habit of looking at the bright side of things.
5. addiction, especially to narcotics
Writing must become a habit to any writer whether they are
experienced or not, if they hope to become successful. And yes, even if they do
not. It’s essential to form a pattern of
behavior. I have found that I have
become one with the experience of seating down to write. Even in the dry season
of writer’s block, which is rare, I find that with habit I can write something.
When someone tells me that they have come to a point that they have nothing to
write about. I find myself questioning
their comment to the art form. For me, it has become so involuntary that I find
myself waking with a pencil and paper in hand and its the last then I put down
at night.
“You don't start out
writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff,
and then gradually you get better at it. That's why I say one of the most
valuable traits is persistence.”
Habit will get you passed the bad stuff. Like Octavia said
it helps you get better. Even when everyone thinks your work is junk, habit
will kick you in the pants and have you working to make the work better. Habit
will have you striving toward perfection because it will make you want perfection.
“That which could hunger, could starve.”
It you succumb to writer's block, you can starve your
creative nature. Like with anything, the less you use it the less important it
becomes to you. We eat at least three times a day, because we need to fuel our
bodies, yet we expect to have inspiration to come to us by osmosis. Habit in our
writing, is like fuel to our inspiration, it allows your creativity to flow
freely. So I say write. Write the good
and the bad, write the ugly and the sad. Write anything, but write everyday,
until it becomes habit. Writer's block is starvation to a writer, writing everyday feeds them.
