I came across a fantastic article discussing writer’s block today that I’d like to share. I (like every other author imaginable) has wrestled with this at some point and we all have to find our own ways to cope. This is from Dan Harmon (Community, Rick and Morty):

My best advice about writer’s block is: the reason you’re having a hard time writing is because of a conflict between the GOAL of writing well and the FEAR of writing badly. By default, our instinct is to conquer the fear, but our feelings are much, much, less within our control than the goals we set, and since it’s the conflict BETWEEN the two forces blocking you, if you simply change your goal from “writing well” to “writing badly,” you will be a veritable ****ing fountain of material, because guess what, man, we don’t like to admit it, because we’re raised to think lack of confidence is synonymous with paralysis…

…you write something incredibly ****ty in about six hours, it’s no problem making it better in passes, because in addition to being absolutely untalented, you are also a mean, petty CRITIC. You know how you suck and you know how everything sucks and when you see something that sucks, you know exactly how to fix it, because you’re an *******. So that is my advice about getting unblocked. Switch from team “I will one day write something good” to team “I have no choice but to write a piece of ****” and then take off your “bad writer” hat and replace it with a “petty critic” hat and go to town on that poor hack’s draft and that’s your second draft.

 

This really resonated with me, because it’s an excellent summation of the best method I’ve found for combating my own writer’s block demons. In my last post, I touched on the fact that it’s easy to tell somebody, “Just write, it may be bad, but it’s important to get it down on the page” but it’s incredibly hard to take that advice yourself. You don’t want to spend thirty minutes writing, then go back and realize everything you’ve put down is just terrible, that’s an awful feeling.

But Harmon’s advice is perfectly sound, especially for those that have a hard time working in drafts. Save a second copy of what you wrote, turn on your “harsh internal critic” then tear apart your own writing. It’s hard to ignore the soft, sensitive side that wants to cry when you say your characters are weak or your dialogue is superficial, but if you can do it, you can recognize the areas of your writing that you would hate to read if this was a book you’d bought at the local Barnes and Noble. Then you can change those areas that just aren’t good.

“But I don’t have a harsh internal critic!” you may say. I think that’s rubbish, and if you think about it, you’ll realize that too. There are books you like and there are books you don’t like. If you were to sit down and write a page telling somebody that hadn’t read a book that you hated why you didn’t like it, you’ll likely find you can be a much harsher critic than you realize. And you know what? I think that’s healthy.

It’s not healthy to be negative or to flame things that don’t appeal to you. But it is healthy to recognize things you don’t like and why you don’t like them. Anybody that’s spent extensive time studying English has spent literally hours critically reading books and papers. To those people, pinpointing aspects of novels and movies that don’t work starts to feel like a natural part of enjoying any form of entertainment. If you haven’t, then you should start immediately. I can’t recommend that enough. Any movie you watch, book you read, video game you play can (and really should) become an exercise in critical assessment. I’ll admit, it can get exhausting. There will be times where you’ll wish you could just sit back and enjoy a movie without getting frustrated that the screenwriter/director included a ridiculous, pointless scene, but you know what? That’s part of the burden of being a writer, at least in my opinion. If you want to learn to tell a strong story, then you have to be able to recognize a weak one, each time you see it.

Dan’s full statement on writer’s block can be found in the following link, warning strong language for those sensitive to it: http://splitsider.com/2016/11/read-dan-harmons-excellent-advice-for-overcoming-writers-block/