I am often asked by other writers how to cure writer’s block—something I’ve never had in the first place. I don’t know how to heal it, but I know how to prevent it.
Perhaps performing what should’ve been precautionary can somehow reverse the condition. It’s worth a shot, right?
First, let’s be specific about what writer’s block is, and is not. It is not literal. No writer suddenly forgets their native tongue and can’t write a grocery list. Writers block is an oxymoron, because writers are not illiterate, and the only blockage to self-expression humans face is illiteracy.
Writers say they are blocked when they feel creatively uninspired.
To be a full-time writer, you must always be filled with inspiration. You must keep that creative spark alive like the virgin priestesses of Ancient Rome tended to the sacred flame of the shrine of goddess Vesta, never allowing it to blow out. Your writing must take precedence in your life. You can put no one and nothing before it, not even your family. To be a writer is to be an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship of any kind requires sacrifice, devotion, commitment.
Read that paragraph again.
Ask yourself, are you sure you want to be a writer? You can always just be someone who occasionally has the dark nothingness of “writer’s block”, needing prompts to guide you out of it, but other times be lit up with creative inspiration. Would you rather be someone who writes sporadically, for fun? Would you rather have writing as a hobby than be a writer? It’s okay if you ask yourself that and answer yes.
I’ve given everything I have to be the writer I am today. I’ve experienced much loss because those around me wanted my support and undivided attention more than they wanted to support me and my need for time and space to write. I’ve cut friends off because they didn’t take me seriously as a writer. That may sound extreme to you—not to me. People have preferred pronouns for how they’re addressed by others because it’s important to be surrounded by acceptance. We cannot allow those who don’t accept us as we are to remain in our lives. Someone who doesn’t see me as a writer doesn’t see me at all. My divorce was ultimately because my husband thought my writing aspirations a joke, and wanted me to give up on them. I gave up on him instead.
Writing is seduction. First it seduces the writer into storytelling, then seduces readers with a good story.
If you want to be a writer, and never experience writer’s block, you must consent to this seduction. You must willingly let it consume you. Any relationships you have with other people must be supportive of your relationship to your writing. You can never put someone else’s desires above your desire to write.
You must become so addicted to the act of writing and submitting your words that rejections can’t stop you from writing and submitting more.
This life is not for everyone, and many great writers took their own lives after achieving success—so sometimes, even when it clearly is meant for someone, someone immensely talented, they don’t feel the sacrifices made were worth it.
For me, the opposite happened. I tried a lot of different lives on, lives where I was someone who wrote but not a writer. Writing is the only thing that truly fulfills me, so I’m working to become great at it.
My advice? If you want to end writer’s block, reframe it. Realize there’s no such thing. You’re not blocked from writing, you’re choosing to focus on other things.
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