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| Photo credit: MyDigitalSLR on Flickr |
Many use the metaphor of a brick wall when describing it, and I think that’s fair enough. It certainly does have wall-like qualities. You’ll be writing along one day, perfectly at ease then BAM! Suddenly you don’t know what to do. Where do you go from here? How do you connect this scene to the next?
WHY IS IT SO RIDICULOUSLY HARD TO WRITE A SINGLE WORD?
The interesting thing about the brick wall metaphor is that many say getting past writer’s block is like breaking through it. I like to imagine a wrecking ball crashing into it and bits of writer’s block debris fly everywhere while the author laughs maniacally and continues to CONQUER THE WORLD THAT IS HER BOOK.
Eh-hem.
My experience, however, is that you can’t always break through with a wrecking ball. Sometimes, regardless of how hard you stare at the wall, the marvelous wall-destroying idea doesn’t blossom in your mind. Sometimes it does, and that’s when you go crazy with the demolition, but not always.
Upon keeping stubbornly to my 1500 words/day quota, I discovered something interesting about writer’s block. You see, you can’t always destroy the wall with one fell swoop (though that would be nice, wouldn’t it?) Sometimes instead, you have to shove your back against it and push.
What I mean is you have to write through the block.
No, it’s not easy. These are the days that the writing will come a little sluggish. The times when you have no idea what the next sentence will be or where it will come from or even where it will take you. But if you take breaks, work hard and most importantly keep to your goal, the words will come. I promise. They may not be the best words you’ve ever written and they certainly won’t flow the nicest. At the end of the day, however, you’ve met your quota.
And slowly but surely, day after day, you’ll push that wall back until it gives up and crumbles beneath your feet.
What do you do to get past writer’s block?
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