Author's Note: This piece that comes out is simply because I am kind blanked out for ideas; so try to keep that in mind while you read this. Aka I am to lazy to write in my novels.
Sometimes I find myself asking the question, what is Writers Block. Do I have it. Or is it just a sort of random thing that people say they have just because they are bored and they want to create a syndrome that will marginalized their laziness. After thinking about this I have decided to write an essay about it and express my thoughts on the whole issue. If there is such a thing as Writer's Block than what can we do to solve and overcome it.
My first step in this essay will be to figure out if Writer's Block truly does exist. If it does, than what exactly does it mean to have Writer's Block? Finally I will explain how it can be avoided. However what if there is no such thing? Then I will explain how we can avoid falling into it's trap of deception.
First I would like to take a look at the evidence. Facts are always strait-forward and simple. But how we interpret these facts is key. In this essay I will try to take a look at the facts from an unbiased point of view. Here goes.
It seems to me that I have read at least a dozen if not many more pieces on writers block. It seems that most of the pieces are all the same thing! Each one goes into a big charade about staring at a blank computer screen. Now that is the first problem that I find these pieces. I have found that whenever I have writer's block it is normally in the middle of a novel, not when I am just about to begin a new piece. Therefore I think that there would actually be quite a few words imbedded on that page.
After the part about the blank computer screen episode it seems that the pieces take one of two paths. They either leave it at that and end the chapter in failure, or they go on to write a ton of words that they tear to shreds. So really the whole point of writing that piece is nullified! What in the world is the point of typing out a bunch of words that don't even make any sense when thrown together. That is the question! To write or not to write?
Now before I go on I think I will say that not all the pieces I have read are like this, though it seems like all of them say that you should type out a bunch of words for no reason but to get over the problem of not being able to write. However my dear friend ChipsMcCoy wrote a piece that absolutely blew my mind away with how profound it was. It was merely a period! But that one little measly period spoke volumes. It conveyed the true meaning of Writers Block!
That said I would like to come to my conclusion of whether Writers Block exists or no I think my answer to that is that it is so widespread that it has to be true in some form or other. As I said above Writers Block is the lack of writing. But is that really all it is? No. Let me explain.
If all Writer's Block was than all we would have to do is write a bunch of words that make no sense whatsoever. But what this whole thing really comes down to is what is a writer. I think a writer is someone who is committed and devoted to trying to convey or express something that is transpiring or tell a story. That is about as well as I can describe it. If anyone who reads this could elaborate please let me know. I would find any further input of help! I guess why I mean to say is that I writer who has Writers Block has to write something that makes sense before they can really overcome it. It is hard I know, but I have found that if you can persevere and work with your characters, you can overcome even the greatest challenges that writers face.
Finally I will turn to how you can overcome Writers Block. I think that a large part of this has to do with your characters. If you are not writing a book in which you are working in unison with each of your characters than you will have a lot more problems overcoming Writers Block. In other words your characters have to have their own distinct personalities. I don't have time to go into the interaction between you and your characters in this essay right now, though if you read http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/work.php?id=104553 I think you will find this helpful.
One other thing that you may find helpful for getting rid of Writers Block is editing. I know that you may no necessarily be in the mood to do editing, but it is something to fill up your time. Reading is also another thing that can help a lot reading something can give you inspiration or an idea for something to do in your novel.
Here is where I draw the line between Writers Block and laziness. If you don't want to write anything or feel like editing is to hard than I think that you may be getting lay. If you can think of plenty of things to write though you don't want to write any of them you are just plain old lazy. Therefore you need to do something to overcome your laziness. But that is a whole other topic.
In conclusion I think that if you persevere in your writing you can overcome Writers Block in spite of the fact that it brings up many challenges. I think that the thing that has helped me most in my writing is NaNoWriMo. However I disagree with their policy of "Keep writing no matter how many errors or mistakes you make. You can go back and edit it later even if what you write is horrible!" I mean really? This is what I call being lazy. It is as bad as not writing anything. If what you wrote was horrible you can edit it and make it better. But it is far better to write just 10 to 15 thousand words in a single month that are mostly good quality than to write 50k that are mostly pointless and will be thrown Ito the trash can.
I certainly hope that this piece has helped all of you who have read it. I just thought that I'd try to give you my opinion of what Writers Block really is and what all of you can do to overcome it. I myself don't really struggle with it all that much, which is why at some time in my writing life I wondered if there was such a thing. But it seems to me that there are too many things written about Writers Block to just simply ignore it.
Addendum: I just would like to clarify that if you are a younger writer who hasn't had lot of experience it is oaky if you try to write something even though it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. In this instance it is perfectly understandable. But as time goes on I think that you will mature in your writing and start having characters with distinct personalities. But for now just keep writing!
this made me cry man, I've been sitting on my ass for a few weeks now and I did not know what to do, if this interaction was awkward, how to make the dialogue not choppy. this may not have helped in that regard but it did give me renewed hope that I can overcome this block. I know this is seven years old but thank you very much for this.
Hello.
Fascinating topic, could use some more polish.
First things first: the act you are writing an essay should be invisible when one is actually reading your essay. Academic essays in particular are very much about presenting your opinion as objective fact, and in order to do so two things have to go away:
- Yourself
- The fact this is an essay
It's much more difficult to convince people when they are constantly reminded this is an essay, and this is you trying to figure something out. Mentioning it's an essay once or twice for organizational purposes is one thing, but repeating it in four consecutive paragraphs is sloppy, and repetitive.
You haven't told me anything within those first four paragraphs. You're simply discussing what you're going to organize, which is very long for an essay this short. Five or ten thousand word essays would have organization this long, but when you're in the thousand word bracket there is very little point in spending more than a paragraph or two on explanation. You then move into body paragraphs, which go to support the point you were trying to make.
For me, personally, questions actually phrased as questions detract from the essay itself. It's better to frame the questions as what you're going to discuss, which makes you appear more authoritative and in turn more credible.
Of course, this is my experience working in a university level essay bracket, so I can only repeat what I was taught. If you have been taught otherwise, I would still suggest you tighten up the introduction so you're spending less time establishing the topic and more time actually discussing the topic. That would make this more interesting.
Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions or comments.
~Rosey
I enjoyed reading this essay of yours. It was very interesting to read of your perception of the common issue named writers block, and I know I too have my opinions on it, so it was an enjoyable insight to see.
I think that the one thing this essay could have improve on would be organization. Your conclusions seems to be all over the place and when you say you are concluding you suddenly have a ton more paragraphs to elaborate on.
Your title also needs to be addressed more thoroughly, you talk about laziness but only briefly touch on it, and you hardly touch of boredom at all. If a writer is suffering laziness and calling it writers block its not going to be intentful, what you must mention is why and how they would be labelling it as that, when they do want their ideas down but they can't. Laziness could be described as simply not making the effort to put them down, or more realistically, a dissatisfaction with what they have or are pushing out because it does not meet their personal envision?
You have a few typos in here. 'To' should be 'too' and 'no' should be 'not' and 'lay' should be 'lazy' and yadyya all that picky stuff, but those are just typos, the reader gets the picture. I'm not worried about those things too much.
You do tend to be a bit vague and don't delve into the real specifics which can also come across as generic, but I do like your other statements, such as how to overcome writers block (Once again kind of randomly shoved in the middle of the essay but yeah) think this topic would be better suited for a separate topic within itself, and you are trying to extend yourself too far as to include that in this particular essay, which would do better to stay focused, and use overcoming writers block as a separate essay topic. Anyway, happy writing and nice essay you have here, the words are clear and concise and easy to read.
Hello, r4! I've dropped by to review this piece.
To begin with, you have a decent hook in asking about the true identity of writer's block, and it's like to draw many of us in simply by the title and opening sentence - however, you do have a few punctuation errors, in that you should have "what is writer's block? Do I have it? Or is it just. . . ?" Your periods instead of question marks and incorrect, and they dull the impact of the opening sentences; otherwise, those resonate very well, and they will definitely serve the purpose of your essay.
You actually have plenty of distracting grammar errors in this essay, and I would recommend asking someone to proofread for you before you post, simply to get most of the grammar and spelling errors out of the way. Pedantics, yes, but they mean that people would take you much more seriously.
Also, you have a fallacy when you start discussing other people's writer's block - you assume that cases should appear like yours, in the middle of a novel, instead of at the beginning. Personally, I've had it happen in many places - before writing, when I'm planning, when I'm in the middle, when I'm about to end... The possibilities are endless. I think that this piece could have stood to be edited a bit more and thought of in a more widely-considered manner before it was posted, as you ask for help within the piece, and you could have likely gone around the site and asked opinions of people while you were writing it so you knew what you were dealing with.
I do, however, admire your perseverance, and I believe that you have a noble, worthy cause on your hands - determining the cause of writer's block isn't easy, and writing an essay about it must be harder.
Before all the critique and praise, one thing in the author's note 
:
"Of" should be after the "kind".
because I am kind blanked out
Okay. In the first line, there should be question marks after the questions.
what is Writers Block. Do I have it.
marginalized
I think that should be "marginalize", compared to the stuff around it.
as Writer's Block than what can we do to solve and overcome it.
Again, question mark at the end, and the than should be then.
That is the question! To write or not to write?
Those two sentences should be reversed, to make it sound good.
Writers Block exists or no I think my answer
I think a period should be after "no", otherwise it's a run-on/insane sentence.
As I said above Writers
A comma should be after "above".
If all Writer's Block was than all we would
This phrase doesn't make sense, I read over it two times and couldn't make it out.
or tell a story.
"Tell" should be "tells".
anyone who reads this could elaborate please let
A comma after elaborate.
I guess why I mean to say is that I writer who has
This doesn't make any sense.
Wordsmithing: Oh the Places You'll Go!
This link doesn't work on the text, but if it does on my review, let me know. I'm all for your help.
another thing that can help a lot reading something can give
Run on sentence. Period after lot.
editing is to hard
"To" should be "too".
Besides all these minor errors, this was great, and I hope to hear from you soon!
You can’t really evaluate writers block from a factual, unbiased and ‘scientific’ perspective. First, it expresses itself differently for different people. Second, it’s subjective, emotional based behaviour which by default is unquantifiable. Third, is has different reasons, circumstances and solutions for different people and cases. Fourth, saying it can be easily overcome dismisses the personal, emotional and psychological aspects. If mental glitches were that easy to solve we would have no depression, anxiety or other psychological disturbances to speak of.
The simple truth is: people are not machines, they get tired, overwhelmed, stressed, and when these influences pile up and a person does not find a way to easily mitigate them (for there is no single answer as to how to deal with mental and emotional states) burnout happens. A state where one is unable to perform a certain or any activity requiring mental or creative work because, well they simply can’t until the underlying cause, stress, passes or is ‘solved.’ And yes, laziness can be a result of such conditions, however you need to define what you consider being lazy. The desire, but inability to do something, or the ability and lack of desire. Because the two express themselves similarly but are cardinally different.
Perseverance, dedication, schedule and all that discipline stuff helps to write and write often; however, if you are dealing with a burnout, keeping a schedule only makes things worse and can cause you to become completely unable to put a word on a page. Believe me, I know, at some point, if you push it too far, your mind will become unable to express your thoughts in writing until given rest. I’ve literally had episodes where I know what I want to write, and I know how to write it, but when I put the pen on the page the sentence comes out completely incoherent. Think about the brain like a muscle. If you overwork it, and continue to work it in the same intensity for a long time, you will start losing mass and strength rather than gaining it. Schedules and discipline put you into a monotonous, continuous rhythm of work, and when experiencing burnout or writer's block you need to actually lessen, vary or completely drop it.
Another thing here is, human brains don’t like schedules; simply keeping the hours of the day in mind is stressful. The concept of time is stressful, and sometimes you need to relax, forget its passing by doing something relaxing or immersive. Same goes for tight schedules. For some people they can work, for others it’s the worst thing they can do when trying to deal with writers block.
Finally, you say that to keep writing even if it’s bad and saying you can fix it later is erroneous. Well, constantly going back and re-editing is what actually gets you into burnout and writer blocks. And if you took the ten minutes to roughly draw/plan out your plotline it won’t be horrendously unfixable later. So yeah, to keep writing with no worries and no looking back is the easiest and most common way to put down a first draft without getting stuck or dropping the thing in the middle because you can’t look at it anymore (another expression of selective writer's block). Have in mind, first drafts are not for the eyes of the world and it’s in the second draft/first revision that your writing becomes bearable. (Also proofreading, revision and editing are three slighty different things.)
In conclusion, writing block (or burnout) is not a simple issue. It is caused by different factors/stressors, expresses itself differently in different people and has varying solutions according to the different personalities. There is no single technique or way to deal with it, and the best way to overcome it quickly (for it will generally fix itself given time and rest) is to know yourself and to test different ways to alleviate stress and motivate yourself to work. For example, you mention editing as a way to ‘solve it,’ sometimes and for some people it works, but for me personally editing worsens it. Still you are on to something in this particular example, for changing type of work or work environment indeed aids your brain switch out of the stressful state by focusing on other activities. And of course, there’s always rest, the ultimate solution to any stress given you have the time and ability to relax. Finally, writer's block is not being lazy, and saying the two overlap means you haven't experienced or thought about it sufficiently.
Again, writing block is a highly subjective issue and cannot be evaluated or solved in a singular objective way.
PS: As for matured writers able to put everything down from the first try with little to no mistakes, that’s just wrong. The only difference you get between a beginner and a professional, is a larger vocabulary, more experience with moulding your words and perhaps, and most importantly, ability to plan and plot. Where younger writers stumble most is not having sufficiently thought about their story before actually writing it, and from there you get most of the “unfixable” mistakes.
PPS: You’ve got typos. Proofread.
I hope that I didn't rub you the wrong way. 
I hope that I didn't rub you the wrong way. 
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