My entire perspective on "writer's block" shifted after surreptitiously stumbling on Jerry Weinberg's book "The fieldstone method". I very rarely now start with a blank page and very rarely beat myself up for "writer's block".
In a nutshell, the book describes how the act of writing can be broken down into many stages: sometimes you are collecting "fieldstones" (i.e. research), sometimes you editing, and sometimes you are synthesizing. Regardless, there's always something to do that moves you forward.
For me, the major problem that the fieldstone method solves is that inspiration is lumpy. The inspiration faucet often doesn't just turn on when you need it to.
By collecting fieldstones (little ideas) and polishing/rewriting over time whenever one feels strongly about a particular subject, one is able to draw on an existing collection of partially-written drafts on diverse topics that can be deployed quickly. Or combine several similar ideas and deploy a more polished/comprehensive treatment of a subject than would be possible with an on-the-spot piece.
It also accounts for the fact that our interests shift. I don't know about others but I often get into phases where I become intensely interested in a subject, research it to heck until the interest peters out. I was once really interested in the topic of alleviating loneliness because I was profoundly affected by it. I'd written many fieldstones on the topic, and contemplated it a lot. If I were given a task to write about loneliness right now, I'd probably struggle because I'm no longer as intimate with (nor as interested in) the subject as I once was, but with fieldstones I can draw on all the (partial) analyses I'd done when I was in that phase.
The fieldstone method is more than just about taking notes -- it's about brewing them over time based on one's feelings.
I don't disagree. But I'd offer the caveat that research (or "research") can end up being a very power form of procrastination--all the more so because it's ostensibly connected to your eventual goal.
But, as I say, I agree in general and it's one reason I like to start out in Scrivener for biggest projects. It lets me pull in research and start working on some bite-sized chunks related to that research (or other material) rather than trying to craft some grand narrative starting from a blank sheet. (The narrative hook can be the hardest thing to come up with so it may very well not be what you want to start with. (You'll probably throw it out anyway.)
Gerald Weinberg keeps popping up in a lot of recommended reading lists. Currently reading "Are your lights on?" and "Secrets of Consulting". He seems to be a prolific author, and seemingly unknown. By cover art on his books, I assume he self-publishes his books.
I wouldn't describe Gerald Weinberg as "seemingly unknown". He wrote "The Psychology of Computer Programming" which I believe was very influential in its day (it was published in 1985).
Alot of his books were published by Dorset in the 80s. He passed away in 2018. So I'm assuming this is his estate and family re-releasing the books. I'm not sure if the Indie covers are an intentional branding approach or an indication that it's the efforts of one family member.
Absolutely fantastic books by they way.I still recommend Secrets of Consulting to every CS graduate I meet.
This is a really good point and thank you for the link.
I find that I have more stress from concern about whether the writing really is moving forward even when I'm putting words on the page - i.e. will the words I'm writing 'work' - than from writers block. Always at the back of my mind is will these words make the work less cohesive - am I moving backwards?
But in general we manage what we measure and we normally have a word count but no easy way to measure whether a work is really coming together.
I do "versioning" of pieces sometimes when I'm concerned about that. I get to a particular point, decide I like some of what I've said "but it could be better" and copy and paste the entire thing into a new document and edit that, leaving the old version intact just in case I ultimately decide "God, what shite! What on earth was I even thinking???"
Almost too minor to bring up, but my brain won't let go. In your first sentence, was "surreptitiously stumbling upon" the book meant to happen "serendipitously" instead?
Sometimes, you're just exhausted, have too much going on in life and need to take care of yourself. Your mind and body aren't separate. If you are ill, not getting enough sleep, recently had a death in the family, etc, you may just have "nothing to say" until some of that is resolved.
Other times, your relationship to your audience has changed. Maybe you/your life changed and that changes your relationship to everything else. Maybe your audience grew and you are getting different feedback than what you used to get or things went places you didn't expect. Now you need time to digest that info and decide how best to adjust what you are doing.
Sometimes "taking a break" isn't really a break. Sometimes it's working hard on something like one of the two above issues so your writing will be better.
Very much agree with this. Taking a pause from writing to deal with personal life or any other issues doesn't mean you are not a good enough writer. We are all human. We all need a pause.
This goes for all kinds of profession. Health before wealth (or passion), I say.
I find that the “two minute rule” works pretty well.
Whatever you want to do, set a timer for two minutes. Hit start and do that thing for two minutes and really beleive that after two minutes you can stop.
Once you get going you rarely stop after two minutes. But telling your brain only twos minutes, and let’s see what happens, kind of let’s your brain give you two minutes to focus.
Oh, and go write without a computer. Get a pen and paper and leave ur phone on your desk - go somewhere else. You get to sit there and either write or do nothing. That tends to help too.
Yes! That's the reason we created the Call of Writing app [0]. You can set timer ranging from 1 minute to 60 minutes or 75 words to 1500 words. You can't pause until the end. It's much like (and inspired) the Most Dangerous Writing App. It's available on Web [0], iOS [1] and Android [2].
I only write about things I have intimate knowledge of. Writing about anything I don't have a deep interest in feels forced and contrived. I follow this saying when writing:
I don't write because I want something to say, I write because I have something to say
It depends what you're doing with your writing. Sometimes you just need to get words down on a page because it's your job even if it's not a topic you necessarily feel super-comfortable with or think you have great insights to offer. And, in fact, I find relatively little correlation between my "passion" for a particular topic and the popularity of the piece.
I have tried this and it really works. It's a very messy brain dump but you get it there. Once the words are on the page, you can eventually make sense of them, somehow.
Claim: Writer's block is just a challenge that any profession or activity would face - getting stuck. I get stuck writing software or learning piano or vacuuming my house. Convince me otherwise please. I want to learn what's different about this "Writer's block" that people keep talking about.
To some degree, I think the idea of "writer's block" helps perpetuate the issue. That's not to say people never get genuinely stuck, but we have this term -- writer's block -- to explain what is going on and we have all kinds of literature that affirms that it is something special, it is mystifying and has no known cause, etc. It helps enshrine it and helps instruct people to get wrapped around the axle about it and helps entrench the issue.
I blog and I do freelance writing. I sometimes can't manage to write. I never label it "writer's block." I always have other explanations, such as lack of sleep or health issues. And it never becomes anything I'm anxious about or stuck on the idea of and I never wrestle with it in the way other people talk about.
But I did a lot of therapy when I was younger, so I'm abundantly familiar with how and why I sometimes get what I think of as "The blue screen of death" for some issues. There are issues I have a history of getting really horribly stuck on in a way where trying desperately to fix it is part of the problem, so I'm familiar with that pattern and I just don't let it happen to my writing process.
There's nothing about my writing process that merits getting that stuck in my mind. There's nothing about writing that merits angsting like that and making it into some big, huge deal that, at the moment, the words just won't come. I shrug. I do something else. The words will come again later. No big.
To answer that, you need to answer whether writing is any different from coding, vacuuming, or learning piano.
I code, and write, myself. I have also gotten stuck while coding (and writing). But I have never experienced "coder's block" with the same intensity and stubbornness as a "writer's block".
Working on solving writer’s block at copy.ai using GPT-3. We’ll be launching tools specifically for writers soon. Some of our users have already mentioned to us that our current tools solved their writers block. I suspect we might be underestimating the impact of a huge stochastic language model on human communication.
In a nutshell, the book describes how the act of writing can be broken down into many stages: sometimes you are collecting "fieldstones" (i.e. research), sometimes you editing, and sometimes you are synthesizing. Regardless, there's always something to do that moves you forward.
* Field stone method - https://geraldmweinberg.com/Site/On_Writing.html