Writer’s Block
So Many Kinds and Reasons…
So many reasons why writers are either stopped or have trouble writing. That all falls into a general pool called “Writer’s Block.”
Now many of you know, I have hated the term “Writer’s Block” because it so feels like a made-up thing to easily identify what could be a different major problem, or a number of minor ones. And I have worked for decades now on helping writers get past reasons they are not writing without giving it a name.
And so has Kris.
But this last year or so Kris has finally got me past my hatred of the term and we have been talking and listing and watching so many writers struggle with what could be called a form of writer’s block. One form or another.
And every time Kris and I talk about it, we come up with even more things that could fall under this term that just stop or slow down writers.
I have seen writers claim they want to write more in a year (even sign up for a challenge) and then just don’t. A form of writer’s block.
Or writers frozen in fear.
Or writers like Dave Farland and Algis Budrys and Damon Knight who let their knowledge base get so large about writing, it froze them up. (I personally have been working against this one for years, so far with great success.)
I talk about a form of writer’s block when I talk about “Making writing important” can freeze you up.
Or making writing work in the wrong way.
Or getting in a hurry.
Or critical voice not allowing you to finish anything.
And so on and so on and so on.
So Kris and I have figured out a way to finally teach helping writers recognize and fix writer’s block now that I got my issues with the term out of the way. Six different month-long classes, four weeks each, on specific areas. Assignments and a story assignment at the end of each month.
The entire thing will build from month to month and when you are finished with all six classes, you will have FREEDOM FROM WRITER’S BLOCK which is what we are thinking of calling it.
You will be at the level of a professional on this who knows how to deal with all the issues that stop them, which is why long-term pros don’t have these issues. They have already worked through them all.
The classes will be on Teachable, so the Lifetime Everything Subscribers can take it. (I will ask for sign-ups even from Everything Subscribers if we decide to start this so we don’t run into the last issue.)
It will be possible to get all six months at a discount or subscribe at a monthly rate. Again the classes will build on each other from month to month. Each month does not really stand alone, but you can catch up if you get behind, or miss an few assignments. And we will skip December for the holiday if we decide to do this.
We think it might be one of the most important things we teach. If nothing else, it will be fun. But we have not decided yet. Stay tuned if interested.
And speaking of fun, we will have fun merchandise with this class along the way.
33 Comments
Heather H.
Staying tuned.
Clear segment without static on radio dial,
no black and grey fuzz on my TV channel.
Youv’e got reception.
Vincent Zandri
I actually have the opposite problem where I feel like the good Lord won’t grant me enough heart beats to get all the stories I want to tell on paper. I’ve always been that way and it drove my writing professors bat shit crazy. My publishers and agent too. In that sense I had no choice but to become an indie…
Kerridwen Mangala McNamara
That’s where I am.
Mark Kuhn
This sounds interesting. One of my problems is losing interest in the story I’m writing. It’s unknown to me if any kind of fear causes that. I have more unfinished stories on a thumb drive than I can count.
dwsmith
All critical voice issues, Mark. As Heinlein said so clearly, Rule #2… Finish what you write.”
Or as I have often said, “Takes more courage to finish something and put it out than quit and walk away.”
Another way of saying Nina Kiriki Hoffman’s rule that she and I lived by… “Dare to be bad.”
Brad D. Sibbersen
Late to this thread, but one thing that helps me when I feel myself losing interest in a story is giving the story permission to be ridiculous. Why not? If you feel like you aren’t going to finish it anyway, just run wild and have a dinosaur show up, or the main character inexplicably vanishes, or, or, or… Ridiculous, weird, or even “bad” (note quotes), but finished, beats unfinished any day. And believe me, there’s a better than average chance someone is really going to like it BECAUSE it’s so unusual.
Linda Niehoff
This sounds amazing.
Kristi N.
I’ve been struggling with getting the words down, struggling to get to a consistent point where I can start/finish the Great Novel Challenge I purchased 2 years ago. I’m at 200 words/day. I love to write, I love to tell the stories, I love to publish, and I love to watch my catalog grow. But I’m stuck at 200 words/day. It’s like I sit down, fire up the keyboard, open the app, start typing…and run out of strength. I feel like a 90 year old person who uses a wheelchair but expects to get out of it and run a 5K. I’ve tried sprints, tried starting something new, tried something meant to be a reader magnet, tried focusing on the publishing side, tried rewarding myself for each milestone, tried taking classes to improve craft, and nothing. The only thing that seems to be working is switching between stories–two hundred on this one, two hundred on that one, two hundred on another. It’s my first week trying it, but so far I’m up to 4K for the week, which is a win.
But, yeah…I’ve never had this depth of trouble before, and I wish I could break through the brick and plaster wall to find my groove with that again.
dwsmith
Kristi, this series of classes will be spot on for you in so many ways. Just thought I would point out that your post is over 200 words. How fast did you write that and how long did it take? Should be doing the same for fiction, but of course, if you said, “But fiction is special…” that’s where the problem is.
Leah Cutter
I’m really glad you’re doing this. I’ve never had writers block, but I have had what I call project block. I very occasionally get blocked on whatever it is that I’m currently writing. As soon as I move to something else, I can write again. Generally go back and finish whatever the first project is later, once I figure out what was stopping me.
The only times I’ve really had issues writing were when I’ve been sick, like with chronic migraine (12-15 per month for a couple years) or other health issues. Or like recently when I had so much stress providing care giving for my niece. Life rolls, basically.
So while I don’t need a class like this, I’m still really glad you’re doing it.
dwsmith
Leah, after fifty years, I have discovered that I would not need a class like this right up until the moment I needed it. And just in the last three years I have learned a lot about things we are going to go over in the class. Sure, stress, health issues, money pressure, and so on all cause forms of stopping us from writing. But often there is so much more involved we don’t see or ignore.
And anyone following Kris’s challenge right now can watch every day how she is fighting elements of this. Some days winning, some not.
And bummer you let project block stop you from staying in the creative flow on projects.
Granted, professionals like yourself and me and Kris have figured out some ways around this. Those ways and a ton more are what this class will be all about to recognize the stop when it happens for whatever reason and get back to writing sooner rather than later or not at all.
So I am just objecting with the saying you don’t need this class. You should say “You don’t need it now because my systems at the moment work well enough for what I want.” As I learned, no one needs this class until the moment they do. The fun with dealing with Writer’s Block.
Kristi N.
Good point. It hasn’t been the first 200 that I have a problem with, but the third/ninth/thirtieth 200. I do 5 minute sprints on the 200s, and that has worked in the past. I try hard to make the story enjoyable for me–immerse myself in the world, describe what is around the character and how they experience the story. It’s just that the last few years have been like wading through chest deep snow. I know I’ll eventually break out into the clear ground, but it’s a tough slog.
dwsmith
When writing and making up stuff isn’t fun, there is a basic rule… You are doing it wrong.
Sounds like a ton of critical voice slowing you down.
Harvey Stanbrough
Kristi, if I may, I’ve been where you are now. As you already know, it doesn’t have to be “like wading through chest deep snow.”
When you “try hard to make the story enjoyable for me–immerse myself in the world, describe what is around the character and how they experience the story,” that’s all critical voice. Only the critical voice “tries hard.”
Just let go and remind yourself, aloud if necessary, to write whatever the character gives you. They, not you, are actually living the story.
I see my role as the characters’ recorder. Each day I pull open a curtain or open a door on the characters’ story world, drop into the trenches, and race through the story with them, trying to keep up. Then I cycle back after each session and let them add whatever I missed.
Just thought I’d mention it. Certainly works for me.
Steve Perry
I’ve always thought the term “writer’s block” meant that someone wanted to write, but could not turn the tap on.
Assorted reasons why, of course, some of them more easily addressed than others. For me, there have been plenty of times I didn’t feel like working, or I was loath to work on a chapter that was eating my vegetables and not exciting, or I had other things on my plate that simply did not allow the time to sit; however, I never considered these writer’s block. If I had to time to sit and work, I could write something. If a scene was not calling to me, I could skip it and write a scene four chapters ahead. I could switch from one novel to a different one.I could let that short story nagging at me out of the cage, write that, and get back to the book later.
All of which I expect you’ll cover in your classes, and more.
But — knock on wood — I’ve never had what I thought was writer’s block. If I had the time and place, something would flow. Sometimes it might be muddy and turgid, but it was there.
Emilia
I’m excited and looking forwards to the classes. I have fear and making writing important problems, especially with assignments. I’ve missed a few over the years because “that can’t be any good” or “you can’t send that to a professional editor/writer” type of fears.
dwsmith
You do know, Emilia, that it makes editors mad when you presume to do their job for them. Nothing else really bothers them except writers thinking they know better than the editor what the editor will want.
Emilia
I know, it helps deal with the fear.
I’ve had a similar experience while reading another writer’s story, where I thought it was hilarious and if it had been for sale I would’ve bough it. I don’t think the writer released the story.
Nathan Haines
Ironically, I basically never have trouble with the writing assignments. (The “do research” assignments sometimes, on the other hand…)
It was because “just start a scene/story opening and stop after 450 was fun. It wasn’t important. I didn’t even have to keep writing after that. I could just practice what I’ve learned and have fun! That’s super easy, unlike sitting down to write a “real” story.
You’ve probably taken enough of Dean’s classes to realize this is where the lightbulb turned on…
dwsmith
Yup, writing a “real” story is a quick way to writing nothing. Thanks, Nathan.
E. R. Paskey
Frankly, this sounds amazing. I am definitely interested.
I have been through the Attitude and Killing Critical Choice workshops a couple of times, along with the popup about Fear. They’ve helped me a lot when it comes to getting over perfectionism and fear of failure, but to be able to dive even deeper into how to deal with this stuff better would be fantastic.
As they say, forewarned is forearmed.
Deb Miller
Hope you do this, Dean. Even though I say my life rolls have screwed up my writing, I know that’s an excuse. Kris (and you) continued to write through life rolls that were the same or worse than mine. So, I need to get past this. Do Lifetime Workshop Subcribers get this as well as Lifetime Everyhthing?
dwsmith
Nope, these will be an animal on their own. Not standard workshops. Six month of four weeks each month. So Everything Subscribers get it.
However someone suggested we put only the Everything Subscription back on sale when we start these. Thinking about that.
Charlotte
Sounds great. I’m really curious about what you can do when challenges don’t work anymore. Your post got me thinking about this.
dwsmith
Challenges are only one way of helping you get going at certain times. They flat don’t work most of the time for some, for others they work depending on the circumstances. They are a superficial way to help with a problem in the writing, but they do work when they work.
Harvey Stanbrough
Dean, I think this is a great idea. Back in the day (around 10 years ago) you helped me with so-called writer’s block, WITD, and Heinlein’s Rules. Without that I wouldn’t be the prolific professional writer I am today. Currently on track to write 24 novels this year alone, plus a short story every week. Thank you.
Folks, if Dean and Kris pull the trigger on these classes, Take Them.
dwsmith
Thanks, Harvey. But we take no credit, you did all the work and had all the fun of writing. Fantastic on the novel count. So cool. I have not tried that challenge yet… hmmmmmm
Harvey Stanbrough
I set the goal when I seemed to be turning out a novel every 14 days. I’ve slowed a bit (every novel writes diffferently) with some coming in a 16 or 17 days and life stuff, but still reaching for it. Only halfway there at present but will probably wrap one today or tomorrow. Onward! (grin)
Kat
I’d be very interested in this class, Dean, in a forewarned is forearmed kind of way. I’ve never really had what people call Writer’s Block, but I burned out hard some years ago and couldn’t write for a bit. Coming back from that involved a lot of moments when Writer’s Block type issues could have stepped in. And that experience taught me to never say never! So learning techniques before I need them sounds like a great idea.
dwsmith
Kat, burnout is a form of writer’s block. And burnout comes from a hundred different directions at writers.
James Palmer
Great idea, Dean. I think one of the issues with so-called writer’s block is that there are so many different things that can cause it.
I had a major block during 2020. My mother died from a stroke right as the pandemic was getting going, the world was a dumpster fire, and I’d had a big falling out with a coworker. I wanted to write and had time to write, I just couldn’t. Yet still during that time I managed to write a single short story that got honorable mention in the 3rd quarter 2023 Writers of the Future Contest, so it can be overcome, and some good work can come out of it.
Ken Hughes
Good to see a course like this. I’ve always hated the idea of writer’s block, because the *idea* takes all the different solvable things that could be in the way and says “No need to understand anything, you’re Just Blocked.”
That’s not a solution, it’s a shorthand for explaining to non-writers that doesn’t help either person. Pros need to do better.
Kate Pavelle
My big sin is that I get too externally oriented. I used to be more hyper-vigilant, but I still spend too much of my writing time watching a war in Europe. Yes, it’s near where I was born and raised. Yes, the technological changes are like watching a sci-fi in real life. But that doesn’t mean I have to know the terrain and local place names and who is commanding which unit. Sure, our house having been being sniped at by the same Big Bad when I was three still gives me an ax to grind, but come on. (It was a dramatic time for sure.) Just maybe writing BEFORE I check what happened overnight would help! Back then, all those people wanted free press. Now that I have free press those people fought for half a century ago and can write whatever I want fiction-wise, I should grab onto it and use it.
Moth to flame.