People often ask about Writer’s Block. I’m sure it does exist, but (contentious this) I feel it’s a little like claiming to have double pneumonia when actually you have a head-cold.
Writing is a job, not an indulgence.
Of course there are days – weeks even, when you’re not in the mood.  However, you have to perform. There are times when it’s very easy to veer away from actually WRITING THE DAMNED THING to ruminate instead on “where the plot’s going” or to re-read ad nauseum what you’ve already written and fiddle constantly with adjectives and semi-colons.  Or to tell yourself you can’t possibly write because ‘the muse has not alighted’.  The muse?  What – some little good fairy who floats down and sits on top of your screen sprinkling magic glitter at you?Sometimes, I sit at my laptop, staring vacantly, wishing I had a ‘normal’ job which entailed filing, or phonecalls or general fannying about…  Sometimes I feel so TIRED, tired enough to put my head down on the library table even if the people around me think I’m a loon.  Sometimes, I desperately want to write – I know it’s all stored up somewhere in my head – but I can’t access it.  At such times, I ignore the little voice that says bugger it!  shut down for the day!  go to Brent Cross shopping centre!  go to the cafe!  you know you want to!  Instead, I simply place my fingers on the home-keys and I type a single letter.  Then another.  Then another.  Then I’ll look at the screen and perhaps I’ve written ‘the’ or ‘and’ or ‘she’.  And then I’ll start another word.  I’ll squeeze them out of me.  Soon enough there’s a sentence.  Then a paragraph.  Half a chapter.  A little more.  Against the odds – a good day’s work.
Don’t despair – and don’t provide yourself with excuses.

Tags | Advice