Writer’s block is a thing and anybody who tells you otherwise is just lying. There are days when I get these joyous moments of creativity and the words just sort of ‘happen’ on the page. Looking back on what I’ve written, it’s like a stranger’s writing. And there are other days (MOST!) days, where I look in frustration at a blank screen, wondering where the vestige of talent I had at one point has gone.
It’s just so random, like I’m two different people: one a skilled writer, the other a human who has difficulty forming words.
This is especially true when writing a novel. This seemingly never-ending task seems to hang above my head like a rain cloud or a water balloon, about to explode everwhere. Basically, it’s really heavy-going. The way I break it up is to write one scene every week, and bring it to my writing class, the West London Writers’ Group run by playwright Lisa Evans. That way, it feels like homework – forcing me to break through the writer’s block and at least put SOMETHING on a page (even if it’s just a load of old rambling, which it invariably is). Just by applying this technique, somehow, I’ve made it (nearly) to the end of the first draft of a novel.
Even blogging, even THIS, as small as it is, can feel like an arduous task at times. That’s why I prefer editing over writing; editing is all about tearing something up to create something beautiful. Writing is much more complex: it’s about forming a path towards the beauty.
