Do You Have Writer's Block––Or Are You Depressed?
5 Aug
If you handle the real problem, you’ll get the result. Writer’s block is not about laziness or lack of discipline.
Years ago, I started writing and continued for, maybe, nine or ten years. I wrote flat out every day, quitting only when my shoulders wouldn’t move. I was in a couple of writing groups, working with a book consultant and editor. It was really swell.
After all this fun and inspiration and wonderful success . . . I fluffed entirely. People were asking for Numenon’s sequel. Getting pretty huffy, in fact. The sequel was written! It’s on my hard drive! All I had to do was rewrite a 1,300 page, 250,000 word behemoth about God and good and evil and existential anxiety (mine) and a bunch of people from Silicon Valley and American Indians into something people would buy.
I couldn’t. Being quick on the uptake, I realized, “This is writer’s block.” I used writing therapy to address this, producing one pretty good blog article about the dismal block, and one based on the yogic concept of surrender and letting things bottom out naturally. Then I realized I was depressed. Treating my depression was the secret to being free of the dreaded block.
