A Block By Any Other Name

Rant alert. This post is a response of sorts on a blog post I read recently, written by an author whose work I admire, in which she discussed a blog post she’d recently read that had been written by an author whose work she admires.  

The subject of this entire nesting doll collection of posts is Writers’ Block. And if you’re thinking to yourself, “Oh, gawd, no. Not another one of those!” Then, you have my condolences because, yes, I’m afraid it is.

See, I’ve kind of lost patience with the idea that writer’s block isn’t a real thing, or that naming it somehow gives it more power than it would have otherwise. “Calling it a block makes it seem like something outside yourself over which you have no control,” we’re told. Which seems to me is likely exactly the situation in most cases.  

There are a whole lot of formerly prolific, professional, talented, more-than-moderately successful authors who are struggling right now—hell, I’m struggling right now—and it’s insulting to suggest that we haven’t all done our best to analyze the problem, that we haven’t all sought advice, or tried to correct whatever personal failings are contributing to the problem.

This is not a case of collective amnesia. We haven’t all suddenly forgotten how to write.  We didn’t just lose the skills we’ve honed over the course of writing multiple books. We aren’t any more paralyzed by doubt or a lack of confidence than we’ve always been. I don’t think the books themselves can be the issue either. Because, seriously, how likely is it that we’ve all found ourselves suddenly dealing with unworkable storylines, recalcitrant protagonists, and deeply flawed plots? Not very.  

And, even if that were the case, it’s not like we haven’t all written through these kinds of things before.

When so many of us are simultaneously complaining that our creative wells are running dry, I suspect that the problem lies (at least in part) with our common watershed—with the socio-political climate we find ourselves in, perhaps, or with the massive changes that have taken place within the industry; with new markets opening up and established publishers closing down; with the many, many unrelated-to-writing tasks that we are finding ourselves involved in as we attempt to re-home, or re-write, or re-release a good portion of our backlists; with all the rules that have changed.

There’s been a massive sea-change in the publishing industry lately (and with the world at large, I think) and I think a lot of us are having trouble finding our sea legs.

If I may be allowed to continue the water metaphor, then I think that, yes, Writers’ Block is a good term for the problem.  Our creative streams have gotten damned up somewhere along the way; and I’m not sure it matters where, or how, or by what. But, what I do know is that, if the problem is not something we can eliminate by altering our behavior, then adding guilt to the mix, is only going to make things worse.

  “There’s no such thing as plumber’s block,” we’re also told. And, no, I don’t suppose there is. But, on the other hand, I don’t see how that’s even an argument worth making. Creating a fictional world out of nothing is not AT ALL THE SAME as connecting a few pieces of pipe that already exist. Which is not to suggest that plumbing is not a useful, valuable—dare I say invaluable—skill. There’s no such thing as surgeon’s block, either. And yet no one’s ever suggested that a plumber shouldn’t unclog the toilet of someone he or she knows because they need to stay objective, that they need to maintain their emotional distance in order to be effective in their work.

I don’t really know what the answer is, but it seems that most of us who write do so because we have to, because there’s a need within us that must be expressed. So I have to believe that, sooner or later, that need will find a way. That our creative streams will overflow their banks and carve a new route around the block—or over it, or through it—and we’ll all be awash with juicy new stories once again.

Or, on the other hand, I may have forgotten how to write after all, because I think I’ve just taken that water metaphor way too far.

42 Questions For Writers

Do you ever find yourself presented with the opportunity to interview authors? Do you ever find yourself unable to come up with any questions that aren't run-of-the-mill, "Did you always want to be a writer?" style questions? Do you ever find yourself drawing a huge blank when it's your turn to blog and so you go through all your saved notes searching desperately for inspiration and run across a really long list of questions for authors?

Perhaps you haven't had any of these experiences, but in the off-chance that you do one day, I thought I would share this list of 42 questions that you may enjoy asking authors or answering yourself should it be your turn to blog and you're drawing a blank for various reasons.

Feel free, in the comments, to answer any of these questions yourself. Everybody pick one!

***

1. What do new acquaintances do when they find out you're an author? How do they usually find out?

2. Do you like booksignings, writers' conferences, and otherwise appearing in public as your author self?

3. How has your career or your writing day changed due to all the changes in the industry right now? Can you see your "job requirements" changing more in the next five or so years?

4. If you weren't a writer, what would you be besides wealthier and possessed of a great deal more free time? Oops, am I making not-writing sound very appealing? Okay, what would you be besides empty and depressed because you weren't telling lies for fun and profit?

5. Is writing your primary outlet for creativity or do you have others you'd like to share?

6. What's one very annoying thing about being an author?

7. What's the most appealing thing about a writing career that keeps you going back for more, time and again?

8. What's the biggest "outpouring" of writing you can remember--marathon writing sessions, etc--and how did you recover from your hyperproductivity? (Note: if you are always hyperproductive, skip this question, because I hate you.)

9. What was the most marked creative or writer's block you can remember having, and how you did you recover from your brain drought?

10. What do your family and friends think about your writing career?

11. Let's say you were going to be devoid of a computer, the internet or any type of word processor for a year, but you would have an ample supply of pens, pencils and paper. Would you keep writing?

12. If you would keep writing, what if you were also going to be devoid of research materials for that year? How would you write around that?

13. Let's say you wouldn't even have paper and... Ok, let's not say that. This is an interview, not a nightmare counselling session. Speaking of which, in your current WIP, what do you think your protagonists would have nightmares about and why?

14. What might your protagonists seek counselling about and why?

15. What author would you like to interview, and what would you ask him or her?

16. What's the strangest thing that has inspired a story idea in you? (The story doesn't have to be published yet...it can be still a story germ.)

17. What's the best or most interesting research you've ever done for your fiction?

18. Where's the most remote-from-you location you've set a story and what did you do to research that?

19. What television programs or movies would you say bear the most resemblance to the type of books you write?

20. What's one of your least favorite parts of writing a new story?

21. What's one of your most favorite parts of revising an existing story?

22. Of all the fictional worlds you've created, where would you most want to visit and why?

23a. Of all the fictional protagonists you've created, who would you most want to go on vacation with and why? 23b. What about if you had a lot of work to do around the house? 23c. And what about if you were flunking the maths?

24. What is your ideal writing environment?

25. What less than ideal writing environment do you have to settle for?

26. How many fistfights have you put in your stories?

27. How many stories have you written in which the world was saved?

28. And what's your current in-story body count?

29. If you were going to write a story set in your hometown, how would you cleverly disguise the people you know so nobody would sue you? Or maybe you shouldn't tell us that part...

30. If you were going to write or already have written "your" version of a fairy tale, what fairy tale would you choose and how would you juggle things around?

31. Weather extremes: where have they shown up in your books and how have you relied on your own experience to share them?

32. How have you used something from your childhood memories to bring something in one of your novels alive?

33. How many times have you managed to work cats into your novels? What about gnomes?

34. Let's say your next book is going to be entirely from the point of view of the protagonists' cat. How do you think your authorial "voice" might change?

35. Would you need more or less money up front if the book was going to be from the point of view of the dog? I mean, it would be a lot shorter that way, with much smaller words, and the butt-sniffing would inject some base humor, but still. There's a higher chance a book by or about a dog would be a literary let-down, so it would be a risk for your reputation. Thoughts?

36. What's on your TBR shelf?

37. What's for dinner?

38. Do you like any household chores at all? Which one do you most revile?

39. Do you like my hat?

40. What kind of hat are you wearing?

41. What kind of tool are you? (I am probably a monkey wrench. For obvious reasons.)

42. What's the meaning of life?

Come on...let's see if we can get all 42 q's answered! By someone other than me.

Jody Wallace
www.jodywallace.com * www.meankitty.com