Anatomy of a writer's block

Why getting stuck can be a generative part of writing, even if it doesn’t feel that way.

Hello writing friends Chris here,

I’ve been thinking a lot about why writers get stuck and how similar they are to the blocks faced by people working in other creative mediums - or even the blocks we face in life.

For example, if you’re a musician who’s creatively blocked your block renders you silent. Maybe the same goes for other innovators too - artists, chefs, scientists, and so on. It might seem like cold comfort but because writing is our creative medium, we still have a voice. And we frequently use it (more below). Perhaps this is why ‘writer's block’ is a thing in a way that ‘quilt maker’s block’ isn’t.¹

The idea of being blocked, of getting stuck inside the process rather than just facing an obstacle is something that the novelist Ruth Ozeki captures beautifully in her introduction to Stephen Nachmanovitch’s book Free Play:

“Any artist who engages seriously with a creative practice becomes intimately familiar with the tension between process and outcome. This limbo state is a place of deep uncertainty and not-knowing, what the poet Keats called ‘negative capability’ and what in Zen is called ‘beginner’s mind’. I think of it as a state of ‘generative tension’ where creativity happens, and in my experience, it is often not a pleasant or comfortable place to be—irritable, restless, risky, grasping, groundless, out of control are some of the descriptives that pop to mind. Nachmanovitch speaks of creativity as a harmonizing of opposite tensions, and artists must train themselves not only to tolerate this discomfort, but to relax inside it. Of course, for most of us, this is difficult, not to mention scary.”

- Ruth Ozeki

Being ‘inside’ a block makes sense to me, possibly because we are in one now. When you’re blocked, it’s not like you’re facing a barrier. Barriers are more certain; you can see the edges. It’s the lack of clarity and uncertainty that’s hard.

Faced with writing our new book, we’re going round in circles. Perhaps some of this circling is productive and beneficial - who knows? We read, rip up drafts, write a few sentences, outline the contents list, and read some more.

We’ve been circling for days (weeks!) trying to make progress. Some of this might even be productive, though it’s hard to say when you’re in it. One minute I’m revising drafts, the next I’m on a park bench having an existential crisis. But at least it’s generating some content for this newsletter, I think.

For me, writing blocks have certain phases or acts to them - although none of it is linear. As the writer Cathy Rentzenbrink says, “writing is a tug of war between desire and fear and therefore feels much more like a hazardous zigzagging.”²

Cathy was kind enough to give us this epigraph for the first chapter of our book ‘Written: How to Keep Writing and Build a Habit that Lasts’

At the moment, Bec and I are in the ‘all hope is lost’ end-of-act-two stage. Don’t worry, all hope is not lost - I know this - but when you’re in the block, it’s tough to have any perspective. Relaxing inside it feels like the last thing I should do, but it’s the only option we really have.

I’d love to know what writer’s block feels like for you and whether you experience similar feelings in other things you do in life - creatively or not.

In the end, writer’s block may be less of an obstacle and more a part of the zigzagging path toward creating something meaningful. It’s hard, but perhaps the discomfort is a signal that we’re exactly where we need to be.

Take care, Chris

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1. I’ve stolen this from Bec as it’s a point she often says. Namely, that writers have the monopoly on writing blocks - so much so that they own the phrase writers’ block. When writers get blocked, they use their skills as writers to explore that block publicly and are able to explore it most articulately.

2. Footnote from Bec: It was actually Cathy Rentzenbrink who recommended that I read Free Play - and when the book arrived Cathy was the front cover blurb, which made me feel that the blurbing industry has some credibility that books recommended in cover quotes are also recommended in person. Thank you Cathy!