Episode 10: Run! It's Godzilla, It's King Kong, it's Writer's Block!
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Welcome to the Shy Girls Finish Last podcast. I'm Nicole Lathen, a certified shy Black girl. I hope you’ve had a restful day. Let’s get into it!
Hey ya'll, thank you for joining me. Today, I want to talk about the scary and looming figure of writer's block. It feels like a big monster hanging on our shoulder, ready to snatch our inspiration and creative flow. I'm here to tell you…there's no such thing as writer's block. This is Common Myths and Where to Find Them Part 4: Run! It's Godzilla, it's King Kong, it's Writer's Block!
Writer's block is the condition of being unable to think of what to write or how to proceed with writing. It plagues everyone, including me. There was a rough period about…two years ago where I was in the middle of planning a story. I had the idea fresh in my mind, I had the time, I had my computer on and the blinking cursor there mocking me. It was nothing but a blank page in front of me. There was nothing inherently scary about it, but it was daunting.
I had nothing.
I had no earthly clue how to start the piece, how to get from point A to point Z, or what the middle action would be. I had no tangible idea to work on. I didn't know where to start. I sat there for at least two hours just staring at the screen, mad at myself and mad at my brain.
The idea was good! I was all fired up to work on it, had been plotting it all day, and when I finally had the time, my brain just went blank. And I mean absolutely blank. I had nothing. And when I tried to force myself, every sentence I tried to start it with resulted in me deleting it and trying over again.
I got so mad I put off any other idea until I got this out of my system. I had to work on this piece and I wasn't moving on until I corralled my brain into cooperating. I forget how long it took me, perhaps a few weeks to a month of being mad at myself.
Here I am, a writer, unable to write. It sounds like an ironic joke, a little poke of fun from the cosmos. I couldn't figure out why. Why couldn't I write?
It wasn't fun. And that sounds too simple, right? Like I was excited for the piece, I was excited to work on it, but ultimately, it just wasn't fun. Nothing came to me because though the idea was good, it wasn't enough to spark more ideas. To build on the idea and keep me going to tell a story worth telling.
On top of that, there's this dangerous notion of constantly hustling. Writing is a business and it is a craft meant to be respected, but it's one of those weird things that you have to rest in order to keep going. Sounds a little backwards.
But in the previous episode, I mentioned how important resting is. You're not meant to grind 24/7. Part of being a writer is listening to your writer's instincts. If a story isn't coming to you, put it on the back burner.
Think of writing like a full, delicious meal. It has ingredients like words and sentences, themes, dialogue, etc. Not every meal is ready at the same time. Sometimes, meat like beef needs to spend longer in the stove in order to be more tender and fall off the bone. With each piece you create, you are creating a tiny delicious meal for you and readers to enjoy. So when a story isn't working, when you've hit a wall, when nothing is coming to you, that is your signal to stop, put the story on simmer, and go work on something else.
Your brain is a complicated tool. It needs fuel. It needs rest, food, and water to function correctly. So if you're constantly grinding, constantly turning the story over in your mind, your story can't cook. A watched pot never boils.
Your brain wants to create. You don't find yourself with this hobby for no reason. You don't feel called to draft a story, listen to random voices in your mind, for no reason. But it takes time to understand when to simmer, when to turn up the heat, or when to start over. You have to rest, you have to let your brain do what it wants to do. It's time to listen to your instincts and work with your brain, not against it.
When you encounter writer's block, that's your cue to stop and assess. Why can't you work on the next sentence? Why can't you make the story puzzle fit? Is it the idea, the characters, the situation? Play around with the ingredients. If you took one character away, does that spark something? Put the same characters and situation in a different location, does that spark? If nothing works, if you just can't think of anything, I know it's tough but put the piece away. Your brain is still working in the background. It's still looking for a way to connect the dots you did manage to plot.
Sometimes, it's not the piece itself. Sometimes, you have to look at external factors. You need to rest but also look at the world around you. You cannot create in chaos. You have bills piling up, dishes stacking up, the laundry needs to be done, work is kicking your butt, and any other external issue preventing you from writing. If your mind is chaotic, it's very hard to listen to your inner voice and your instincts.
I brought up the concept of the Tragic Writer in a previous episode. There's this myth that a writer has to suffer. That you have to be an alcoholic or addicted to some kind of drug, melancholy, locked away in a cave working on a piece until you emerge with something. Though it's true that you can edit a bad draft, not a nonexistent one, you do not have to suffer for the craft.
Life is short. Life feels long, it's a blessing to reach old age, but tragedy could strike at any moment. Why spend time obsessing over something that clearly isn't working? There's no proper way to write. There's no one track for being a successful writer. You have to write authentically and search for the fun wherever you can. You have to look at other writers and their journey. But it is not meant to be a one size fits all. You're a chef, adding flair to your story in only the way you can.
In order to get there, in order to Frankenstein your way to what works for you, you have to study. Because other writers are not our competition, you have access to a wealth of knowledge from all of them. When you read a great story, one that makes you sit back and admire the journey you just went on, go look for that writer's socials or website!
Nine times out of ten, they will have a blog of their own or their social media is where they document their journey. You will find that a lot of them prioritize rest, will post about different hobbies they have, nature hikes, or whatever else. They also want to share their journey with you. A lot of them have their own podcasts, blog posts, or Youtube videos where they document their process.
Writing is one of the few professions where the gap between creator and consumer is very narrow. Writers don't become celebrities in the same way influencers or actors do. Unless you take the time to look them up or you may see a photo in the back of the book, as far as I'm aware, no one is stopping a writer on the street. There's book signings of course, but again, a lot of that is on the reader.
Writers are, by design, approachable. They share their socials, they engage with readers, they have events where you can meet and talk to them and tell them how much you loved their work. We want to talk to readers. We want feedback. We want to know that our words meant something. That it reached people out there going through issues and we entertained them for a little bit.
Soak up that knowledge. Look to what another writer is doing and how they're doing it.
I recently watched an interview with John Grisham, author of gritty court drama type books. In it, he explained how he never begins work on a new novel until he's understood or written the ending. He's rich, so he's able to lock himself away, free from TV or internet. He wakes up early in the day, sits down to write for a few hours, and then go plays golf for the rest of the day. Doesn't sound like a bad schedule.
Walter Mosely, author of gritty private investigator novels, typically wakes up at 5 or 6am and writes for three hours. His goal is to write one thousand words. Not one thousand perfect words, but a thousand. The next day, he re-reads the thousand words from yesterday and then writes another thousand. That's discipline.
I briefly had access to Masterclass and I watched N.K. Jemisin's class. She writes epic, ground-shaking fantasy and sci-fi novels and I highly recommend her work. In her class, she talked about worldbuilding. She starts on a macro level. What type of world do her novels take place in? If it's fantasy, she talks about the overrall structure of the world. How many land masses are there? How many islands? How does the climate affect the people who live there? Then she goes micro. Where in this world are her characters from? How does moving in and around the space affect the story? That's a level of detail where ninety percent of it will never make it into the story. But because she's done the work, her stories feel lived in.
Each of these writers, whether or not I've read from them, have invaluable advice to give. They give it freely because they know that there's no such thing as competition in this business. Giving advice takes nothing away from them. They are a chef, a master of the kitchen cooking up delicious tales for us to consume and love on.
Sometimes, writer's block is a lack of inspiration. While you should not focus entirely on inspiration, because it will lead to laziness like "well, I'm not inspired so I won't write", inspiration is just another way of saying a story spark. It's that burst of creativity and excitement to work on a piece and see it through to the end.
You have to touch grass. You have to get out of your head. Go for a walk, indulge a different hobby, read, study, or work on a different project. So many of us want to work and work and wait for divine intervention. Some of us want to go after inspiration with a hammer and force it to comply. Some of us want to rage and kick something because the story isn't working.
You have to get out of your head.
I know I sound like a broken record but it's something that I hope sticks in your mind. I wish someone had told me this when I was first starting out writing. I thought I had to wait for inspiration to write. Or suffer through a moody period in order to get that perfect spark. But perfection doesn't exist. There's no such thing as the perfect story, the perfect words, or the perfect chair or table or candle.
You will have down days. You will have days where you don't feel like writing. While I was writing With These Words, there were days where the nerves got so bad I couldn't write. So I didn't. I didn't work on it that day. And while popular advice is to write every day, for that novel, I couldn't write every day. I had to take breaks. I had to let the story come to me. I had to listen to my brain. If my nerves were bad, it was probably because I was putting too much pressure on myself and not focusing on the fun.
Because of that, I still hit my word count goals. I still watched as my word count grew and I reached the end of my outline. Reached the end of my book. I looked up one day and boom, here was a novel I needed and wanted to write. Here was a story that I will revisit until I'm old and my memory is worse. Here was a story that I'm over the moon to share with all of you.
Before we wrap up, I invite you to join me. In your journal, write about the last time you had writer's block and what was going on during that time. If you currently have it, write about your frustrations about not being able to write. Why is writing this story so important to you? What other things can you do to combat it? Look up your favorite author and write down a piece of advice they've given about their process or routine. Examine your own routine and maybe try theirs for a little while. I'll post my answer on my Instagram.
See you next time for Common Myths and Where to Find Them Part 5: Your Voice is a Flex, So Speak Up! Every writer has an Author's Voice, but how do we recognize it? And remember, Black girls deserve to be seen.