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writer's block is caused by little or no inspiration. Wrong! That is a serious cause, of course, but the worst sort of writer's block is caused by the self-imposed demand for perfection and the desire to do yourself one better. Writers especially get into this quicksand when they think what they write has to be, like a Martha Stewart party, absolutely perfect. No, that's what drafts are for, that's what the reading public is for, and a writer is often not the best judge of his or her own work.

Harper Lee, who wrote the best-selling "To Kill a Mockingbird," fell victim to this aspect of the disease. Having turned out what many people regarded as a Great American Novel, having it turned into a film featuring what many people regard as Gregory Peck's greatest performance, so on, so forth . . . she froze. She started another novel, and couldn't finish it. She labored over sentences, words, even punctuation, and never got more than a few chapters semi-completed. She couldn't compete with herself, and destroyed the manuscript. Ms. Lee forgot one of the premier rules that every writer should keep in his or her head: Harlan Ellison's "Ninety-nine percent of everything is crap."

Reread the sentence with which I began this essay. I remembered that some Roman or other said something about the need of a writer to write, but I couldn't remember which one. The temptation was to stop, do research, find the exact quote, unearth the Latin original, do a new translation, then start rereading the poetry of Catullus. Right. Guess how much writing I would have gotten done.

I don't completely agree with Mr. Ellison, and I find his writing pompous and self-righteous . . . but he can write, regardless what his own opinion of his own writing is (and I think he was referring to other people's efforts, judging by the territorial imperative he exhibited a few years ago when someone pirated his presumably ninety-nine percent crap writing). The point is that, don't get caught in the search for perfection. Let your readers decide whether or not it's good. If not, work on it. If they do judge it good, do it again, and work in some improvements, knowing all the while that you're not going to be perfect. You'll find yourself getting better with every word you write.

As a bonus, the more you write, regardless how good or bad it is, the more you find to write about. Inspiration becomes no problem at all. Professional writers are often asked, "Where do you get all your ideas?" The more misanthropic sort sneer and chase the questioner away. The friendlier sort and those more attuned to keeping the public happy and buying their books, modestly smile and say something to the effect that, "It just sort of comes to me." The extremely honest ones will throw up their hands and exclaim in despair, "What do you mean, where do I get all my ideas? The real question is how the heck do I find the time to write down all the ideas I have? They don't stop! Why am I wasting my time talking to you when I could be writing?"

If you want an immediate "cure" for writer's block (again, remember that the writing disease itself is incurable), join an organization like Helium. As you rate, you'll find yourself with an opinion on at least one of the topics. When that happens (as was the case with this piece), start writing. Could you do it better if you put more work into it, and weren't in the middle of rating? Of course. That's not the point. The cure and preventive for writer's block is not (necessarily) to write well, but to write at all.

Learn more about this author, Michael Greaney.
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