by Algy Moncrieff

Created on: April 28, 2010

Writers will, like anyone else, have good days and bad days.  But as Philip Pullman, rightly I think, points out, we shouldn’t get too worked up about writer’s block:

“I don't believe in it. All writing is difficult. The most you can hope for is a day when it goes reasonably easily. Plumbers don't get plumber's block, and doctors don't get doctor's block; why should writers be the only profession that gives a special name to the difficulty of working, and then expects sympathy for it?”

Far better, I would say (partly perhaps because I’m British) is to knuckle down and get on with it.  However, unless you are one of those rare people who seem to have an iron will and can drive themselves unflinchingly to whatever end they choose, you may have to employ certain strategies to force yourself to keep writing on the bad days.  The good news is that even if you think your writing is rubbish on one day and amazing the next, chances are the difference is not particularly great.  Far more important than worrying about how good the writing is, is to just keep going.  Practice makes perfect. 

The following are a few strategies to force yourself to keep the flow going.

1. Nanowrimo: or National Novel Writing Month, this occurs in November and is (contrary to what the title suggests) an international effort by thousands of people to write 50,000 words of novel in 30 days.  Whilst this may strike you as insane, thousands of other people working towards the same goal provides a powerful incentive to keep writing every day for those thirty days, whatever else you’re trying to do.  At the start the required 1667 words a day are painful, but the pain recedes as you get better at focusing and getting the job done.  Depending on where I was in the story (i.e. how interesting that bit was) I found that I could write the 1667 words in between 1.5 and 2 hours normally.

2. Write about interesting stuff: whether you are novelling or writing articles, if you write about a topic that fascinates you then there will be no such thing as writer’s block.  The words will just flow.  And the more you do this, the more you will find yourself able to write comfortably about the less interesting topics as well.  Also, if you find yourself talking about something uninteresting, or writing a less interesting part of a novel, then think about how you can spice it up a bit – look at the problem

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