Those of you who have seen that the Writer’s Block book came out a couple of weeks ago will likely also have seen that I haven’t released a podcast episode in a while, so I’m going to do a prep post for the FINAL episode of the Writer’s Block series.
First, I have to tell you, it’s been really interesting to release this book.
When I was doing coaching calls, and seeing writer’s block literally everywhere. It was so much like when I was seeing the burnout. So I figured, if the burnout book was so helpful, then a writer’s block book would be SO helpful.
And while the book has been getting good responses from the people who’ve read it, there’s been an interesting phenomenon with the ads. No matter what I do, they will not deliver. I mean. None of them. It’s been fascinating.
As I was discussing this phenomenon with Terry, he made a comment that made sense of everything I’d been seeing with regards to this book and this podcast series. I mean, it made sense of everything.
He said, “Writer’s block is the impotence of the writer’s life.”
Suddenly, everything made sense. After having been in a relationship with someone who suffered from ED, I recognized all the same signs. The surety of incompetence that required silence. The unwillingness to talk about or address the issues. The certainty that it would all just go away.
Writer’s block is to writers what ED is to men.
And when I say “everything made sense,” I mean everything. There weren’t search terms for writer’s block. There weren’t any well-known books with that phrase in the title. It made me wonder if the publishers knew writers better than I did.
But it’s been fascinating, recalling this analogy to other writers, because they sort of snicker and then say, “yeah, no one likes talking about writer’s block.”
The worst part is, I saw the signs. Whenever I’d have a coaching call with someone and they were in writer’s block, they would insist (usually pretty specifically) that it wasn’t writer’s block. It couldn’t be. They didn’t get writer’s block, they said.
Yet, here they were. Blocked. And we got them out. But still. Would they have taken a class called “Get Out Of Writer’s Block” at the same rate they would have taken “Write Better-Faster”? I don’t think so.
Interestingly, that was one of the titles (and the original subtitle) of WBF. So, imagine what would have happened if I hadn’t been #Strategic enough to subconsciously know that writers didn’t want to talk about writer’s block. But of course, like all #Strategic thoughts, it was a while before the subconscious became conscious.
Still, it’s been a good lesson. It’s important for me to remember that I have to address the real issue, and not the “hot” topics. Because that’s what makes sales. Hot topics.
What I really want to do is to address the issues real writers are really having. It seems weird to say that, but I definitely had to square with that myself–I need to stop trying to be something I’m not. In general, I am a person who talks to the individuals in front of me and works with the issues they’re having, whatever those issues are.
That sometimes means I’m going to talk about things that won’t be what the “popular” books are about. I’m not willing to say, “you’ll make 200% more money” because I can’t promise I can do that. But I can promise that every person I sit with, coaching, will get everything I can give them to get them what they need.
I’ve found that, while writers don’t want to take a “class” or buy a “book” on writer’s block (en masse, that is), there are individuals who need the information, so I’m going to keep putting it out there.
That being said, it’s harder for me to do these Quitcasts when I feel like they’re falling on deaf ears, so I appreciate all of you who have commented on these episodes (and on these posts) that what we’ve done has been helpful. I do appreciate that quite a bit.
So, without further ado, let’s talk about the myths of writer’s block I want to address in the podcast.
The first, obviously, is that it doesn’t exist (which we’ve covered in-depth in the first two episodes).
The second myth I’ll cover is the myth of the highway and the exits.
Most writers think that “word one” on the manuscript is the “start” of the novel, and “the end” is the “end” of the novel. But that’s not the case. The words, like any other product of creation, have to come from somewhere. They aren’t spontaneously generated. So that means, the process of novel creation is more involved than we’ve thought. But how involved?
Imagine that your novel/screenplay/story is a highway. Mile marker #1 is the very first sliver of the idea, and mile marker #500 is hitting the publish/submit button.
What most of us want to believe is that the “miles” we travel from story conception to publishing are all words-on-page, and that anything which isn’t “words on the page” is an exit from the highway.
But in truth, some of those miles you drive in your writer’s car are thinking. Some are playing video games. Some are reading. Some are talking to your writer friends. If you don’t drive those miles, you can’t write the next mile of words. And if you try to jump ahead and write a mile of words when you really need to walk or talk or sleep, you’re not going to be able to do what you need to do on the miles to come. Or you might get stalled.
This is a major source of writer’s block.
Assuming that you have to “force” yourself to write, and that all the “other” stuff isn’t necessary to get the book done. But all of those miles need to be driven in order to make the story happen. So… thinking of the book creation process in terms of highways and exits can help us not get blocked when we need to do some “procrastinating” in order to write the next mile.
The third myth I’ll cover is the myth of the unlimited train yard.
Generally speaking, most writers have one thing in common: they have Thinking Strengths (not just “primarily”, but because we use our thinking to create books, the majority of writers have at least one Red Strength in their mix. Most have more than one…I’m not sure I’ve coached a writer yet who has none in their Top Ten, but now I’ll have to go look that stat up.) This means at least some of our time is going to be spent in our heads.
When you have Thinking Strengths, the easiest metaphor to use about how thought process pathways work is to think of a train yard with a bunch of train tracks. There are tracks in and out, and tracks for holding trains. But primarily, the train tracks that can be used to actively transport are fewer than the trains available to use them.
Imagine you have seven tracks that run in and out, but you have fourteen trains. That means, some trains have to wait in the “wings” before they can be on the “in and out” tracks. Your brains are like this. Especially when you have Intellection, Deliberative, Context, Discipline, Focus, or Learner (potentially Harmony as well, though I have less data on that one, mostly because we have fewer high Harmony writers).
If you fill three of your tracks with thoughts about home life (kids, spouse, significant other, friends’ lives), and three of those tracks with work (boss, conflict, salary, pressures, evaluations, etc.), then you have one track left for your novel. In order to have another track to “process” what’s going on in more of your book, you need to resolve some of the trains. Get them out of the yard.
Too many open loops mean that you’re going to have busy train tracks and there’s no time to think about the book. (Subconsciously and consciously.)
A lot of writers get blocked because there simply isn’t time to process what needs to happen in the book. All of the train tracks are full.
Knowing that you have to resolve some of the issues and “clear” some of the tracks for use can help when you need to unblock.
If you’ve read the book, you know there are more myths than this, but these are the big ones I want to cover in the podcast, I think. Any other thoughts about this, or about the close of the series?
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