Writer's Brick

Certainly there are many stories about writers and their “blocks”. Experienced and amateur, all scribblers at some time seem to experience some sort of wordage constipation. All writing stops. Writers are like bee hives- full of activity, and they’re conditioned to believe that they always have to produce honey. What good is a hive that produces no honey? It means you’re a failure. That you are broken and useless.

No one ever looks up facts about honey. I live in Canada where it can get mighty cold. The honey business is seasonal here. There are no black and white winter bees flying around looking for ice flowers. It helps to step back and look at the big picture once in a while. Honey is great, but everything is cyclical. All of us have cycles- physical, emotional, mental. Some people are wonderful- and then they have to step back and recharge. Writers have to recharge too. I’m sure local bees would prefer to have an endless summer- wouldn't we all? But their honey is made just when things are perfect. We hive-head writers need to remember that our words come only when things are just right.

Perhaps we have too much of a capitalistic outlook? We think of ourselves as small factories which must constantly produce goods to compete with other factories. That is a socio-economic theory not a human one. Some writers produce a lot of work. Some spend a lifetime and never write more than a few things.

Every person has a different process. For some it is quick and easy, for others it is slow and painful. I have published three novels this year- you can find them on Amazon- and yet I feel that I have been failing these last few months.

Yeah, I haven’t written in a while. I prefer to think of my block as “writer’s brick”. Yes it drives me crazy and I feel like a failure and why don’t I just write something? And the more pressure I apply the worse the situation becomes. Part of it is caused by stress, and perhaps part is just a recharging. I have to reprogram myself- switch from that “honey ever day attitude” to something more sustainable.

I have recently switched jobs and had many changes in my life. Most of them have been good changes so why should that affect my writing? When your life is a little tornado sometimes your papers can get scattered and how can you keep track of what you’re working on then? Writing for me takes a lot of my head space and when that space gets filled with other things I get muddled and the honey doesn’t flow.

Sometimes when we go into our playroom to play Scape the cats have scattered the wound markers everywhere. At first glance it looks like blood splattered all over everything. Like writing, all too frequently playing Scape for us involves cleaning up first. The cats really seem to enjoy splattering wounds everywhere. These guys don’t go outside, so it’s the only taste of blood that they’ll ever get. Tastes like plastic....

Things are calmer now for me, and my writer’s brick is getting ‘lighter”. It is not so hard to carry and is starting to levitate. I prefer to think of it as a brick because it’s really just another experience- a piece I can use in the construction of other ideas and themes. It is still productive, just in a different way. I just have to be opened minded about it.

A world of possibilities opens up when I step back and try to see a bigger picture- I have many projects that have been languishing these last few months. I’m ready to get back to them. But I can see past them now- I couldn’t before- and imagine what I can do then! Anything I want! Now that’s exciting!