Life Without Writer's Block
On a recent flight from Detroit to Los Angeles, I sat next to a girl who was reading a book about how to write. I asked her if she was a writer, and we struck up a conversation about that for a little while. Among other things, she shared an interesting idea with me that an author had once given her.
It went: "There's no such thing as writer's block. Writer's just have two modes: input and output. If you're not writing, it's not because you can't write, it's because you're in 'input' mode."
That's an interesting idea, but I think it's incomplete. There's a step between input and output when you're processing what you've taken in, before you can generate your own thoughts and express your own ideas about it.
I try to be creative in a few different ways, one of which is in writing. Near as I can figure, there are four parts to this process:
1. Reading the ideas of others. (input)
2. Digesting what I've read. (processing)
3. Writing down my ideas. (output)
4. Studying vocabulary. (mechanics)
The last step isn't really part of the flow, but it can be critical to getting better at whatever you're doing. It's the part of school that we all hated. It's rote learning. It's memorization. It sucks but I think you have to spend some of your time doing it. (It's a good way to kill time while you're processing.)
I play the guitar and write music. The same four things apply:
1. Listening to the music of others. (input)
2. Digesting what I've heard. (processing)
3. Recording the music. (output)
4. Practice the instrument. (mechanics)
Inevitably, whatever I create is influenced by what I've observed and absorbed in the past. There's no getting around it. It's not that I'm trying to rip other people off and steal what they've done, but the "processing" step is very mysterious. Stuff goes in and new stuff comes out, and it's usually difficult to find direct ties between one and the other.
I think we can spend time learning the fourth part (mechanics), and that's where practice helps you. But the real value in what you produce comes from the second part (processing). It's the black box in your head that's responsible for what spews forth when you sit down to create. That's what makes what you create your own, with your own style and voice.
Ultimately, you need to allocate time to each of the four factors, and strike a comfortable balance between them. But the most important one is #3. Without that, you never end up sharing your potential with anyone else.
It went: "There's no such thing as writer's block. Writer's just have two modes: input and output. If you're not writing, it's not because you can't write, it's because you're in 'input' mode."
That's an interesting idea, but I think it's incomplete. There's a step between input and output when you're processing what you've taken in, before you can generate your own thoughts and express your own ideas about it.
I try to be creative in a few different ways, one of which is in writing. Near as I can figure, there are four parts to this process:
1. Reading the ideas of others. (input)
2. Digesting what I've read. (processing)
3. Writing down my ideas. (output)
4. Studying vocabulary. (mechanics)
The last step isn't really part of the flow, but it can be critical to getting better at whatever you're doing. It's the part of school that we all hated. It's rote learning. It's memorization. It sucks but I think you have to spend some of your time doing it. (It's a good way to kill time while you're processing.)
I play the guitar and write music. The same four things apply:
1. Listening to the music of others. (input)
2. Digesting what I've heard. (processing)
3. Recording the music. (output)
4. Practice the instrument. (mechanics)
Inevitably, whatever I create is influenced by what I've observed and absorbed in the past. There's no getting around it. It's not that I'm trying to rip other people off and steal what they've done, but the "processing" step is very mysterious. Stuff goes in and new stuff comes out, and it's usually difficult to find direct ties between one and the other.
I think we can spend time learning the fourth part (mechanics), and that's where practice helps you. But the real value in what you produce comes from the second part (processing). It's the black box in your head that's responsible for what spews forth when you sit down to create. That's what makes what you create your own, with your own style and voice.
Ultimately, you need to allocate time to each of the four factors, and strike a comfortable balance between them. But the most important one is #3. Without that, you never end up sharing your potential with anyone else.