Is Writer's Block A Necessary Evil? Let Us Find Out

There are times when words just slip on paper, subconsciously weaved into sentences, forming meaning, without an effort. While other times, the more you try to write something, the further your words stutter, unable to give your thoughts any lucidity. Now there are two ways to go about it- either write until it works out or treat your writer's block like a period of regeneration.

The first way will only crumble your writing with pressure and nothing concrete surfacing up. Whereas, the other method will give you time to recuperate.

A novel by Catherine Wilson about the Epicurean life reminds us that “there can be pleasure in not doing things.”

Remember the process of crop rotation taught in school? Well planting crops is much like writing. If you grow the same plants in the same field for too many years in a row, the soil slowly loses certain nutrients. This is why farmers’ alternate seeds they plant so that the exhausted nutrients are restored to the soil by the new crop. Or they let the field lie unploughed so that the earth has enough time in between plantations to revive what was taken.

Epicurus, one of the prominent philosophers advocated a kind of moral hedonism. He insisted that the goal of attaining pleasure ultimately drives all human actions. A novel, How to Be an Epicurean: The Ancient Art of Living Well by Catherine Wilson about the Epicurean life reminds us that “there can be pleasure in not doing things.”

Jenny Odell points out in her article “How to do nothing,” “In nature, things that grow unchecked are often parasitic or cancerous. And yet, we dwell in a culture that privileges newness and growth over the cyclical and the regenerative. Indeed our very notion of productivity is assumed on the thought of producing something new. Whereas we do not tend to see maintenance and care as productive in the same way.”

But maintenance and care are crucial—without rest, we cannot regenerate. These days I've come to believe that it's fundamental for many of us to go through phases when we put words to the page and times when we can't. These aren't separate, distinct states. Rather than agonising over “writer's block,” maybe we can admit that we aren't blocked at all. And that resting might be part of our process.

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Change your perspective

T'ai Freedom Ford wrote, “There are large swaths when I'm not actually writing, but I am doing lots of things to stimulate my inspirations, and so I count it as writing. In that way, I don't believe in writer's block. This is because when I consider the elements of my process, I'm almost always writing (even if it's only in my head).”

Ford's comments remind us of Epicurus, who differentiated between “nature” and “convention” in his philosophy. Epicureans maintain that there are the permanent aspects of nature, and there are also our ways perceiving and understanding things which will be shaped by our responses. Ford can be writing even when she is not writing because of how she defines her process.

Rather than agonising over “writer's block,” maybe we can admit that we aren't blocked at all. And that resting might be part of our process.

Reframing writers' block from 'problem' to a natural and mostly inescapable phenomenon is always useful. And the reason it's still beneficial is that it's innately kind. Internal conversations of blocked artists tend to be self-critical, often cruel. And that cruelty only encourages and increases the block, but creativity thrives in an environment of self-kindness.

This kindness to the self is key. If we focus on feeling blocked, deserted in isolation separate from our creative selves, it's easy to fall into self-blame. We may focus on the “failure” of not generating new work. Instead, we should recognise that during this quiet period, we might be laying down the groundwork for what we will write later. We may need to rest and regenerate before our next project coalesces.

Reframing the concept of Writer's Block

Reframing the concept of writer's block, so it is no longer a binary debate, where either one is writing or is blocked, is essential. Instead, understand the process as a field. Sometimes you are harvesting, and sometimes you must let the field lie fallow or seed it with other experiences. Even when you are not writing in the denotative sense of engraving words on the page, you are still writing in a broader sense. This is so as you are doing the vital work of building up a storehouse of experiences and ideas that you will articulate later.

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Saumya Rastogi is an intern with SheThePeople.TV