Every writer’s been there, it’s inevitable really: Staring down at a blank page, struggling to string sentences together, seemingly without a creative bone left in your body, and barely mustering the courage to keep going.
Writer’s Block — the drying up of a writer’s wellspring of creative imagination. It has likely existed since the dawn of writing, but the term itself was only coined in 1947 by the famous psychiatrist Edmund Bergler. In 1950, Bergler published a paper titled Does Writer’s Block Exist? A question still asked by anyone who consistently tries to put pen to paper. Below are 37 quotes on the matter from 37 famous writers.
What do you think? Does writer’s block exist?
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[1] “When you face writer’s block, just lower your standards and keep going.” — Sandra Tsing Loh
[2] “Writer’s block is a misnomer and can be compared with turning off a faucet. Like the ability to write, faucets can develop problems when they’re seldom used. You get all this rust in the pipes. When you turn on the faucet, a lot of rust comes out.” — Susan Neville
[3] “I tell my students there is such a thing as ‘writer’s block,’ and they should respect it. It’s blocked because it ought to be blocked, because you haven’t got it right now.” — Toni Morrison
[4] “Don’t stop because you’ve hit a block. Finish the page, even if you write nothing but your own name. The block will break if you don’t give in to it. Remember, writing is a physical habit as well as whatever you want to think it is—calling, avocation, talent, genius, art.” — Isabelle Holland
[5] ” Writer’s block is the biggest myth out there. The idea that you’re just lost for any possible words isn’t some vague illness that strikes people when they’re trying to be creative. You’re not missing the words; you’re missing the research. All ideas are a combination of preexisting ideas. So if you’re “out” of new ideas it’s probably because you don’t have enough old ideas to combine. Go back and read more. Or spend more time mapping out the book. Don’t show up to the keyboard without a plan and then tell the world you have writer’s block. You’re lying to us, and to yourself.” — David Burkus
[6] “There’s no such thing as writer’s block. As long as your fingers can move over the keyboard, eventually it’ll segue into something.” — Mary Kay Andrews
[7] In my experience, novelists and others who complain of a mysterious disease called Writer’s Block should be treated with suspicion. This inexplicable failure to write anything can be the result of two conditions— simple laziness or having nothing to say…One needs only to develop a certain power of concentration and have something to say.” — Auberon Waugh
[8] “I’m superstitious about writer’s block to the extent I don’t particularly feel like devoting a great deal of time to dwelling on it. It seems like getting stuck in a desert, a nightmare. But there are definitely times when the inspiration flows more freely than not. It seems to me that writing is a muscle: it gets stronger the more you use it. If you let yourself fall out of the habit, it can be hard to get back in form. Writing a regular column keeps you limber and sharp and guarantees that any fear of writer’s block is kept at bay.” — John Avlon
[9] “When I have writer’s block it is because I have not done enough research or I have not thought hard enough about the subject about which I’m writing. That’s a signal for me to go back to the archives or to go back into my thoughts and think through what it is I am supposed to be doing.” — Annette Gordon-Reed
[10] “One of the pieces I’m deeply proud to have written started with a paragraph that read: “This story needed an ending before it could find its first sentence. So please forgive me for delivering it ten years overdue.” That ten years was a war with writer’s block.” — Cal Fussman
[11] “Do you ever go into the bathroom and sit on the toilet when you don’t need to take a shit? Do you ever just sit there completely empty and sit there and push? No, you don’t. You go eat something and then you live your life and what happens, happens. It’s the same thing with writing. If I don’t have an idea that I’m not absolutely terrified of losing, then I don’t bother to write.” — Chuck Palahniuk
[12] “You can’t think yourself out of a writing block; you have to write yourself out of a thinking block.” — John Rogers
[13] “Writer’s block is a phony, made up BS excuse for not doing your work.” — Jerry Seinfeld
[14] “I write like I talk and I don’t get talker’s block.” — Seth Godin
[15] “William Stafford, one of our great poets, said that the best thing to do about writer’s block is to lower your standard, and it’s the best advice to give someone who’s stalled.” — Ted Kooser
[16] “‘Writer’s block’ is an emotional or logical incoherence in a future work slowly working its way through our unconscious.” —Alain de Botton
[17] “I’ve always said “Writer’s Block” is a myth. There is no such thing as writer’s block, only writers trying to force something that isn’t ready yet. Sometimes I don’t write for weeks. And then all of the sudden I’ll get a rush of inspiration and you can’t drag me away from my notebook. But I don’t stress out if I don’t hit some arbitrary word count each day or if I go a few days without writing something.” — Julie Ann Dawson
[18] “I haven’t had writer’s block. I think it’s because my process involves writing very badly.” —
[19] “Writer’s block is almost like the equivalent of impotence. It’s performance pressure you put on yourself that keeps you from doing something you naturally should be able to do…The reason you don’t get writer’s block as a writer is because you have a deadline. It has to be in. You have no choice. But, if you sit there, and you think, “This piece has to be the ultimate article, the ultimate book ever written; my entire selfish being is wrapped up in this; and, this is me.” – The bigger of a story you make up about what you are doing, the bigger the block will get. It has nothing to do with the talent of writing or the skill of writing. It’s completely performance anxiety.” — Neil Strauss
[20] “I don’t believe in “writer’s block”. I try and deal with getting stuck by having more than one thing to work on at a time. And by knowing that even a hundred bad words that didn’t exist before is forward progress.” — Neil Gaiman
[21] “Writer’s block is only a failure of the ego.” — Norman Mailer
[22] “I deal with writer’s block by lowering my expectations. I think the trouble starts when you sit down to write and imagine that you will achieve something magical and magnificent — and when you don’t, panic sets in. The solution is never to sit down and imagine that you will achieve something magical and magnificent. I write a little bit, almost every day, and if it results in two or three or (on a good day) four good paragraphs, I consider myself a lucky man. Never try to be the hare. All hail the tortoise.” — Malcolm Gladwell
[23] “Give yourself permission to write a bad book. Writer’s block is another name for writer’s dread—the paralyzing fear that our work won’t measure up. It doesn’t matter how many books I’ve published, starting the next one always feels as daunting as the first. A day comes when I just have to make a deal with myself: write something anyway, even if it’s awful. Nobody has to know. Maybe it never leaves this room! Just go.” — Barabara Kingsolver
[24] “All writing problems are psychological problems. Blocks usually stem from the fear of being judged. If you imagine the world listening, you’ll never write a line. That’s why privacy is so important. You should write first drafts as if they will never be shown to anyone.” —
[25] “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?” — Philip Pullman
[26] “If you’ve got writer’s block, enjoy the silence while it lasts. In another day, week, or month, you’ll be so filled with things to say you’ll be sneaking out of bed again. Who knows why the brain is into different things at different times. But we’re so much more effective when we follow what our body wants to do, rather than trying to fight it.” — Derek Sivers
[27] “Writer’s block is just a symptom of feeling like you have nothing to say, combined with the rather weird idea that you should feel the need to say something. Why? If you have something to say, then say it. If not, enjoy the silence while it lasts. The noise will return soon enough.” —
[28] “I think writer’s block is a bad name for a number of real problems facing writers, most notably of which is fear. Typically when I feel blocked, I’m really afraid…What do I do when I feel blocked? I write through the block…I push through the discomfort, so that I can keep going. Momentum is a writer’s friend.” — Jeff Goins
[29] “I don’t believe in writers’ block. Do doctors have ‘doctors block?’ Do plumbers have ‘plumbers’ block?” No. We all have days when we don’t feel like working, but why do writers turn that into something so damn special by giving it a faintly romantic name.” — Larry Kahaner
[30] “Basically, the most raw, deep truth is shut up and write. There’s no such thing as a writer’s block. If you’re having trouble writing, well, pick up the pen and write. No matter what, keep that hand moving. Writing is really a physical activity.” — Natalie Goldberg
[31] “I don’t believe in writer’s block. Think about it — when you were blocked in college and had to write a paper, didn’t it always manage to fix itself the night before the paper was due? Writer’s block is having too much time on your hands.” — Jodi Picoult
[32] “Beat it into submission. That’s the only way. How would you get rid of runner’s block? You go for a fucking run.” — Ryan Holiday
[33] “Resistance never sleeps. It never slackens and it never goes away. The dragon must be slain anew every morning. However, as with anything in life, if you’ve succeeded in the past, at least you know that you can succeed.” — Steven Pressfield
[34] “Writer’s block is just another name for anxiety. People always have something else to say. It’s not like you ever run out of ideas. There’s just a filter in our brains where we decide what is “worthy” of being put down on paper, and when that filter gets too strong (due to high expectations or fear of being judged or whatever), few ideas will get through it. This happens to me at times and I just have to remind myself to chill out (or “not give a fuck” as it were), get over myself (or my ego) and trust the process to take care of everything.” — Mark Manson
[35] “I never get writer’s block, because I always have a good dozen projects that I’m working on, so if something isn’t working I’ll just switch gears.” — James Patterson
[36] “Writing about a writer’s block is better than not writing at all.” — Charles Bukowski
[37] “I don’t think “writer’s block” actually exists. It’s basically insecurity — it’s your own internal critic turned up to a higher level than it’s supposed to be at that moment, because when you’re starting a work — when the page is blank, when the canvas is open — your critic has to be turned down to zero… The point is actually to get stuff on paper, just to allow yourself to kind of flow. It is only by writing that you’ll discover characters, ideas, things like this.” — Philipp Meyer
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