What to Write When You Should Be Writing Something Else

cracks knuckles

OK. Here we go.

What. To. Write?

I'm feeling a bit of writer's block. Actually, not a bit. A lot of writer's block.

Pft, I hear the real writers out there saying. No such thing.

Well, pft right back at you for that. Not only can I describe the block I have, I realize I have more than one.

There's the I-don't-know-what-to-write-next kind, which I'm experiencing on a story that's largely done (though it should be done done by this point). It's not the curse of a blank page; it's not how to tackle the thing. The thing is there, with a shape and everything. But bits and pieces — a transition here, a section conclusion there — that makes it seem profoundly unfinished.

Then there's another project, a completely separate story, and that one is a curse-of-the-blank-page kind. It's not so much that I don't know what to say (though I don't specifically), but it's more that I don't even want to sit down to attempt it. The inertia of that alone feels immovable.

So there you have it. Not one but two instances of writer's block. Bona fide. The real deal.

But you know what? The solution is the same for both, and it's the same solution that leads the real writers out there to say there's no such thing as writer's block in the first place: Write anyway. Write through it. Write if for no other reason than to say, honestly, that you've written.

Then revise. Fix what you have once you have it. But the key thing is to make sure you have it.

Sigh. I don't want to. Still. Knowing all that, I still don't want to.

So I'm writing this instead. It's writing. Is it helping my two stalled projects? Not directly. But is it getting my fingers flying over the keyboard, allowing me a bit of space to relax and simply "talk" to the page? It is.

And suddenly the problems seem smaller now. Suddenly, I feel some momentum. It's not much, but it'll do.

Until next time...