Writer’s Block And Muse Murder

Writing is certainly a career I aspire towards. But I don’t feel like writing sometimes! This is a problem for career writers. Perhaps that happens to you too. I would love to think that writer’s block is there, strangling our muse until it dies and leaves us uninspired at the keyboard. It pains me to ask, but is blaming writer’s block as a murderer of the muse something we should be doing? Can we get revenge for it wringing our creative ideas out of its blood-stained hands? The reason it pains me to ask is that I think I know the answer. I confess to murdering my muse! It’s better than if I framed writer’s block... Below, I’m going to explain why and try to help you get over any rut you may be having with writing too.

Do you know the term “Practice makes perfect”? Well, I’m sure you do. We’re all different, but chances are that you have something you love to do over and over again. That’s practice. --Obviously. It’s very basic to say that the more you write, the better at it you will become. However, this is not easy for most people. It’s not easy for me. The hardest part about starting or resuming a writing project is not practice. It’s the simplest task: Starting your project in the first place.

Why? How is it that starting the first letter, the first word, the first sentence, and so on be so hard? I look at my role models and I ask myself why can’t I write like them; Stephen King, R.L. Stine, Ernest Hemingway, J.K. Rowling, Edgar Allan Poe, and the rest? They are known to me as elite writers that seemingly perform unhindered by distraction. There are several reasons.

Is it depression? In my case, I find depression helps me start writing. Whether or not that’s necessarily healthy is not a topic I’m interested in. I cannot say that depression prevents me from writing. --It’s an outlet for me. However, for you, it could be the complete opposite. If depression is the reason why you can’t write, let me help by saying that I know exactly what you are going through. I want to let you know that are empowered to control the harsh critic inside of you. Depending on how you take it: Your inner critic can be the most useful, or the dullest tool in your arsenal. Outside critics can go to hell until you decide to listen to the ones with practical advice. For less clinical forms of depression, like what happens when your relationship ends, give yourself some time. Your will to write will come back. There’s no need to rush when you need to take your time dealing with life.

Are medical issues or handicaps preventing you from writing? They certainly could be. Other than depression, I thankfully don’t have any other afflictions, so I can’t speak on this confidently. I don’t think that medical problems or handicaps turn into deadends for the aspiring writer, though. While people tend to make fun of Hellen Keller, I bet some people reading this article would be surprised to learn that she was an established American Author. --And she was born deaf and blind. Her will to write despite her issues was a triumphant achievement. If Hellen Keller could become an author, so could you. So while it could be hard, I implore that you don’t use your condition as the reason for not writing if you want to write. Turn it into a strength that propels you forward.

Is it because of procrastination? Ding ding ding ding! For me, this is broadly the reason why I don’t write. --Probably for you too. When I first started writing, I had better things to do. I didn’t have the inspiration, the knowledge, the time, the place, or the feelings. Essentially, I had more important actions to waste my time with. I still do. But, I still want to write. Sometimes, during a blue moon, I would have the inspiration to write over 3,000 words, with the aspiration to turn whatever my idea was into “Something great!” My muse would be on overdrive, and it was the drug that kept me addicted to writing. I relied heavily on the way my muse had me write, but now I know that this motivation is fleeting. It’s the ice that melts in your drink, which ultimately dilutes the flavor. --It makes one want another drink. Continuing that project of mine by the next day would always end with a whimper, anyway. Thus procrastination wins the war of attrition. For you too, procrastination can happen in a multitude of ways. It’s certainly the easiest excuse for why we aren’t writing.

What about writer’s block? Surely, writer’s block had something to do with murdering your muse? No. It didn’t, I’m afraid. I don’t think it exists. Why are you sweating? Don’t like what I said? Wait. Are your hands red?

Writer’s block, in my opinion, is a lie that writers tell people when they don’t want to confess to procrastinating. Well, there you go officer, cuff ’em! I caught you red-handed. You would have gotten away avoiding writing too if it hadn’t been for my meddling muse!

I know that my opinion isn’t popular for many writers, so hear me out. I think that as soon as you recognize that writer’s block is a general term for procrastination, the more power you’ll give yourself to fix any problem you have with writing. When people say they have writer’s block, how can they find a fix for that? It’s too general of a term to describe rationally! They might as well shrug and not write at all. But if you put a more specific reason as to why you can’t write, you can narrow down your investigation. Here are some examples:

- “I can’t write because I don’t have time!” This isn’t a simple fix by any means. At least you know that to write, you need to find more time. Shift your schedule around and see what works, and what doesn’t. Write with smaller word counts than you normally take on. Perhaps you are limiting yourself to one device or medium that you are too ignorant to adapt from? If finding time is impossible, even with effort, writing as a career probably isn’t in the cards right now. But don’t give up! Instead, focus on writing as a hobby so you’re not stressing yourself out and murdering your muse.

-“I can’t write because my writing is terrible!” A great fix for this is to keep learning how to write. Find time to study punctuation, grammar, etc. Don’t be afraid to use auto-correcting tools as a basis to learn from. Keep doing this until you are comfortable writing again. But please heed me: While writing is considered to be a profession for perfectionists, ditch that mindset. Don’t try to overcome your role models and judge yourself based on their significant experience, success, and talent. Just do better than what you did yesterday. Being a perfectionist won’t help your writing develop if it murders your will to write without a second thought.

-“I can’t write because I don’t have inspiration, motivation, or an idea of what to write!” This issue is tough to master. It’s probably the second most used reason writers have for not writing. However, I think there’s more merit to it. Lack of inspiration is certainly more of a descriptive form of procrastination than saying your reason is writer’s block. My fix is to ignore inspiration: Ignore your muse! Practice writing as a habit. Habits have a way of drawing you towards completing an action regardless of inspiration. I don’t recommend working on a pet project you were inspired to do before. Not yet, anyway. If you could write your pet project without motivation, you probably wouldn’t have this problem writing, so humor me. Type up a paragraph, a page, whatever you feel like. It can be about anything on the horizons of your mind. -- You know; frustrations, feelings, thoughts, pains, dull stories about muse murder, whatever. Then, go into editor mode, and scrutinize the work you’ve produced. Edit it down, read it aloud, and ask yourself how you could have written what you produced better next time. Writing becomes more of a habit as you practice constantly. After that, inspiration and motivation will be the least of your concerns.

Attributing the lack of your creative writing to specific reasoning is way better than attributing it to writer’s block. Look, I get it. Writing is hard. Unfortunately, that’s not an excuse. --It’s a fact. Especially if you want to be writing for a career someday. But if you want to do this job seriously, you have to own the fact that writing demands responsibility.

With that in mind, there are many more specific examples to help with procrastination. I wish I could cover them, but I think my muse was shot in cold blood. I think that it’s ultimately up to the writer, yourself, to be honest with identifying why you can’t write today. It’s certainly not writer’s block. I know! The muse’s blood is on my hands too.

Image by Raditya Febrian from Pixabay