First Drafts and Writer's Block, An Antidote

"Writing a first draft is very much like watching a Polaroid develop. You can't--and in fact, you're not supposed to--know exactly what the picture is going to look like until it has finished developing." --Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

I love this quote. And I'm adopting Ms. Lamott's approach this week as I continue on the first draft of my current project. I think the analogy to a Polaroid photo is a sure-fire antidote against writer's block. It takes the pressure off of having to line out the story in too much detail ahead of time, and promises to re-ignite the sense of discovery. Can't wait to see what picture develops!

Are you battling writer's block, or are scenes emerging? Any surprises coming to light?  (photo: sxc.hu)

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Writing is Like a River

"Writing is like a river--the words are ever-flowing. You may have heard of writer's block, but that only means a writer took his raft out of the river. The solution is to get back into the water. Pick a thought--any thought--and write about it. Instant solution. No more block." --Linda Jo Martin

Have your words been flowing freely down the writing river lately, or does your raft need relaunching? To what would you compare the writing life?

Hope the week ahead carries you to many new and exciting writing worlds...

Photo inspiration: a view of the Ohio River from the banks of small-town Aurora, Indiana, just yesterday. 

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Writer's Block: True or False?

(photo courtesy of photobucket.com)

I recently came across this quote, and I'd like your opinion on it:

"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 from it?" --Philip Pullman

So is writer's block for real? Or is it simply a term that's used to mask something else? What would that something else be --fear, doubt, insecurity? Procrastination? Trouble with BIC (Jane Yolen's famous term, butt in chair)? Ahhhh, I really want to know!

Plumbers don't get blocked. Doctors don't get blocked. Writers? What do you think?

Prime the Pump

The act of writing begets writing. --Leonard Bishop

We've all heard the phrase, "prime the pump." This expression, early on in the plumbing business, came to mean the process of getting a water pump back up and running when air somehow got in the line and shut down the process. Thus a "prime"--the pouring of liquid in the line to expel the air--was needed to get back in business.

What about us writers? Do we sometimes need to prime our writing pumps--take an extra step to get words flowing again when they seem to dry up? I think so.

For me--I know so.

Jane Yolen, in Take Joy, A Writer's Guide to Loving the Craft (p. 18) says, "There are many ways to prime the writing pump, not all of them pretty. But most of them work. And if you work at your writing every day, you will get better. Exercising the writing muscle is important, because flabbiness is as bad in a writer as it is in a runner."

So what are some ways to prime our writing pumps on days when words won't flow, thoughts are jammed, and nothing seems to be working? On days when, instead of setting prose down on paper, we get--shall we say--a bunch of hot air? Or simply an empty page?

Some "prime" suggestions include:

• Journaling
• Freewriting
• Free association
• Word prompts
• Photo inspirations
• Writing exercises
• Poetry
• Daily word or page counts
• Blogging (which, I must say, has become one of my favorites :-)

Ms. Yolen reminds us (p. 59) of what we've read and heard many others say: "A writer is someone who writes." Therefore, no matter the means, we writers must get the word flow going. Use whatever prime works most effectively.

Of course, none of this addresses procrastination and BIC (Ms. Yolen's famous acronym, p. 84--"butt in chair). That, I think, is a subject for another post.

How about it? What are some of the ways you prime your writing pump when the lines go dry?