The Myth of Writers Block - 2008, The Year You Stop Thinking And Write
If you think you suffer from writers block don’t worry. There’s a simple remedy approved by the International Psychiatric Association of Non-Thinkers. Sufferers have only to stop thinking and write. You see, you start out blank as a movie screen until your birth begins its life story. You didn’t have to think about your life. It just began its drama of comedy and tragedy. And since mind and heart are the infinite inkwells that never run dry, how can you possibly believe that what comes from within you will produce a blank page, or a blank screen?
No Such Thing As Writer’s Block
Unless you’re in a coma, there’s no such thing as writer’s block. Staring at a blank page, sweating out how to begin a story is the ultimate fiction. If you are a person who thinks you don’t know what to write, or can’t finish what you’re writing, you probably think too much. Stop thinking. Walk the dog. Watch
I received an email from a David Billings in Australia who is still hot on the trail of Amelia Earhart and her missing twin engine Electra Aircraft, lost over the Pacific more than 70 years ago. Billings had seen my last year’s article about Earhart and he thought I might be interested in the Amelia Earhart Electra New Britain (AE) project electranewbritain. New Britain Island near New Guinea is where many Australians fought the Japanese in WWII. Billings’ investigation of wreckage spotted there has all the earmarks of a Patricia Cornwell detective story that won’t die. In fact I’m inspired to join his search myself. Life abounds with these true stories and often one gives birth to another.
Mrs. Claus, The Lady in Red
It was Christmas week. While pulling out of my supermarket parking lot I almost ran into an old woman who was wandering aimlessly around the lot. Beautifully dressed with a jaunty red straw hat, red pants suit with a white ruffle blouse and red shoes, you’d have to be blind to miss her. She stopped to look around and caught my eye. I got out of the car and asked if I could help find her car. With an engaging smile and eyes that lit up like candles, she had the face of an angel that defied her age. “Oh I’m fine,” she piped, and pointed with her cane. “I see it over there.” Then she held onto my arm and rattled off her story.
How her husband, a World War II bomber pilot, was shot down over Germany. He was held as a POW for two years before escaping but was brought back to the camp and punished severely. How he was recalled in the Korean War, only to die several years after returning home to the states-but not before she had a set of twin boys and a girl, all of whom she raised mostly on her own. She loved the Boston Red Sox, missed her kids and thanked me for talking to her because they and her grandchildren lived overseas and she got lonely during the holidays. In a few short minutes I’d heard a summation of a life from the “Greatest Generation,” the one that wrote American history with their sweat and blood and never complained. I had never seen this lady before and haven’t seen her since. Sometimes I think I dreamed this encounter, but I’ll never forget her face. There’s no such thing as writer’s block.
Space or Pay the Rent
Stories abound in the press and on the Internet. People comment on whatever catches their fancy. I’m interested in Space. The Associated Press reports that NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft launched 30 years ago will soon reach the end of our solar system-and the beginning of interstellar space. A delighted group at NASA submitted the story with the following headline: “The Solar System is Bent!” Well I don’t understand what that means for us mortals; physics is not my favorite subject. But I’d like to know how this phenomenal observation will help pay my mortgage! Nevertheless, it’s a great story for Space junkies (like me).
No Blank Pages
Each of us has our own exclusive story and no one else can tell it better. We have our unique views on life and on the lives of others. Witness the press coverage of the presidential campaigns. One television news analyst dislikes a particular candidate and sees nothing but that candidate’s faults. Another favors a different candidate and sees that person as a winner. These journalists do not see themselves as biased. Whereas to a bi-partisan observer in the foreign press, it’s clear they have taken sides. That in itself is a story.
As a writer you are a unique and fascinating individual with no blank pages. You asked someone to marry you. So what happened? You took a trip and wished you had stayed home. What happened? You are reading “Eat, Pray, Love” and will review it soon. You’re tired of paying for expensive diets that don’t work. Instead, you took charge of your own mind and body and have started to eat healthy and exercise daily. You’re beginning to get a flurry of visitors to your website that want what you’re selling. What made this happen? Did you write a “how-to” or “what not to do” article? Inquiring minds want to know because there’s no such thing as writer’s block and you are the exemplar of that myth.
Experience has taught me that literary agents, editors and publishers don’t know what they’re looking for until they see it. I invite you to visit my website http://www.susanscharfman.com where my job as editor is to put you in control of your craft, and make certain your finished product reflects the originality and passion that commands the attention of industry professionals.
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