What exactly is writer’s block?
I used to think that writer’s block was when the writer faces a blank white page and can’t think what to write.
I put off writing full-time for so long that I had too many projects backed up. I have tons of slips of paper of ideas, phrases, snippets of imagined conversations, etc. Now I have the time, I find I don’t know which one to work on next. I think that is a writer’s block of a different color.
Adda Leah Davis recently shared with me, that she doesn’t experience writers’ block. She works on one project and when it starts to flounder, she moves to the next project. Since she’s published several books, this seems to work well for her.
I picture my writing experience is like my mother with her quilt projects. She always had several projects in the works at any one time.
Mom used to tell a story of a woman who had so many unfinished quilting projects that her friends asked her when she would ever finish them. The woman’s reply was that she would take them to heaven with her and finish them there.
One day she died and was sitting at the pearly gates. She had boxes of her unfinished projects nested at her feet. St. Peter asked her about them and she explained about her plans. His reply was, “No, no, no. You can’t bring those things in here to clutter up heaven. I won’t let you in with your boxes.”
The woman cried, because she didn’t want to let go of her unfinished projects. The devil was hiding behind a cloud snickering. He beckoned to the woman and told her she was welcome to bring her projects to hell with him.
She agreed and settled into her extremely warm place in hell. She searched through all her boxes and looked distressed. The devil asked her what was the matter. Her reply was, “I can’t find my needle.”
He laughed and said, “That’s the hell of it!”
I’m afraid I may have too many unfinished projects. I’ve worked out a schedule to work on them a little at a time. I’m trying to avoid my own writers’ block of not knowing which way to go next. I’m also continuing to write new works. I’m hoping I won’t have a whole collection of unfinished projects I am loath to leave behind. Because I probably will forget to my pen!
What writer’s block have you experienced? What do you do to remedy it.?
Happy Writing,
Rose