I had a fellow interview me a couple years ago and asked me about “Writer’s Block” and I answered that I never had believed in writer’s block, except that it is just an excuse to not write. I’ve always felt that way, and yet I admit that sometimes my brain seems “empty” when I sit down to work on a novel. In fact, if I were pressed on the art of writing I would not be able to say how I do it, or “where” it comes from. I know this: If my wife or even if I read something myself that I wrote some time ago it is like reading something that was written by some stranger.
But getting back to “writer’s block” I know that I almost always have something—a skeleton of a story—floating around in the back of my head. And if I feel stumped on my current novel’s progress it helps if I start writing on something else. Like the short story floating in the back of my mind. I do think that if you call yourself a writer, you should write SOMETHING every day. Remember, the famous authors of the “golden age” (Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Steinbeck, etc.) when they were not writing books were prodigious letter writers. They wrote everybody, all the time. Writing is an art, true – but it is also a skill and like golf or anything that requires skill you have to keep doing it all the time to be at “the top of your game.” Keep writing!
johnbeckmanbooks 