Writer's Block. What the Heck Does That Even Mean?

I'm not sure that I believe in writer's block. It is, at the very least, an over-diagnosed affliction. You mean you can't produce an entire essay/novel/poem/whathaveyou off the top of your head at a moment's notice? How surprising.

I have come across far too much information on the subject to deal with at one time, so I'll start with a favorite. This is the introduction to "The Essential Delay: When Writer's Block Isn't" by Donald M. Murray:

Morison isn't writing. He's a professional writer, published and anthologized, but he's not writing. He goes to his typewriter and jumps up to find more paper. He organizes and reorganized his notes, makes a third cup of tea, visits the stationery store to buy a new pen, hunts through the library for that one elusive reference. He makes starts and notes and more notes and folders and outlines, but he does not produce a draft.

He wonders if he has writer's block. He clears writing time on his schedule, shuts the door to his study, and watches a tree grow. Slowly. He makes neat work plans, types them up, pins them above his desk, and doesn't follow them. He drafts letters - in his head - telling the editor he cannot deliver the piece. He considers going into real estate, or advertising, or becoming a hit person. He composes suicide notes - in his head - that are witty, ironic, publishable. He grumps at his wife and lies awake at night wondering if there is a treatment for writer's block.

But Morison knows he doesn't have writer's block. He's been writing for almost 40 years. He is passing through the normal, necessary, always terrifying delay that precedes effective writing.

Murray goes on to explain that this "essential delay" is just a period of waiting that writers must go through before they have collected all the necessary elements of writing. He identifies five of these elements: information, insight, order, voice, and of course, a feeling of need to write. These may seem simple enough but we should all know that they don't turn up overnight.

While Murray doesn't offer much in the way of a solution to this waiting game, I find it gratifying to know that my procrastination is not (necessarily) ill-spent. At least I know I'm not the only one.