Put the words on the page
I haven't read anything by Jacqueline Baker, but her recent interview at the CBC website makes me curious... From her reading list, it looks like she shares many of my tastes. She has some very sane and sensible advice for writers, too. A sample -
Do you ever suffer from writer's block? If so, how do you overcome it?
Oh, writer's block-it's given too much attention, like the unruly kid in the kindergarten class. Writer's block, in my opinion, is just the points in a project where you need to work a little harder, maybe you need to review what you've written to make sure it's doing what it needs to, or maybe you need to change direction, or maybe it's the point in a story where something needs to happen and it isn't, maybe it's your writerly instincts telling you that something needs your attention. There is only one cure for it, and that is to write through it. Put the words on the page. You can change them later, but you won't figure out what the problem is by stepping away from the story.
Then I suppose the other thing often referred to as writer's block comes between projects rather than in the middle of one. That perhaps the writer feels they have nothing more to say, no Inspiration, or what have you. Again, the only cure is to sit down and start putting words on the page. Read things you love, sure, read the best writing. But if you want to be a writer and not just a reader, you've got to get the words down on the page.
Do you ever suffer from writer's block? If so, how do you overcome it?
Oh, writer's block-it's given too much attention, like the unruly kid in the kindergarten class. Writer's block, in my opinion, is just the points in a project where you need to work a little harder, maybe you need to review what you've written to make sure it's doing what it needs to, or maybe you need to change direction, or maybe it's the point in a story where something needs to happen and it isn't, maybe it's your writerly instincts telling you that something needs your attention. There is only one cure for it, and that is to write through it. Put the words on the page. You can change them later, but you won't figure out what the problem is by stepping away from the story.
Then I suppose the other thing often referred to as writer's block comes between projects rather than in the middle of one. That perhaps the writer feels they have nothing more to say, no Inspiration, or what have you. Again, the only cure is to sit down and start putting words on the page. Read things you love, sure, read the best writing. But if you want to be a writer and not just a reader, you've got to get the words down on the page.