Handling writer's block - the needs hierarchy

[gillpolack]

A few weeks ago I taught my students how to avoid writer's block. The fun part of the class was playing with the techniques so many people I know use to defeat the mongrel: writing prompts, everyday mechanisms for overcoming temporary silences. I spent most of the class, however, teaching my students two much larger things: how to determine where

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[xo_kizzy_xo]

Even on the days with impossible deadlines, I take care of my body, because the next step after that is being unable to work.

And even then you take care of your body, it may still decide to betray you at that point in time :p

Case in point: It's difficult to type with both hands while I'm in this cast. I have to hold my arm at an angle so I can reach the keys. Holding my arm like that is precarious because if I don't maintain the angle, I end up pressing keys I don't want to press. Then there's the issue of holding the angle because it makes the cast dig into certain parts of my arm. Frankly, it's easier to play silly Facebook games because I only need a mouse!

I should get a speech recognition program as I've got a bunch of ideas in my head.

[gillpolack]

It totally does. But it's worse when you don't take care of it. It's the difference between betrayal and three years of vile nothingness. Betrayal is much easier to turn into story!

One of my students has a broken bone in his wrist and cannot do much either. Like you, he's getting by, slowly and with much frustration. What's interesting is that he's producing some lovely work in his frustration. He's done some significant boundary breaking.

A speech recognition programme would make it easier to work after those long days doing other work, too, I suspect. It's a clever way of taking care of yourself.