A Little Help from Dorothea Brande
All who are suffering from a Block (definitely with a capital B), say aye!
Dorothea Brande wrote a book called "Becoming a Writer" sometime back in the 1930s. That it's still in print and selling steadily says something, doesn't it? I call it my bible and I keep it by my pillow. In the past several weeks I've found myself reading it a lot. It's something I do when I'm putting off writing the next bit of whatever project I'm on, and procrastination, now that's an old habit that sure dies hard.
It's time to read Dorothea Brande: Old habits are strong and jealous.
Tell me about it.
For a month and a half, I've been sitting on my hands - waiting for that surge of inspiration to hit me. It isn't as if I have nothing to say, but I'm not saying anything. The worst of it is that I'm beginning to wonder if the writer in me has somehow died. Was I ever really a writer? Writers write. The way I write is such a hit-and-miss process... Sometimes I write 5000 words in a day, sometimes nothing. I don't know of any formula that will help me produce good work. Maybe that's why the inspiration left me. I've tried to call out to it, but the response is always hollow and faraway. And what little I write is so bad that I fear I am an utter failure as a writer.
It's time to read Dorothea Brande again: All that is necessary to break the spell of inertia and frustration is this: Act as if it were impossible to fail. That is the talisman, the formula, the command of right-about-face which turns us from failure towards success.
I think I'm going to make that my mantra for this month: Act as if it were impossible to fail. Act as if it were impossible to write shoddily. Act as if it were impossible to be a bad writer.
Dorothea Brande wrote a book called "Becoming a Writer" sometime back in the 1930s. That it's still in print and selling steadily says something, doesn't it? I call it my bible and I keep it by my pillow. In the past several weeks I've found myself reading it a lot. It's something I do when I'm putting off writing the next bit of whatever project I'm on, and procrastination, now that's an old habit that sure dies hard.
It's time to read Dorothea Brande: Old habits are strong and jealous.
Tell me about it.
For a month and a half, I've been sitting on my hands - waiting for that surge of inspiration to hit me. It isn't as if I have nothing to say, but I'm not saying anything. The worst of it is that I'm beginning to wonder if the writer in me has somehow died. Was I ever really a writer? Writers write. The way I write is such a hit-and-miss process... Sometimes I write 5000 words in a day, sometimes nothing. I don't know of any formula that will help me produce good work. Maybe that's why the inspiration left me. I've tried to call out to it, but the response is always hollow and faraway. And what little I write is so bad that I fear I am an utter failure as a writer.
It's time to read Dorothea Brande again: All that is necessary to break the spell of inertia and frustration is this: Act as if it were impossible to fail. That is the talisman, the formula, the command of right-about-face which turns us from failure towards success.
I think I'm going to make that my mantra for this month: Act as if it were impossible to fail. Act as if it were impossible to write shoddily. Act as if it were impossible to be a bad writer.