NO SUCH THING AS WRITER’S BLOCK
Writer’s Block: the condition of being unable to think of what to write
We all know the scene in any movie featuring a writer. The writer sits down at his notebook/typewriter/computer. He stares at the blank page/blank screen. He begins to sweat. To shake. To pull out his hair by the fistfuls. Until he finally lets out an ungodly yell and runs out the door to his favorite bar.
Oh, the humanity.
Well, here’s the thing. I may have run out the door to my favorite bar a few times, but it’s never been because of writer’s block. I’ve never had writer’s block. I’m 64 years old and I published for the first time at 15 years old. So saying “never” covers a pretty long time. Like Santa Claus and the tooth fairy, I don’t believe in it.
One of my favorite cartoons in the magazine The New Yorker appeared there so long ago, the writer featured is using a typewriter. The writer is in a sparse room, furnished only with a chair and a card table. All around him, on the table and the floor, are crumpled-up sheets of paper. The writer looks miserable as he looks at the clock, which reads 6:00. “I haven’t come up with anything all day!” he moans. “I must have writer’s block!”
There is evidence to the contrary. All around him are the beginnings of somethings – a story, perhaps, or a novel, or maybe a memoir or a poem. But he didn’t give a single one a chance. He talked himself out of it before he even let the idea grow.
I’ve taught writers for 30 years now. When one comes to me, complaining about writer’s block, they almost always go on to say that they started something, but it didn’t “go anywhere”.
Those crumpled sheets of paper? Those somethings that didn’t go anywhere? That’s not writer’s block. That’s a writer who didn’t keep pushing forward when his brain came to the first hiccup or the first fork in the road. When you can’t figure out where to go, go anywhere. Keep going. Even if the story ends up in space instead of on Main Street, where you planned it to go, follow it anyway. You just might end up with something great.
In my classes, one of the first rules I put on the board is “Write the stupid.” I can’t tell you how many times writers have come to workshop or coaching with zero pages and said, “I couldn’t write anything. All my ideas were stupid. I must have writer’s block.”
No. You quit before you even started. You should write the stupid. Keep at it until the idea is no longer stupid, but brilliant. But that won’t happen if you don’t follow it. Let it breathe and grow. Just like a fish will go after a worm, your brain will seize on to the bait.
I have always said that writers are the most amazing conundrum. One minute, we’re working on a book, believing it’s going to be the next big thing, a New York Times bestseller, made into a #1 movie at the box office. Then the next minute, we’re hitting the delete key, wondering why we ever thought we could write.
Trust me, I know those feelings. Even after fifteen published books, I know those feelings. But the reason why I have fifteen published books is because I pushed through and wrote them, even when I thought the idea that drifted across my brain was the dumbest idea ever. More on that in a second.
Here’s the key – don’t hit delete. Don’t reach for the power button. Stop before your finger starts to pound. Reread the words you’ve worked on, then write the next word, or, if the screen is blank, type the word “The”. Push yourself to add another word. Produce a sentence. Don’t edit yourself out of it, admonish yourself out of it, insult yourself over it. Even if you still think you’re writing trash when you finish a paragraph, keep going.
The most amazing things have come out of trash paragraphs.
I’ll give you an example, though this will be an example of me not having writer’s block, I’m afraid. One night, as I was drifting off to sleep, in that wispy place just before dreams, I began to think of a possible story. There’s a woman, I thought. She’s…let’s say just turned 53 years old. She’s not married. She wishes she was. She doesn’t want to turn into a cat lady. So she goes to the pet store and she adopts…an iguana. She names him Newt after her favorite cookie when she was a child. She always wanted to marry a man named Newt because she loved fig newtons. And then she follows all the rules in her self-help books about relationships as she gets to know her iguana. And because she’s so focused on that, she totally misses the chance to meet and marry the literal guy-next-door.
There was a notebook and a pen at the ready on my bedside table for any hopefully brilliant ideas that floated my way. But this one, I decided was (you guessed it) stupid. Instead of writing this idea down, I groaned. “That’s ludicrous,” I said out loud. I rolled over and went to sleep. I ignored my own rule.
But the next morning, the idea was still there. It hadn’t evaporated with my dreams. And so I gave it a chance. It became my short story, In Your Company, which is probably my most favorite story of my career. It’s the lead story in my short story collection, Oddities & Endings; The Collected Stories of Kathie Giorgio. Then the story grew and became my novel, If You Tame Me. If I hadn’t given that idea a chance, then that story, and subsequently, those two books would not exist.
I gave it a chance. I followed my own advice and wrote the stupid. It wasn’t stupid at all. To this day, I keep a small figurine of an iguana on my desk. It’s a great reminder on those days when I’m wondering why I ever thought I could do this.
Go buy yourself an iguana. Figurine or real.
Writers get fatigued. We get unmotivated. We question ourselves and our ability. If you’re having a fatigued day, skip writing and treat yourself to a nap. If you’re unmotivated, take the day off. If you question yourself and your ability, give yourself a good talking-to in the mirror – or contact me, and I’ll do it for you. I’ll even run with you to your favorite bar.
But this doesn’t mean it’s writer’s block. All you’re blocking is your own ideas. They’re there! If you keep pushing, putting down a word, any word, and then another, even if you don’t know how the sentence ends, there will be no writer’s block. It won’t exist.
Give yourself…and your ideas, even the stupid ones…a chance.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kathie Giorgio is the author of a total of fifteen books: eight novels, two story collections, an essay collection, and four poetry collections. She’s been nominated for the Pushcart Prize in fiction and poetry and awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Library Association, the Silver Pen Award for Literary Excellence, the Pencraft Award for Literary Excellence, and the Eric Hoffer Award In Fiction. Her poem “Light” won runner-up in the 2021 Rosebud Magazine Poetry Prize, and her work has also been incorporated into many visual art and musical events. Kathie is the director and founder of AllWriters’ Workplace & Workshop LLC, an international creative writing studio.
She lives with her husband, mystery writer Michael Giorgio, and their daughter Olivia, in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Three of her adult children, Christopher, Andy, and Olivia, live close by, along with her solo granddaughter, Maya Mae. One adult child has wandered off to Louisiana and lives among the mathematicians and alligators.
You can follow the author at:
Website: http://www.kathiegiorgio.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kathiegiorgioauthor/
X/Twitter: @KathieGiorgio
Instagram: @kathiegio1
WOW! WOMEN ON WRITING TOUR
of
Don’t Let Me Keep You
By Kathie Giorgio
Tour Begins October 21
Book Summary
Motherhood is a symphony, from the first movement, through crescendo after crescendo, to the finale.
Hildy Halverson, a genius in math and science, is pushed by her parents to step into a male-dominated field and change the world for women. But Hildy, enamored of the scientific force of the human body, and her own body’s ability to create and sustain life, decides to go against contemporary expectations. She marries young and raises a houseful of kids.
Hildy wants her children to choose their own life paths. As each child is born, she tells them, “You can be whatever you want to be, and whatever you want to be will be great.” Despite her efforts to not influence her children, Hildy does so, often in unexpected ways. Each child is introduced in that first private moment between Hildy and her new baby. This is followed by a chapter revealing that child’s life, years later. Woven throughout is an underlying grief over the death of the sixth baby soon after birth. That grief is more pervasive than any of them expect.
In this ambitious novel, the struggles and joys, fatigue and exhilaration of motherhood, are captured in the full panorama of family life. Hildy lovingly raises her children, then lets them go, finding herself along the way.
Publisher: Black Rose Publishing (October 3, 2024)
Print length: 230 pages
Reviews
Don’t Let Me Keep You is a lyrical meditation on motherhood seven times over, gestating, unfurling with rhythmic, poignant prose. Over decades we see each of the Halversons through the eyes of the others, bringing into sharp focus how differently each member can experience the same family. The way children protect their mothers, the way mothers remain children themselves, and what a mess we can still make of things despite our best intentions. That we can choose to love each other regardless of who we turn out to be, no matter what.
–Maggie Ginsberg, author of Still True
Don’t Let Me Keep You follows a math prodigy’s unconventional and slightly obsessive journey through motherhood. Giorgio’s dynamic characters and complex emotional bonds turn this family saga into a propulsive page turner wherein motherhood as a career is an empowering choice. At once gritty, heartbreaking, and hopeful, Don’t Let Me Keep You shows the fallibility of the human condition through the haunting eyes of a mother’s love as she struggles with the age-old question, Am I a good mother?
--Marisa Rae Dondlinger, author of Open and Come And Get Me
The thing I love about Kathie Giorgio's books are the surprises. Her books are not like anyone's. They are fresh, unique, and wonderful. Don't Let Me Keep You is all that and more. This is a story about motherhood, childhood and family. Belonging, expectations, and the enduring power of love. Of course, because this is Kathie's novel, there is poetry, and vignettes. A cast of characters worth knowing. And many opportunities to reflect on our lives as parents and children. I highly recommend Don't Let Me Keep You.
--Karen E. Osborne, Author of True Grace and Reckonings
With delightful finesse, author Kathie Giorgio weaves a flawless web of family love that weathers plenty of storms, but still comes out shimmering.
--Mary Ann Noe, author of Water the Color of Slate
Purchase a copy of Don’t Let Me Keep You on
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Let-Me-Keep-You/dp/1685134882
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dont-let-me-keep-you-kathie-giorgio/1145428066
Black Rose Publishing: https://www.blackrosewriting.com/womens/p/dontletmekeepyou
You can also add this to your GoodReads reading list:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/211567748-don-t-let-me-keep-yo
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