Blocked
I sat in front of this screen for hours--literally--without an idea of what to write. And that was what to write.
See, I don't believe in Writer's Block. I think it's an invention of writers who want you to believe that what we do is a mystical, magical practice touched by the gods and available only to the Chosen Few.
What a load of crap.
I don't think writing--and by that I mean writing ANYTHING, not just mystery novels--is a sacred calling. I think it's something that I have a talent for, and that by studying and practicing (mostly practicing), I have learned to do better than most, and not as well as some.
Mostly, I think of it as my job. Some people are gifted technicians; they can take something apart and put it back together, often with unnecessary parts left out, at the age of six. Some people are talented attorneys. They understand the intention and the workings of the legal system better than the rest of us could if we studied for centuries.
Some people are gifted politicians. Pity them.
The point is, everyone has a talent for something, even if that thing is not often thought of as "an art." Dairy farmers can understand how to increase milk output from a cow who has been sluggish, and they an do it without drugs. Marketing consultants are able to take one look at you, or your product, and tell you how to make more people want to spend money on that. Photographers look through the lens of a camera and see things right in front of us that we don't notice.
That's not a mystical power--that's a talent. And no matter what your job might be, you have one. It might not be for the thing you do to make your living, and that would be a shame. But you have one.
I'm lucky. I get to make my living--such as it is--doing something that, genetically or by luck, I was pre-wired to do. That doesn't mean that a creature called a Muse sits on my shoulder while I'm working, or that a light from On High has shone upon me when I'm really working well. It means that I had a predisposition to do something well, and I have practiced that skill to the point that I can harness it pretty much whenever I want to do so.
Inside that "pretty much" lies the concept that some people call Writer's Block.
Some days, even the best electrician isn't going to feel like wiring that new service. There will be times that the planet's most whiz-bang dentist will want to do anything other than look inside another mouth. I'm guessing there are even moments when Barack Obama sits back and wonders if he really should have run for President. Well, maybe not yet. But they'll come.
And so it follows that some days, I won't feel like writing. And I'll do anything other than write. I'll try to fix the toilet in the downstairs bathroom, which has been flushing itself about every ten minutes for a while now. I'll decide for the umpteeth time to try to learn "Hazy Shade of Winter" on my acoustic 12-string, even though I know I can't do it up to speed. I'll spend hours on "research" for a project I'm sure my agent will talk me out of in roughly three minutes.
Why? Because writing is hard, and sometimes, people want the comfort of doing only easy things.
But if I have a Star-Ledger assignment that has to be submitted by Wednesday (as I do) and I wake up Wednesday morning and don't feel like writing, that I'm unable to come up with a snappy lead paragraph, will I call my editor and tell her, with all sincerity, that I have Writer's Block?
Um, no. I'll sit my butt down in the chair and I'll write that article, because one of the things about being able to do this for a living is that you really enjoy getting paid. And if you try using the "Writer's Block Defense" on a newspaper editor, you will not only NOT get paid, you'll be remarkably lucky ever to get another assignment from that publication.
Do plumbers get "Plumber's Block?" Do restaurant servers get "Waiter's Block?" Clearly, there IS such a thing as "Stock Broker's Block," or I wouldn't be watching my meager retirement fund evaporate before my eyes.
Writer's Block. Seriously. Why do non-writers buy in on such a blatant flim-flam?
Because it's a mystical, magical calling from the heavens. Right. I forgot.
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