Larry M. Coleman

Writer’s block. We’ve all heard of it. Some people say they have it, others say it doesn’t exist. What is it? And if you have it, what can you do to get rid of it?

You’re asking the wrong person. I never have it. If anything, there are times when I wish I could not write.

Certainly there are periods when I’m not entering words into the word processor. Long periods, sometimes. I don’t consider those periods being “blocked” because during them, a lot is going on under the surface. For example, at the moment, I’ve completely finished the trilogy that is going to come out once Ride On finally hits the shelves. I’m not writing anything else for now.

But that doesn’t mean I’m not writing. I’m spending most of my summer reading, trying to get as much done before class starts again on September 1. I read like a writer, so I’m not reading junk quickly. I tend to read slowly and think about what’s in the book and how it was crafted; what choices the author made and why and how they worked (or didn’t). To me, writing is the other side of the coin from reading, so doing one well helps do the other well.

I’m actively using this “inactivity.” Now that the manuscript for Steph’s Diary (the working title) is done, I’m letting my mind not be confronted with it every day. This lets it sink back under the surface where I’m not in touch with it for a while. I want to lose touch with it because when I look at it again in a month or two, it’s time for the first major revision pass. I want to look at it with fresh eyes so I’ll see it in a different way than I did when I was wandering its maze.

That’s not to say it’s getting no work done on it. My subconscious will still be plucking away at it. When we do this at the start of a project, it’s called incubation. I call the period after the first draft is done the “recombination” phase. I imagine that if I could see my unconscious mind working on it, it would go something like this amazing video of Wintergatan’s Marble Machine:

There’s so much going on inside this machine. The balls are dropping, getting recovered, pulled back up; there gears within gears working even in places where you can’t see them. Things are being shifted and shuffled around, and these things have to happen for the machine to work at all.

Or, if you feel like you actually are blocked, watch the video for no other reason than to admire it. Good fiction is often nothing more than non-fiction in drag: in other words, looking at the world and admiring it without being critical of it. Personally, I can’t imagine not being inspired by the unique blend of complexity and whimsy in the Marble Machine, so give it a try and see if it unblocks you. Good luck!