Cath, do you think Lord (Dr) Robert Winston's upper-lip adornment falls into porno tache territory?

http://archives.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/11/04/britain.scientist/

Is he a trendsetter?

Adele

Hmmmmmmmmmmm...........

I think he's a borderline case, Adele. But the sniffing women's smelly T-shirts might just tip him over.

Dr Cath

I defer to your expertise. Should put him on tache watch, along with Saddam Hussein?

The funny thing is, this post is called 'writers block' yet it has more pages than any other. No-one is lost for words here! I'm proud to be surrounded by so many blethers. Sorry, I may have ruined your thread. What were you all talking about? Tash's and hookers?

And there was you assuming we only wanted to talk about Keats, Wilde and Kafka. Changed your mind?

He he, I can just imagine you now, going through the previous pages, searching for my comment. Nice to be quoted - you do owe me for that though.......

Back to the original topic of this thread, writers' block, I've just found in my notes from Robert McKee's Story seminar a book recommendation. It is The War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle by Steven Pressfield. I haven't read it but it looks interesting.

Adele.

Hey, people who write. Sorry to kill the fun. We all love to discuss writer's block as if it were some inscrutable, inexplicable affliction when it is but plain and simple. . . LAZINESS. I can't believe i have said that in as pedestrian a manner as possible but if you look deep enough into the problem it is just thatand nothing more. Sorry for seeing the Emperor this naked. I am just a simpleminded KID

Hey, nice intro Kareef - good to see you're keen to make friends!

I think the point people are making is that there is sometimes a difference between just writing and writing something you are genuinely pleased with and feel is good or at least has potential.

If you're struggling with the latter, then you could term that a writer's block - not sleeping on the job.

Beadle

4am - had a few bevvies, Kareef? Haha.

Again I apologize for sounding rather obtuse but I don't really believe you can label writing in this manner: so it goes, this one here "sleeping on the job" and this one here "not good enough". When you are a writer you just sit down and write. There is no other way. It doesn't matter to you at that point whether your writing will make people faint with envy or disgust. . . you just write. Then after the furious pounding on the keys you revise which for me is always fun. This works for me and I strongly believe it does too for other people if they will just stop looking for excuses and really sit down and write. Is this kid such a nuisance now? He he!

I think there is such thing as writer's block and it's not laziness. But also you are totally right, the best way to overcome it is just to sit down and write - without worrying what comes out. It's fear and judging that can get in the way.

Cath

Good point, well made Kareef and it works for you.

But I think it's worth considering other people's point of view as well. This thread talks about problems with writing that some choose to call 'writer's block' - which may or may not be excuses, as you say.

Others on the thread suggest ways of combating this problem, most of them similar to your advice to just pound the keyboards.

But do you really think they are being lazy? It's more complex than that, or even if it is simple, it is certainly not laziness.

Maybe some people are too harsh on their own writing, maybe they look for excuses not to work on something, maybe they're just too tired to write but feel guilty just to takea break.

All the people on this site are serious, and many support themselves with their writing. if they were lazy they would have bothered to sign up to the website in the first place.

Have a go at commenting on some work - then post your own for feedback. I think you will soon see that lazyness as no door key to this house.

Beadle

It's entirely possible to be lazy by writing non-stop for hours, not thinking about what you're doing. It's often the thinking process that's the hard part, and just typing whatever comes into your head can be an evasion of that. The point is, how do you run checks on yourself as a writer? How do you fight against producing easy-to-reach crap, and instead getting hold of something interesting, different, new? Some take on this struggle while they're actually writing; others do it before they write anything at all; yet others do a combination.

Every workshop I go on at the moment seems obsessed with 'brainstorming', which involves writing in post-it notes every thought everyone has about a subject, sticking them all on a flip chart then having someone type them all up afterwards. The problem with this approach is that it doesn't work the same for everyone. Some people score a lot of post-it notes, but they are often the types who evade real thinking by pouring out lots of mental crap, lots of 'product'. Which we all end up having to read, unfortunately.

I disagree, actually, Terry. I think all art really comes from our subconscious and the best way of 'getting hold of something interesting, different, new' is to access that as best as possible. And the way to do that is not to think too much because our logical thoughts get in the way. It's the same idea as the left brain/right brain thing.

The thinking should come afterwards with editing, recieving feedback, etc. I think.

I guess that's what those workshops are trying to get at - but maybe not very successfully. You're right a lot of crap can come out in the process and perhaps that shouldn't be shared!!

Cath