Writer’s Block Part 1 - Does it exist?
I was planning on waiting a little longer for this line of posts, but why not now? 
Bethany’s comment on the previous post seems a good reason to get this ball rolling.
“Just my personal opinion, but I don’t happen to believe that writer’s block exists, really. All that that is is the desire not to write. Because the only way to be a writer is if you can sit down and force yourself to type something, even when your mind is saying, “No, I don’t know what to write nextâ€?, and keeping on writing, nonsense if you have to, until the words properly start flowing again.” - Bethany
I’d like to do some posts on writer’s block, but first I’d like to know the general attitude people who read here have toward it. Does it exist? Why do you think that? What are your experiences surrounding it.
I’m going to withold my opinion on the matter for a little bit and see what everyone else has to say about it.
So… does it actually exist?
November 20th, 2006 at 9:48 pm
Yes. I believe that writer’s block exists.
Boy, howdy.
November 21st, 2006 at 12:46 am
Sometimes you go wild on your keyboard.Everything just spills out and you know you have got it right.
Sometimes the keyboard sucks,the thought of sitting on the chair sucks. The whole world sucks and you get into those writer’s moods. Call it lazy, call it absence of the muse.
Call it writer’s block.
November 21st, 2006 at 9:43 am
Neelima is spot on! Sometimes the words flow out of you like there’s no tomorrow, when I was doing Nano, I did 4000 words in one day and hardly noticed. But there are also times when you really are not in the mood. Writer’s block is just one way of expressing the feeling at moments like that.
November 21st, 2006 at 6:02 pm
Hehe. I love the responses so far. I know the feeling of just going wild and having everything flow, and I also know that this nano has been one of my hardest things to keep going with.
So, writer’s block exists, but it’s an expression of other things, like not wanting to write /not being in the mood, etc.
Correct?
November 21st, 2006 at 10:10 pm
I would say that’s spot on Jaime
It’s a symptom, not a cause!
November 21st, 2006 at 11:49 pm
More like an excuse for not writing, I think.
November 22nd, 2006 at 11:45 am
totally lame excuse for not to write. but i agree with DaveP too, it’s more of a symptom rather a cause.
November 22nd, 2006 at 11:50 am
Another thought yes sometimes your creative side really doesn’t want to show up, even mighty Shakespeare or Homer had time for creativity and time for just lay around.
November 22nd, 2006 at 4:38 pm
A while back I had a creative spurt & wrote over 100 poems, some quite good. The good ones tended to spew forth with hardly a pause, like someone turned on a tap. Then it all dried up & now I have trouble thinking of a topic to write on - not sure if that qualifies as writers block or a dearth of imagination.
But when the muse flowed, it was hard NOT to write, & IMO, the writing was much better than when i tried to make it happen.
November 22nd, 2006 at 7:18 pm
Good points from everyone, definitely.
November 23rd, 2006 at 12:52 am
It does exist.
But when I was in high school I did not beileve it did. Writing came easy to me then because I was writing my fantasies, with the characters having different names.
Now I think that writer’s block can come from many different sources: fear, neglect, devaluing yourself and your writing, depression, etc. The list goes on and on.
But writer’s block can be overcome, too. You don’t have to wait for it to pass. By using writing prompts and free association writing exercises you can shake off the funk and move back into your writing zone.
Basically, the feelings you have about your writing are just a extension of the feelings you have about your life in and writing abilities in general at that moment in time.
November 23rd, 2006 at 8:03 am
[...] A couple of posts (here and here) over at Fiction Scribe caught my eye. Jaime discusses the touchy subject of writers block, asking whether there really are times when creativity dries up and the muse heads south for an extended holiday, or is it just an excuse not to write. I hate to sit on the fence, but I suspect it is a little of both. [...]
November 23rd, 2006 at 6:42 pm
I completely agree, especially with the cause of devaluing yourself and your writing. Writing and your life are linked more than most people realize.