THE ICE PICK

Writer’s Block and How to Use It, by Victoria Nelson. Cincinnati : Writer’s Digest Books. ISBN 0-89879-168-5.

"Properly interpreted, writer’s block is the best thing that can happen to a writer." Most of us experience writer’s block, or at least "writer’s resistance," from time to time. The guilt, or even depression, some of us endure because other people say they never encounter writer’s block, or say that it doesn’t exist and we’re just being lazy, or simply because we know we "should" be writing, only adds to that stalled out feeling and may, according to Nelson, actually lengthen the period of the block and hinder our healing and our return to work. "The block is a signal to readjust the way you are approaching your work; it is not the problem itself."

Nelson discusses many different kinds of writer’s block that authors battle. These include "beginner’s block," where you face a blank piece of paper or screen and can’t even get started or are unable to resume writing after an absence; procrastination; perfectionism; demanding too much and punishing yourself for low productivity; obsessive rewriting, where you polish and polish and never let go; playing forever with notes, notebooks, and plans; fear of success; and forcing yourself to write one kind of material while your real talent lies elsewhere.

At the end of each chapter, Nelson gives exercises for breaking that particular kind of block, but the emphasis in the book is on our coming to an understanding of what writer’s block is and how our creative processes work. Or fail to work. As such, it is not so much a self-help book, with all of the finger-pointing advice often contained in them, as it is a discussion of where we are and why. And through that discussion she offers solutions, warnings, and lots of encouragement.

Basically, Nelson believes that writer’s block is a question of losing touch with the "creative child" inside each of us. You may argue with that, but the book does get you thinking about what your particular problem might be caused by, what good might come from it, and what you can do about it--all of which is better than berating yourself or sitting and staring at a work you’ve started and cannot finish.

At the very least, reading this fascinating book will give you something to do until your muse returns from her vacation.

{Published in GPIC, the Oklahoma Science Fiction Writers Newsletter, May, 2000.}