The Best Writer’s Block Quote I Ever Heard

By: Ebonye Gussine Wilkins

For the most part, I don’t really encounter writer’s block. It just isn’t something that has affected me very much. That doesn’t mean that everything I write is good. I once started a memoir and I got less than two pages in and realized that it was really really awful. I scrapped that project. It is now being re-invented as a work of fiction, with a lot of changes.

In any case, I came across this wonderful post by Flavorwire that featured 13 famous writers and their thoughts on writer’s block. I read all of them, because I always like to know what other people are thinking, but number seven struck me the most. It was from Orson Scott Card, and it resonated with me because it sums up what I unconsciously knew about writer’s block all along. I basically write myself into a wall because it wasn’t believable, not even to me. So my mind gives up and goes on vacation and I get stuck.

Luckily, those occasions are rare for me. Usually, I have a specific scenario I intend to write, and the characters completely take over and tell me who they are, not who I originally intended for them to be. When I stray from what my characters are telling me about who they are and what they want, I get stuck.

In any case, here is the quote taken from Flavorwire:

“Writer’s block is my unconscious mind telling me that something I’ve just written is either unbelievable or unimportant to me, and I solve it by going back and reinventing some part of what I’ve already written so that when I write it again, it is believable and interesting to me. Then I can go on. Writer’s block is never solved by forcing oneself to “write through it,” because you haven’t solved the problem that caused your unconscious mind to rebel against the story, so it still won’t work – for you or for the reader.” — Orson Scott Card

What do you think causes your writer’s block?