Writer’s Blockade

This is not a post about writer's block. No, we’re not here to discuss that irksome little mindblank that happens every once in awhile, usually caused by the brief moment it takes to refocus ourselves on our writing. We’re here to discuss the full-on siege that blocks our way to all inspiration for days, weeks, months, or (heaven forbid) years at a time. Call it writer’s block if you wish. I prefer "writer’s blockade."

In a letter to W.H. Auden, J.R.R. Tolkien wrote of how an arbitrary idiosyncracy of English grammar halted a childhood attempt at writing, and possibly placed a stubborn barricade against any such further endeavors for years to come.

"I first tried to write a story when I was about seven. It was about a dragon. I remember nothing about it except a philological fact. My mother said nothing about the dragon, but pointed out that one could not say 'a green great dragon', but had to say 'a great green dragon'. I wondered why, and still do. The fact that I remember this is possibly significant, as I do not think I ever tried to write a story again for many years, and was taken up with language."

He wrote in this letter, extensively, about his interest in linguistics and how writing stories came much later, serving the purpose of creating a world for his languages to inhabit. (Tolkien J.R.R., The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, ed. Humphrey Carpenter (Great Britain: Houghton Mifflin, 1995) 214)

This anecdote serves a dual purpose. It is not merely a funny story about a child stubbornly quitting writing over something relatively silly — only to become one of the greatest authors of all time. It illuminates, if we look more closely, how to build the ultimate weapon for demolishing the dread writer's blockade. For battling writer's blockade requires more than Ten Quick Tips from the internet (or reading a blog post from an unpublished author, you'll probably retort — which is why I'm borrowing Tolkien's authority). It requires the construction of a battering ram.

[B]attling writer's blockade requires more than Ten Quick Tips from the internet ... It requires the construction of a battering ram.

Passion is this ultimate weapon of which I speak. Passion will, with effort and patience, break down the most insurmountable siege of writer's blockade. Tolkien's passion sprang from language. He studied linguistics, he invented his own languages, the passion inspired him unceasingly. And so I ask myself, and you may ask yourself too, what is your great passion? As a writer, an artist, a storyteller, what drives you? Perhaps your answer is merely "writing" itself, or "words" themselves. If you do, however, ever find yourself up against, not the fleeting writer's block, but the perpetual writer's blockade, then perhaps the solution lies in digging a little deeper for your passion — or discovering a new passion. And perhaps, like Tolkien, you'll find this passion in the very blockade itself that frustrated you in the first place.