We all have our pet cures for writers block, and my favorite is one suggested recently by Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and And the Mountains Echoed.
On “Morning Joe” (8/1/13) he said, “I just start to write something. I start writing, even when I don’t know what I’m going to say. The tough part is beginning. It’s like taking the first postage stamp off a sheet of stamps. The first one is hard to get off, but it gets easier and easier.”
When asked where he gets his inspiration when writers block strikes, he said, “I have a healthy relationship with writers block. I don’t look at it as ‘I can’t think of anything to say.’ I just realize that my approach isn’t working. I step back and take a panoramic view, and think outside the box. (Editor’s note: In the Zone?) The answer is always a surprise.”
He went on to say that he never plans where his books are going or plots out the whole novel. He usually has a vague idea of what might happen with that day’s writing, and he starts there. But even when he has no idea what to put on the empty screen, he starts.
Hosseini writes for love, as we all do, but I find his description of this relationship inspiring, and have made a little sign for my desk with this quote from his interview in Writer’s Digest (July/August 2013):
The temptation to give up, to surrender, is very, very strong. And you have to have faith in the work that you’re doing. You have to have faith that as dark and unlikely and as dreary as things may seem, that it’s worth pursuing, and that there’s a good chance you’ll be glad you did. Writing a novel—this is a cliché—is like a marriage. There are ups and downs, there are times when you just want to leave and close the door, you just want to be alone, you don’t want to hear that voice, and so on and so forth, but it’s well worth it, and I’ve learned that, to stick with it.
You know, I came close to abandoning all three of my books—very, very close, multiple times—where life seemed so much more pleasant if I just didn’t have to try to work my way through the impasse. But I kept working, and I’m thankful every day that I did.
Words to live by, for all of us.