Writer’s block is like someone coming after you with a metaphorical knife and trying to stab you right in the intellectual creativity. It’s the most scary, macabre thing for a writer suddenly to find that he or she has stopped having ideas. It’s a powerful incentive not to write, because you fear that you’re going to write something that’s not good enough.
Writer’s block, fortunately, doesn’t exist outside our own heads. We actually stop ourselves from trying to write because we’re afraid. The way that you get over writer’s block is to tell yourself that you don’t have to be perfect, that what you’re creating doesn’t have to be an end result. It’s part of a process of discovery. If you’re going off on an adventure, how can you blame yourself for not quite knowing where you’re going to go or for being a little bit imperfect on the way? So one of the tricks that I’ve learned about writer’s block—and I discovered this on the internet, strangely—is to write a piece of crap. What does that mean? It means don’t try so hard. You just get anything you can onto the page.
Oddly enough, this doesn’t just apply to writers. Years ago, I was working with Sylvester Stallone, and I asked him if he got writer’s block. He said, “Oh, yes.” “And what do you do?” I asked. He said, “I just write anything. I just write anything, and pretty soon other things start coming out of me, and the words start to flow again.” I’ve read pieces by computer programmers advising the same thing—if you’re stuck and nothing will come, write a piece of crap.
So this isn’t just me. Anybody trying to do something creative will face this fear that they’re not good enough or that the project isn’t going to turn out. The key is to let go of that fear and allow yourself to fail. Write a piece of crap and keep at it until you find yourself writing something you can live with again.
Changing something about your creative process can help too. Sometimes going to talk to someone instead of just sitting in your room causes a different part of your brain to become active. Sometimes it helps to walk away from your work and go take a shower—some of my best ideas happen when I’m doing something completely unrelated to work.
But the most important thing is to tell yourself that it doesn’t have to be perfect. It can be crap. And then you just write anything, let it come out of you, and don’t judge it until later. There’s a little critter on my shoulder that’s always telling me what an idiot I am for writing and how terrible it’s going to be. He’s never right. When I come back to what I’ve written later, I’m always surprised by how good it is. You can’t judge what you’re writing as you write it. The secret to avoiding writer’s block is not to try.