William Stafford vs. Toni Morrison on Writers' Block
Your responses and thoughts about the quotes below are welcome!
The great poet William Stafford was often quoted for telling writers to lower their expectations of themselves in order to keep writing. Stafford is quoted here:
“I believe that the so-called “writing block” is a product of some kind of disproportion between your standards and your performance. I can imagine a person beginning to feel that he’s not able to write up to that standard he imagines the world has set for him. But to me that’s surrealistic. The only standard I can rationally have is the standard I’m meeting right now. Of course I can write. Anybody can write. People might think that their product is not worthy of the person they assume they are. But it is.” -William Stafford
Nobel-prize and Pulitzer-prize winning novelist Toni Morrison shared a different view of it:
“I tell my students there is such a thing as “writer’s block,” and they should respect it. You shouldn’t write through it. It’s blocked because it ought to be blocked, because you haven’t got it right now. All the frustration and nuttiness that comes from “Oh, my God, I cannot write now” should be displaced. It’s just a message to you saying, ‘That’s right, you can’t write now, so don’t.’” -Toni Morrison
Do you have thoughts about this? How do you deal with Writers’ Block (if you experience it)? Let’s openly discuss..
Life is filled with plenty of “i don’t wanna.” For some, writing HAS to happen. When the block rears its ugly head, I transfer my writing energy into a different project. Step away from Priority #1 and look at Fun Project #1 instead.
I once heard an interview with Ruth Ozeki about her writing process. She said something that really stuck with me. She described writer's block as this big wall separating her rational mind from the magic that exists on the other side of the wall, and it was this impenetrable thing that she would prepare to throw herself at. And when she did, she would fall through the other side and realize "there is no wall there at all!" - that the wall was a hallucination. (which reminds me of that scene in The Matrix with the spoon... don't try to bend the spoon... realize there is no spoon.)
I view "the wall" as a mental manifestation of resistance, similar to how emotion manifests in our physical bodies... but here's the thing... I think that resistance is a really useful tool. It tells us there is something on the other side worth exploring. And when we encounter it, our job becomes practicing a shift in perspective. We must re-learn how to see. There is no wall.
I think we do this by returning to the basics and remove the stakes... practice freewriting, journal writing, prompt writing, write for yourself, read... until your perspective shifts. Maybe we should combine the advice from both Stafford and Morrison.
- Remove our expectations (and tell our inner critic to shove off)
- Don't throw ourselves at the wall. Practice (or stretch with writer-adjacent tasks) until our minds are ready to see that there is no wall.