Writer's (sun)block - by Lu Hersey

 I'm finding high summer a very difficult time to write. It's not as if I don't have the time, and the days are wonderfully long. But that's part of the problem. Instead of knuckling down, sitting in front of the laptop, I'm idly gazing at the garden and wishing it either had a swimming pool or could be transported to Cornwall for the summer. My laptop has become somewhere to look on Rightmove for houses by the sea, find exotic beach holidays, or to research garden water features (none of which I can afford, but that's not the point). Some writers call this 'writer's block'. In my case, it's more like writer's sunblock.

My garden swimming pool

If you're suffering from a similar inability to focus on your writing when it's nice outside, stop looking at the possibility of AI writing the damn book for you (yes, I've also researched that 😎) and give yourself a break. It might be raining tomorrow.

Many famous writers have voiced their opinions on the subject of writer's block. Here's what acerbic writer and journalist Auberon Waugh had to say:

"In my experience, novelists and others who complain of a mysterious disease called Writer's Block should be treated with suspicion. This inexplicable failure to write anything can be the result of two conditions - simple laziness or having nothing to say... one only needs to develop a certain power of concentration and have something to say."

Laziness? Pfft. I prefer 'thinking time'. Even if that's simply thinking about driving to the beach... and if I have something to say, why not say it later?

Toni Morrison was more enigmatic. "I tell my students there is no such thing as 'writer's block,' and they should respect it. It's blocked because it ought to be blocked, because you haven't got it right now."

Damn right Toni. I haven't got it right now. What I do have is a desire to go to swimming. Sometimes you've just got to live it rather than write it...

Neil Gaiman, whose output is so stunning, imaginative and prolific (just thinking about it is enough to give you writer's block) says:

"I don't believe in 'writer's block'. I try and deal with getting stuck by having more than one thing to work on at a time. And by knowing that even a hundred bad words that didn't exist before is forward progress."

Admittedly that's one way to get around it, Neil. Have a multitude of ideas and things you could be working on. Actually I have several ideas I could go back to... but then there are millions of other books out there for people to read, so why bother? Mine can all wait until the weather changes.

Philip Pullman is more pragmatic. "All writing is difficult. The most you can hope for is a day when it goes reasonably easily. Plumbers don't get plumber's block and doctor's don't get doctor's block; why should writers be the only profession that gives a special name to the difficulty of working, and then expect sympathy for it?"

Thing is, Philip, pipes need unblocking and people need curing. Books don't really need to be written, do they? But I see your point... 

Lastly, here's Chuck Palahniuk on the subject (you may need a content warning for this one, but it's one of my favourites): "Do you ever go into the bathroom and sit on the toilet when you don't need to take a shit? Do you ever just sit there completely empty and sit there and push? No you don't. You go eat something and them you live your life and what happens, happens. It's the same thing with writing. If I don't have an idea I'm terrified of losing, then I don't bother to write."

So I'm with Chuck. Right now, there's nothing in my head I'm terrified of losing. If that's how you feel too, just eat and live your life. Go out and enjoy your writer's sunblock. It's nearly summer solstice, so the days will be getting shorter soon enough...

My garden water feature. Not quite what I imagined, but it was a mere £17.99 online...

Lu Hersey