Writers Block

Jane Bowles was a writer that was influential to the beat movement. John Ashbery was a critic for the NY Times Book Review, and he claimed she was “one of the greatest writers of fiction in any language.” Jane and her husband wrote together, but when Jane’s husband’s career took off without her she struggled with writing. She was frustrated with the way he wrote with ease, when she always had to work diligently on hers. She claimed she was “dying of writers block.” She used her creativity for other things and only wrote a few short stories throughout the rest of her life.

Natalie Goldberg is a talented writer of today. She is acclaimed for writing books about writing, and is an influential writing teacher to many. She claims that writers block does not exist, but is when we let our own critical voice stop us from sharing our ideas. She suggests writing everyday to practice, even if that means writing, “This is such crap. I can’t write anything.” Supposedly, this will get old and the good stuff will come out.

I understand where both are coming from, because lately I have been doing as Natalie Goldberg says and writing a bunch of random crap that is more like brainstorming, but it doesn’t lead to anything. I can see how Jane would claim she is “dying of writers block,” if this lasted for the rest of her life. Jane grew depressed as she approached death and died alone at a hospital in Spain in 1974. I think she grew depressed, because she stopped writing. I believe that everyone should write, even if it’s just a journal or list of random thoughts. I think it is a healthy way to deal with things, but I also think there are particular people that just have to write. I think I will always have to write, which is why it would be so nice to have it be a part of my career, but no matter where I end up I will be writing. I also realize there are events that will come in my life that will make me feel that I am unable to write. I have already faced some of those events, but I know I will always go back to typing like crazy at early hours of the morning or scribbling down random thoughts that don’t follow the lines in my notebook and are almost illegible.

I think my problem is that I am being too critical of my ideas, because I have less time to write these days, which means I feel pressure to write something good when I do have time. I used to write all of the time and would eventually come up with something. I want to do more poetry, but feel inexperienced and intimidated as a result of my lack of training in it. I love my writers group, because I feel like that is helping me improve and push myself, but part of me feels like I can’t grow as a writer until I start more English classes again. I realize with the two academic writing classes I have in the fall that I will probably not do much writing for fun, but I think academic writing helps me grow as a creative writer too. It gives me confidence and forces me to articulate ideas more clearly. I am blogging, because I have writers block, but am trying to follow Natalie Goldberg’s suggestions and just write. I used to have to do this for independent study a lot. Write on everyone.