What to Write When Nothing's Left

Writer’s block: we all get it, and there are probably hundreds of books that talk about how to beat it. Maybe I’m trying to be a prophet: just inside the front edge of five final papers, I’m perhaps anticipating a little writer’s block coming my way by week’s end. What I’m not trying to give you here is a comprehensive list that will reach all writers for how to get rid of their block. Sometimes, quietude is necessary; I don’t know how many times I’ve stopped trying to push my writing and went for a ride – only to find my muse again. She doesn’t like being pent up in the house all day either, I’ve found. And you need to leave to find her.

Oftentimes, though, she’s hiding in the roots of my desire to write. Just as many times, I’m sure, when I take a step back to remind myself what my book (and series) is trying to do, I find my voice and desire once more. One peer critic in my creative writing class noted that my story was an example of writing a story around a theme instead of pulling the theme from the story – and said it in a bad way. Now, they just didn’t quite understand what was going on in the plot so they didn’t see a story. Others did, and this warmed my heart; but I think it’s a very post-modern thing to write a story and hope it has a theme – or perhaps just a purely wrong thing to do so. A writer can usually never tell whether the theme will speak to the zeitgeist, and that’s where they may say: “I just hope this strikes a chord in people” or some such statement. But the books that last are ones that aren’t just randomly a story – that’s why there are great writers, the majority of whose professional works are all good, not just random books. They have a point beyond telling a good story – they last through time because the basic human condition lasts through time, and their work can speak to successive generations.

There is another way to go, though, as I’m discovering through a work I’m reading now. It happens to be a Christian book, but any book is prone to this: and that is to push past trying to promote a theme and outright preaching. And yes, evolutionary atheists can preach too. I am with Tolkien who “cordially disliked allegory,” except I may more than cordially dislike it. For one thing, it insults the reader’s intelligence by assuming you can’t talk about your topic in straightforward terms.

And yet, I am promoting my ideas through my writing, and at times I need to squelch it a little from a desire not to blow my reader’s ears off. But when I take time to remember what cultural ill I am trying to address, and more importantly remember my passion in addressing it – that’s when the writing comes.

See you tomorrow.