On Handling Writer's Block

I have been going through a lull phase on this blog. I am writing sporadically, queuing up a lot of drafts but hardly publishing any. Am I going through another writer's block? I doubt I am. Instead, I am just being lazy.

I recently heard Javed Akhtar talk about how writer's block forges writers.

There are many people who could be very good writers. But when you start writing, even veterans – I know very big literary writers who have been very close. They write a page and feel, “What is this that I wrote? It’s so childish. So disconnected. There is no flow in it, and disgusted, they throw the paper. Then again. And then again. So gradually you will know what you don’t have to write. So, the options will become narrower, and you ultimately come to the point of what you should write.

Most of the people get demoralised in this process and quit. You have to go through this block -- work humiliates you. Work is worship, maybe. But it humiliates you. It rubs your nose on the carpet and makes you feel like a cockroach. And slowly, things come into focus. And then comes the time when you feel like a god. I have experienced moments when I am watching myself writing, and I feel surprised at why and how and when I learned this word. That, too, happens. But it comes afterwards. In the beginning, you are made to feel very small, insignificant, and incompetent. Most of us quit there.

I agree with Javed Saab here. Writer's block is what comes before writing. To write is the best way I know to come out of writer's block. Write crap. Write nonsense. But write. I have drafts full of meaningless posts that I never intend to publish. I trash them during a cleaning session- the digital equivalent of throwing the paper away. But getting the words in is what matters.

Whether to publish the crap is an individual's choice. Some like to get better in public. Some don't. There is no right way to write.

So, my lull period is not writer's block. I am just not getting the words in.