Quit WRITING and Write! Advice on overcoming writer's block by Don Keith
Author Don Keith
Whenever I have the honor of presenting at a writers’ conference or meet with a group of would-be authors, I almost always get asked two questions. They are: “What do you do when you have ‘writer’s block?’” and, “How can I finish this novel I’ve been writing since Reagan was president?”
If you look at my bio, you will quickly see I am not afflicted by either problem. I’ve been fortunate to complete and have published more than forty books, fiction and non-fiction. I have self-published a half dozen and published by houses ranging from the smallest to some of the largest in the world. The works include bestsellers, flops, many that have been in print for more than two decades now, several that won major awards, and two that were adapted for the screen. Obviously, I’m not familiar with that writer’s block syndrome that infects so many authors. Nor do I squander an inordinate amount of time beginning to think about getting around to considering commencing to start and/or complete a book. I simply believe there are too many stories that need to be told for me to goof around and not get them all sewed up and delivered to people who might enjoy or be entertained, inspired, or informed by reading them.
You might say that’s all well and good, but you are not me. We are all different. You need someone to tell you how to get off the dime and finish that book. And then start the next one. And the next one after that. And let me be clear that if you write just because you enjoy the process and really have little desire or drive to be published and read by a lot of people, then this advice is not necessarily for you.
I believe in many instances, and whether it is intentional or not, writers spin their wheels because of a fear that if the book is finished and people—relatives, friends, fellow writers, potential agents or publishers—have a chance to read it, they might call their baby ugly. Fear of rejection. Bad reviews. Even jealous negativity from writers they know. They have decided nobody can hurt their feelings if the book remains “unfinished” behind a password on the computer. All I can say is, “Get tough!” You will get turned down by agents and publishers and hit square in the chops by negative reviews. Bet on it! Though I average more than 90% 4- and 5-star Amazon reviews on every book I have released, there have been a few who happily slapped a one-star put-down on my literary masterpiece. Want to know a secret? Sometimes they are right, and it helps me do an even better job on the next one. Sometimes they are so far out in left field—“Amazon delivered the book two days later than promised so I give it a single star!”—that I can happily ignore it. Besides, when 90% of purchasers are favorable toward the book, the very few who react negatively, in my very biased opinion, are the ones who are woefully out of step. Not the rest of the parade, the folks who are positive in their opinions. At any rate, please do not allow anticipated negativity to keep you from completing your book. Or from starting the next one.
As I admitted, I do not understand writer’s block. Sure, there are times when the muse on my shoulder is not quite so chatty, and it is something of a struggle to get something…anything…written. All I can say is to persevere. Write something. Anything. Now, if you still write on a legal pad with a ballpoint pen, or, like historical author Shelby Foote, use a feather quill dipped into an ink well (because, as he said, every word requires thought and precision) then it is not quite so easy to write, review, and revise. But with computer and word processor, you can always rewrite, tighten, fix, and make better anything you might type while forcing yourself to create something. Or as sometimes happens with me, I go back and read it and decide what I wrote when I was struggling to get anything committed to manuscript actually turned out to be pretty good.
Of course, there could be a reason why it seems you are casting literary seed on infertile ground. In the case of a novel, it could be that your story is not yet fully developed in your head. Maybe you get the reader lost in more backstory than is necessary, or you have far more detail than you need to tell the story, or you cover the same ground repeatedly just to make sure the reader gets what you are trying to say. Or you spend inordinate time and effort preparing to construct your yarn, outlining the story or writing detailed biographies of all the characters so you can allow yourself to “know them.” Or maybe because you do not outline or jot down a short biography for each character when it really could help keep you on track. Or you suddenly realize that the book’s structure is all sideways and you have no idea how to set it upright. Admittedly, a foundational problem is going to be tougher to push through. But if the story is worth telling and the people who populate it are worth getting to know, then I believe the best way to get back on track is to write right on through that wall of procrastination. At least for me, there have been many times when I plotted myself right into a corner. But in most cases—not always since there is a flock of wounded ducks on my computer in a folder labeled “Worthy Attempts,” fits-and-starts that I still want to try to resuscitate someday—I decided I would never get the story told if I did not find a way to make it work. Not force it to work. Find the solution for whatever goof-up had left me stranded. There is always one, of course. Maybe more than one. At least there is in real life, and the best stories reflect real life, right?
A final reason, I think, that writers cannot finish a project, or they have trouble moving forward when their creativity skedaddles, is that they are too busy WRITING to actually write. Yes, WRITING in all-caps. They forget that they should simply be telling a compelling story involving believable and fascinating characters. Maybe allow all that writing craft you’ve heard and read about—and that gets kicked around at conferences and whenever two or more authors gather—to take a back seat for at least the first couple of drafts. To be even more clear, I am talking about avoiding WRITING PRETTY at the expense of getting the story told! So many writers are convinced that they must turn out the most spectacular prose ever committed to a hard drive. Otherwise, literary agents, writing teachers, publishers, critics, and—worst of all—readers who slapped $19.95 onto their credit cards to take home or download your tome will think less of you because there were not enough clever and perfectly applied adverbs, adjectives, metaphors, similes, imagery, or foreshadowing.
All I can say is don’t worry so much about WRITING at the expense of finishing the project! Tell the story. Yes, find different and creative ways to say familiar things. But don’t go tripping all over yourself to come up with the absolutely perfect description of a sunset or a murder. Don’t get sidetracked by trying to be poetic or multi-syllabic, showing out to impress your writer friends or your sophomore-year English teacher with how brilliantly you employ all those literary devices.
Tell the story. Tell it as if you were sitting around on the deck with friends, sharing margaritas, chips and salsa. “Here’s what happened and how it happened and who it happened to.” Get it down, then go back and see if you can come up with some creative ways of polishing the narrative and making it shine like new money. Try to do it without getting tripped up by all that pretty writing, of course.
And keep writing. The rest of us want to be moved by that tale that, deep inside, you know you were born to share.
So, quit procrastinating, pass the salsa, and tell us all about the person over at the place that did that thing he or she did and was forever changed by the experience.
Award-winning and best-selling author Don Keith is a graduate of the University of Alabama. As a broadcast journalist, he won awards from the Associated Press and United Press International for news writing and reporting and received Troy University’s Hector Award for innovation in broadcast journalism. As an on-the-air broadcaster, Don was twice named Billboard Magazine "Radio Personality of the Year." His debut novel, The Forever Season, received the Alabama Library Association’s "Fiction of the Year" award. He has since published more than forty books, fiction and non-fiction, including several national bestsellers. One was the basis for the hit motion picture Hunter Killer, starring Gerard Butler and Gary Oldman. His biography of acclaimed African American artist Steve Skipper became the theatrical documentary feature Colors of Character.
Don lives in Indian Springs Village, Alabama, with his wife, Charlene. His email address is don@donkeith.com and his web site is www.donkeith.com.