Saturday, October 2, 2010

The Cure for Writer's Block - Really

It took Robert Frost 20 years to get his first poem published.

It took me 38 years to get my first book published. Yep, I was ten years old when I sent in my first manuscript. Weeks later, an envelope addressed to me was in the mail. I tore into it with passion. I was a writer.

It was a rejection letter. They rejected a ten year old, sweet, little girl with a love for all things literary.

"Big deal. I'll write another one." Off to my desk to begin again. I was not thwarted, until I was in my forties and still getting rejection letters. You lose the innocence of childhood after writing and bleeding words for decades.

And one of the worst setbacks, primo to rejection letters, is ... writer's block. The dark, blank pain of no words to write, errrr, I mean type. You know it.

I have a variant on this menacing condition; "typist's block."

A writer is:
  • a person engaged in writing books, articles, stories, etc., esp. as an occupation or profession; an author or journalist.
  • a clerk, scribe, or the like.
  • a person who commits his or her thoughts, ideas, etc., to writing: an expert letter writer.
  • a person who writes or is able to write: a writer in script.
"writer." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 02 Oct. 2010. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/writer>.

A typist is:
  • a person who types
"typist." Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. HarperCollins Publishers. 02 Oct. 2010. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/typist>.

Which person above can have writer's block? What is writer's block? Hmmm, when a writer can't think of what to write? Or when someone can't continue typing? My motto? Just do it!

I found the cure for writer's block. I absolutely, unequivocally decided to admit I am a writer, not a typist. Do you fit the definition for writer above? Then you are a writer. That's it. Say it, "I am a writer, not a typist." When you agree with yourself that you don't have to reach a particular level to be declared a writer, you are then confirmed in your own mind. Writer's block goes away. 

Don't type--write. You are a writer!



PLEASE COMMENT! 8^) Visit me at http://www.cindyscinto.com