Overcoming Writer’s Block: Advice From A Very Smart Man

Mark Dery, a man much smarter than I (Time Magazine called him one of “the smartest people we know”) was one of my college journalism professors.

Back in 2005, three years after graduating from college, in the midst of writer’s paralysis, I reached out to Prof. Dery looking for inspiration.

Following is his response.  I don’t have permission to publish it so I hope he doesn’t mind but I’d be selfish not to share it.

“So sorry to hear.  Writer’s block, in my experience, is usually the result of excruciating self-consciousness — the grotesque swelling of the Superego, to the point where it shoots down every idea before you even put pen to paper.

“Stop second-guessing yourself. Stop assuming someone, somewhere, has said it better than you ever could. Tell yourself that being indelibly YOU is more important than being the best. Fact is, there’s no such thing as The Best.

“Once, when I was interviewing the novelist Paul Bowles (THE SHELTERING SKY), I asked who he thought was the best writer, or some similarly inane, jejune question. He sighed wearily and said, in effect, that my question was meaningless. ‘Who’s good?,’ he said. ‘Bach? Beethoven? Gogol? Balzac? The ones history winnows out for canonization? How many geniuses, better than them by far, died unknown? By definition, we can never know. So how can the question be answered? And how can we judge everyone, everywhere, at all times, with the same aesthetic yardstick?’ (I’m paraphrasing, here.)

“Remember, finally, that soldiering on is the better part of success. Writers are people who write. If you intend to write, write. Better to suck and be productive than to sentence yourself to silence because your standards are unattainable.

“Sit down at the typer and grind out that pound of flesh, every day. Let history, and people you value, and the almighty marketplace, decide, over time, if you should keep soldiering on. Give it three years. If, after writing every day for three years, you haven’t sold a single piece and people you respect offer little comfort in the way of compliments, *and if you aren’t sustained by the sheer joy of writing despite those grim truths*, give it up. But not until you’ve typed your fingers bloody for three straight years. That’s my sage counsel, for what it’s worth.”

Wow.

Photo credit: Laineys Repertoire

Tagged as: Blogging, journalism, mark dery, writer's block, Writing