Today I find myself pondering the much mused upon, often quoted, frequently discussed and played out topic of writers block. To the long suffering readers who occasionally, or maybe not so occasionally, logon to a particular site hoping for an update, I salute you. It’s your patience that, often times, provides the impetus to the writer. Knowing there’s an audience baying for your ramblings is a mighty strong incentive to put finger to keyboard or pen to paper or forehead to desk. Whether delays or gaps in the ramblings can actually be attributed to writer block however, is something I’m unable (without a good few hours pondering and chin stroking at least) to conclude.
Certainly in my case, the issue of discipline is perhaps the more pertinent argument. I’d be the first one to hold my hand up and admit to being wholly undisciplined. I’m also rather embarrassed to admit I don’t save this particular trait just for writing. Oh no, I apply it to every aspect of my life in equal measure. People say that doing things simply because you enjoy them is easy. I would say that doing things because you enjoy them AND whenever you want to, is in fact easy. Doing things you enjoy in order to meet a deadline when you’re not particularly in the mood, is really rather hard work. Of course hard work is an extremely relative term and put alongside building a patio, climbing Everest or opening a tetra pack carton without pouring the contents down your shirt, writing a blog every couple of days is actually a piece of cake – but hopefully you catch my drift.
My Dad, upon whom I draw for much of my inspiration, always said ‘make your hobby pay’. Of course being the man he was he also said that ‘when your hobby becomes your job it ceases to be your hobby’. Wise words indeed. His solution to this rather perplexing conundrum was to turn his hobby (playing in a Jazz band) into half a job. He ended up playing semi-professionally most of his life, and made a great success of it. What a clever chap.
Anyway, as usual I appear to waffling and have deviated from my initial brief. Writers block. Yes it almost certainly does exist. Whether or not I have actually experienced it however, in all of its gruesome, painful, Technicolor clarity and detail, is unlikely. I’ve continued to do the things I enjoy whenever lucid and whenever the mood takes me, and not to meet any particular deadline.
Of course the voice that lives at the back of my head is now screaming that I should discipline myself into writing regularly, in the vain hope that it will help instil an element of discipline elsewhere in my life. As usual the voice is right. Unfortunately I’m not only undisciplined but also selectively deaf.
Certainly in my case, the issue of discipline is perhaps the more pertinent argument. I’d be the first one to hold my hand up and admit to being wholly undisciplined. I’m also rather embarrassed to admit I don’t save this particular trait just for writing. Oh no, I apply it to every aspect of my life in equal measure. People say that doing things simply because you enjoy them is easy. I would say that doing things because you enjoy them AND whenever you want to, is in fact easy. Doing things you enjoy in order to meet a deadline when you’re not particularly in the mood, is really rather hard work. Of course hard work is an extremely relative term and put alongside building a patio, climbing Everest or opening a tetra pack carton without pouring the contents down your shirt, writing a blog every couple of days is actually a piece of cake – but hopefully you catch my drift.
My Dad, upon whom I draw for much of my inspiration, always said ‘make your hobby pay’. Of course being the man he was he also said that ‘when your hobby becomes your job it ceases to be your hobby’. Wise words indeed. His solution to this rather perplexing conundrum was to turn his hobby (playing in a Jazz band) into half a job. He ended up playing semi-professionally most of his life, and made a great success of it. What a clever chap.
Anyway, as usual I appear to waffling and have deviated from my initial brief. Writers block. Yes it almost certainly does exist. Whether or not I have actually experienced it however, in all of its gruesome, painful, Technicolor clarity and detail, is unlikely. I’ve continued to do the things I enjoy whenever lucid and whenever the mood takes me, and not to meet any particular deadline.
Of course the voice that lives at the back of my head is now screaming that I should discipline myself into writing regularly, in the vain hope that it will help instil an element of discipline elsewhere in my life. As usual the voice is right. Unfortunately I’m not only undisciplined but also selectively deaf.
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