Rethinking Writer's Block

I just finished Syd Field’s The Foundations of Screenwriting because I’m sitting in on a screenwriting class this summer. I posted on it here: https://www.barbaragrahamtucker.com/post/screenwriting-i-know-a-little-bit-now

He has a pretty good section on writer’s block, which I am suffering through now. I have started and am in the midst of at least five projects: two novels, two novellas, and two screenplays, plus some short fiction, to say nothing of the novel I’m trying to market. I need to take each, finish it, and do something with it. I have too many ideas but get stuck. This is the opposite of other writers’ problems.

I like to reframe things. The word block means “barrier.” But not always.

Writer’s building blocks: building toward something better.

Writer’s cell blocks: a prison

Writers city blocks: we need a community of writers

Writer’s chopping block: “the piece of wood on which the neck of a person condemned to be beheaded is laid for execution” – a reminder we need to edit, to use my favorite phrase, “kill our little darlings”

Writer’s engine block: “the casting that contains the cylinders of an internal combustion engine” – a way to get energized

Writer’s starting block: let’s run the race!

Writer’s auction block: maybe we’ll sell something

And as I do this, I’m not writing fiction!