One of the chapters in A Write Carry On details the severe writer’s block suffered by Carry On
scriptwriter, Talbot ‘Tolly’ Rothwell. The blight of many-a-writer, the
condition is primarily the inability to produce new work. Though, in Tolly’s
case, it became the inability to recognise the keyboard layout on his
typewriter.
When asked about the most
frightening thing he had ever encountered, novelist Ernest Hemingway said,
"A blank sheet of paper."
And none other than the
Master of Terror himself, Stephen King, said that the "scariest moment is
always just before you start writing. After that, things can only get
better."
An oft practised ‘cure’ to
‘the block’ is to try and take oneself out of the normal working routine.
In the case of Bats For
Lashes singer, Natasha Khan, she ‘hit the wall’ when it came time to write what
would become her forthcoming release, The Haunted Man.
"Stress! Stress! Oh God,
oh God, oh God!" she said, "I was getting very stuck and having
writer's block and getting panicked and really upset.
“I was honestly ready not to
do music any more because I thought, 'That's it, I'm just going to go off and
have a baby. I don't want to do this any more.' I'd lost my way."
Khan recently reported that as
her block worsened, she decided to step away from music.
It was suggested by a friend
that she could do unpaid work at Charleston (Vanessa Bell's artist studio, the
idyllic country bolthole for the Bloomsbury Group in East Sussex.), helping out
the gardener, Mark, and his infirm whippet.
"I was quite sad at the
time and quite lonely," she recalls. "I was stuck in my flat in Brighton and I was desperate for a garden.
“It felt like going back to
my mum's for a cup of tea. My parents don't live in the UK
When Khan went back to her
notebook, The Haunted Man started to take shape. It would be an album about England , a love letter to Hertfordshire where
she grew up and Sussex
JK Rowling reported at the
time of writing Harry Potter and the
Chamber of Secrets that “I really did have writer's block. Briefly, I think. It
wasn't a very serious case, it was only about five weeks. And compared to some
people, what's five weeks?
“Goblet of Fire, I was very unhappy towards the end of writing Goblet, and at the point where I realised I was fantasising that I would break an arm and therefore not be able to... I really mean this.
“I mean I was just a little
way away from actually thinking "How can I break my arm so I can tell my
publishers that I can't physically do it?" and then that would give me
more time.
“Because I committed to a
totally unrealistic deadline. And I made the deadline. But I really did make it
by working round the clock really. I was so unhappy.”
Supposed cures vary, but author Julia Cameron advocates the practice of morning pages as a remedy to writer's block.
Morning pages are three handwritten pages of free writing where the purpose is to write without the intention of using the writing for anything.
It is a practice that can bring your thoughts to the surface and allow you to enter a more creative zone.
All the above was written during my current bout of writer's block. At least I'm in good company!
Supposed cures vary, but author Julia Cameron advocates the practice of morning pages as a remedy to writer's block.
Morning pages are three handwritten pages of free writing where the purpose is to write without the intention of using the writing for anything.
It is a practice that can bring your thoughts to the surface and allow you to enter a more creative zone.
All the above was written during my current bout of writer's block. At least I'm in good company!
A Write Carry On - The Untold Story Of A Man In The Shadows
by Mike Cobley
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