It's Not Writer's Block, It's Writer's Doubt

I've got writer's block. Again. Here it comes, the big, lumbering... thing, over the horizon. What's the coming over the hill, is it a monster? No, it's just our old familiar friend writer's block.

Though it's not really writer's block, is it? It's writer's doubt. If I'm honest with myself, I have loads of ideas to write about, a whole drafts folder of ideas, over 100 or more titles, paragraphs, scraps of articles ready to be embellished, but as I look through each of them and think "I can't write about that now" or "perhaps this topic isn't really me", whatever that might mean.

See, it's doubt, not a block.

The doubt stops me from writing. The doubt stops us all from writing one time or another. Sometimes, you feel like Hemingway, sometimes you feel like no-way (sorry, that's an appalling play of words, but don't blame me, blame the writer's doubt).

A confession: As I write this, I'm simultaneously writing another article. Seriously, I'm half-way through both of them. It's sometimes the only way I can get my mind to settle. It's a bit like listening to music whilst working on something boring, the music is where the mind can play, the work is the serious task at hand.

This article, no offence to you, my lovely reader, is where I can play. I'm suffering writer's block—sorry, writer's doubt—on the first article, so I've started this as an outlet to work through the problem and then move back to the more po-faced material when I've cleared the old inspiration pipeline.

The truth is, right now in the process, I'm enjoying this article much more than the other one because this is loose and free, I'm not trying to make some profound point, I'm simply explaining my creative predicament and letting it all flow out, like the free-writing Julia Cameron talks about in her Morning Pages ritual. Also, it's a nice chat, if you can call an article a chat.

Anyway, the fact that I'm writing this so effortlessly only serves to prove it is writer's doubt at play, not writer's block because when I allow myself to get out of my own way, the words pour out. The quality of words is up for debate, but there surely is no "block".

If we reframe this block as doubt, then we understand it comes from us. It's an internal thing. A block sounds impassable, it sounds as if it might take weeks or even months or brute force to smash through it, whereas "doubt" sounds ethereal, nebulous, like a cloud we can swish away with our hand if we so desire.

So f*ck the doubt and the word block. No one is ever blocked by something, we are all just blocked by ourselves. We obscure the "clear view" because sometimes it's easier than doing the work.

Wow. That's a revelation right there. Perhaps I'm hiding behind writer's block—doubt—because I can sack off the work and play chess online instead.

Oh, it seems I might have got to the root of the problem and called myself out.

So are you doing the same? If you are a writer, ask yourself this: Why are you not writing now? If you are a painter, why are you not painting now? If you are an athlete, why are you not training, now?

Why do we not do what needs to be done?

It's doubt. Not a block, but doubt, worry, fear of failure. All that bullsh*t. It's just you in the way of you. You protecting yourself from effort, from exposure, from daring to try.

We must all step out of our comfort zone and do the work if we want to achieve one iota of what we're capable of. Writing this small article was another step. It's helped me. I hope it's helped you too.