It Is About Doing, What It Is We Do

What occurs first?

Is it a sense of tiredness that causes the inability to call our creative brain in to service or does the lack of creative energy lead to a feeling of tiredness?

I have been dealing with a wide range of matters these last 24 hours, most requiring mathematical calculations and numeric reasoning.

I often make a mental list, and sometimes a physical list of possible daily writing topics even if on most days, when I sit down to write an entirely different subject unfolds itself in print.  

Today’s list is blank.

Perhaps the lack of diversity in my conversations these last 24 hours is to blame. Ah, that’s it, I now have a reason, or is that an excuse. Either way, it means I am dissolved of responsibility so all is ok because that’s the way it works.

I am happy to call myself a writer. I am not claiming to be a particularly good writer, but given I actually write and produce content regularly, it is a writer that I am.

There is this thing called “writers block”. This is where we sit at our desk to write and cannot do so.

A friend and publishing book level writer re-arranged her “other” work so as to always have all day Tuesday for writing. On a Tuesday, a few months ago during mid-afternoon she told me she had managed to find sufficient distraction to avoid any writing today. This is not writers block because she didn’t get to the stage where the block kicks in. To be fair, she is making good progress on her next book.

I think we can all perceive what writers block is and all have a similar image.

Lets look closer at this "block" thing.

I imagine sitting in my office back in my Corporate Days and the phone rings. It’s the Chief Manager and he asks how the work the Board asked for is progressing. I advise it is not going well and he follows up with open questions seeking first to understand the issues so a solution can be agreed. This is sound management practice.

However, the response I imagine providing is “not today, I have Board Block”.

What would the response be if the brick layer building the new fence called in saying he has “mortar block” or your barista tells you she has “caffeine block”?

Do other creative content producers have “blocks”? Why do we never hear about a photographer being unable to press the shutter button? (Do digital cameras have an actual
 shutter?)

Sure, a photographer may have days when they are not all that happy with their photos, but they still took them and it is only after the field or studio work is done they discover any quality concerns. Come to think of it, most photographers are exceptionally self-critical of their work, but all photographers execute, always.

I have read of famous writers saying there is no such thing as having a “block”.

One such writer said he is born to write just as he is born breathe. Another said he has to write to feel alive while the third said writing is his love and he would never block his love.

If I am to call myself a writer, then I write.

If I am a writer, there can be no such thing as writer’s block, because if I claim there is, I am not a writer.

We are all “creators”, no matter what our skills, our role, responsibilities, expectations or requirements. So, create we should. It is about the doing.

Although, I have to say, the idea of saying to the Chief Manager “I have Board Block” does appeal to me, but it would have to be face to face so I could enjoy the look on his/her face.