I read a lot of books last year and one I highly recommend, and is on the book and course list in the top right menu under my name, is Fire Up Your Writing Brain by Susan Reynolds. She has a BA in psychology and comes at writing from the brain perspective, making this book incredibly interesting, especially for those who may be starting out writing, or are a few years into it. Although, I’m sure it would also be interesting for those many years into it.

Chapter 9 is solely dedicated to writer’s block, and why it does not exist. WB is something that many authors and writers constantly discuss to the point I’m am absolutely over it.

I do not believe in it. To me, WB in and of itself is an empty umbrella phrase that means nothing and is not specific to your problem. In order to fix your problem, you need to figure out what the problem is, name it, and deal with it, so you can move on.

Susan explains the many alternatives that creates the issue, and they’re not writer’s block. They have their own names and are their own problems.

She also mentions in another chapter, how, for some people, we must get everything out of the way for a free and clear mind in order to write or create.

For many of us, we need to get the household chores out of the way, pay the bills, get rid of the kids, etc., so we have the free time to write or create without constantly thinking about how much needs to be done.

This, she doesn’t call procrastination, but, if it’s something you’re constantly doing and it becomes a problem, then it can absolutely lead to it.

For me, I have done this many times. We feel as if we have this incredibly long to-do list that needs to be ticked off and if we’re “not going to write anything” then it was a waste of time sitting there when we could have been doing the chores.

Been there, done that. And I still do it today. I look at my monthly and weekly schedules, and mark out chunks of time that I am not needed online, or at appointments.

Back in the day, at the height of my prolificness, I was writing all day when I had the time. As the age creeps along, so does the arthritis and lack of energy. Blocks of time work well with everything I have to do in my life, because these days, I can really only write for three hours at a time before my energy flows away, so three hours is the maximum I can set myself, dependant on what I’m writing. Although, I’ve also noticed three hours is pretty much the max for doing any particular activity before my energy wanes. So, three hours per activity is my maximum. That means I can get multiple activities done in a day, and many days are productive, especially if I’m not writing.

Last year, I wrote my two novels at night. Although in the dead of winter the arthritis kicked in and crippled my hands, but come October, more UV, more sunlight and daylight savings, the arthritis drifted away and nighttime writing was fine. I got online and did my business in the morning, did activities such as tidying up and having a clean-up, or clean out during early afternoon, and then rested up for writing at night.

But that worked last year. This year, I wrote some poems and songs during the day, and night, but when I started the next novel, it happened on a Sunday morning and night. I wrote slowly during the day, it crippled my hand, and then the next day, nothing, and the next, and the next. It wasn’t procrastination, or writer’s block, it was the realisation that I needed to rewrite the layout of what I was going to write as the timeline for this book coincides with its first part, the book I wrote last October. So, I did that Monday night, did other stuff Tuesday, and finished up these blog posts on Wednesday instead and then started again the following Saturday in blocks of time.

These days, it’s what my body, particularly my hand, is telling me to do. Do I have the energy? Some days. But it’s also about the mentality of writing. I want to write, I just have to get my butt in the chair and physically write, without distractions, without calls and door knocks, and people wanting, to get what I want to write written and finished. That is not procrastination, that is listening to your body and mind and setting yourself up for success, not procrastinating failure, by setting aside blocks of time in order to write, paint, sculpt, create.

Set yourself up for success, and not an overwrought mess.