Writer's Block Cure

The key to overcoming writer's block is the right kind of an audience. Allow me to illustrate the point.

I cannot sing. At the tender age of 7 my music teacher called in my parents to complain that I was a real trouble maker in class. It seems that I went out of my way to disrupt choir because surely nobody could actually sing that badly. My parents could not believe what they were hearing and to settle the confusion I was asked to demonstrate my singing abilities to the three of them.

Surely, I would not try anything in such circumstances. Not thinking anything of it I began to sing. Thought I was pretty good, too. That's when we discovered my complete and utter lack of musical talent. My ears, I was told are not able to distinguish tone.

When my daughter was born, nobody told her this. Since mothers are supposed to sing to their children, in the seclusion of bath and bed time I did sing to her. Since this had previously not been a pursuit I was at a noticeable lack of memorized lullabies and such and was left to my own devises.

To wit, I made stuff up. The inspiration flooded my mind with rhymes and it all just came out. A few we remember to this day. Where did it all come from? Simply from the right kind of an audience. A silent, appreciative and non-judgmental one.

With time, my daughter grew to realize that I, in fact, cannot sing. This is partially in thanks to my putting her to bed to the sound of classical music on a regular basis. She, I believe, is not tone deaf. The rhymes dried up with the milk.

The cusp of the idea is that although we are told to write what we know, it depends on whom we are writing it to. An audience does not have to be a person. It can be anything. The quality is far more important than the mass of atoms that define it.

Writer's block hits everybody. You hear about it constantly. What they don't get is the cause. An audience is organic. Organisms need shock. Original appreciation of a writer's work is due to the shock of not having expected it to be that good. The next piece has to be better. If it is not, the audience is no longer surprised and then has time to form an opinion outside of the primary.

Nature is good. Innocence is good. Innocent nature is best. Innocence is independent of consequence. Therefore, since any consequence of the work will have only limited influence on such an audience it will not judge. Lack of fear of being judged removes the barrier blocking the mind from thinking.

So, find yourself a baby, find yourself the wind, find a bird or pond or duck and close your eyes and think.