As a fitting follow on from yesterday’s post, Russell shared this helpful idea with me earlier this week.
The story goes that poet William Stafford—who wrote more than 20,000 poems in his lifetime—was one asked if he ever got writer’s block.
He replied, “No, I’ve never experienced anything like that. I believe that the so-called “writing block” is a product of some kind of disproportion between your standards and your performance. I can imagine a person beginning to feel that he’s not able to write up to that standard he imagines the world has set for him. But to me that’s surrealistic. The only standard I can rationally have is the standard I’m meeting right now. Of course I can write. Anybody can write. People might think that their product is not worthy of the person they assume they are. But it is.”
Stafford’s advice was simply: lower your standards and keep writing.
As someone who has committed to writing publicly every day, and on the odd occasion feels the “so-called writing block”, it’s a great reminder on a personal level.
It’s an idea that also brings to mind Lynda Barry’s Making Comics: how to draw without expectations about how it should look. And Patricia Ryan Madson’s Improv Wisdom: on how lessons from improv theatre can help us live a more open and joyous life.
The tag line from Madson’s book sums it up well: Don’t prepare, just show up.