I pledge allegiance to the pen...

I have a confession to make. A part, however slight or substantial you want to think of it, this blog is somewhat of a method of therapy for me. I created a blog for the neurotic writer who may be suffering from writer's block, in hopes to cure my own writer's block.

So, after the past couple of days, I found myself dumbfounded as I found myself having writer's block for the blog on writer's block. I know, my mind feels deflated too.

What do I write as my first official entry? It has to be perfect. The topic has to matter. Every word has to count. If it's just word vomit then who the hell is going to read this blog, or anything I write...EVER. Oh wait...

And there in lies the problem. I was thinking. How rude of me. I know what you're thinking. Typically, when attempting to come up with a story, or an article, or a blog post, or any voluntary act for that matter, should require some thought to it. But what if it doesn't? What if the cure is to not think about it and, for the love of all that is holy, JUST WRITE!

The movie 'Finding Forrester', starring James Bond as a reclusive writer who forms a literary bond with a student with a passion for the craft, has a line that I always try to think of when hitting the proverbial great wall of writer's block. It goes as follows:

"No thinking - that comes later. You must write your first draft with your heart. You rewrite with your head. The first key to writing is... to write, not to think!"

So, here it is, therapy lesson #1 for that writer who can't seem to write the next sentence in his or her novel, or next line of dialogue in his or her screenplay...

Lesson #1: Start a blog.

Well, you don't have to do that. But it sure is helping me. I just wrote the first two scenes to a feature screenplay I never thought would leap out of my brain and on to paper.

Lesson #2: Just write.

Don't worry about if it's perfect or not. It's not written in stone (Unless you're actually carving in to a stone. But, even then, there are plenty of stones around). You can always look at what you've written afterward, show it to a friend or colleague, and determine then what needs to change or be added. But just write down whatever the pen or keyboard makes you write. Let it consume you. Don't think of the absolute perfect thing to say next. Just write the thing that comes next.

The two scenes I have written will definitely need to be changed. No doubt about it. But it can wait. They words, both description and dialogue spoken by my characters came from my heart. I just wrote, not thinking much about the perfect thing to say. And that, to me, is a huge cause for writer's block. Write now. Think later.

And I leave you, for now, with a solemn prayer written by my personal favorite author, Neil Gaiman. Print this and hang this on your wall, so that you may wake up to it every morning.

A Writer’s Prayer

Oh Lord, let me not be one of those who writes too much;

who spreads himself too thinly with his words,

diluting all the things he has to say,

like butter spread too thinly over toast,

or watered milk in some worn-out hotel;

but let me write the things I have to say,

and then be silent, ’til I need to speak.

Oh Lord, let me not be one of those who writes too little;

a decade-man between each tale, or more,

where every word accrues significance

and dread replaces joy upon the page.

Perfectionists like chasing the horizon;

You kept perfection, gave the rest to us,

so let me earn the wisdom to move on.

But over and above those two mad spectres of parsimony and profligacy,

Lord, let me be brave, and let me, while I craft my tales, be wise:

let me say true things in a voice that is true,

and, with the truth in mind, let me write lies.

And let us say, Amen.