{"id":2710,"date":"2011-05-31T13:02:56","date_gmt":"2011-05-31T19:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2710"},"modified":"2011-05-31T13:03:14","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T19:03:14","slug":"the-myth-of-writers-block","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2710","title":{"rendered":"Trapped on Block Island"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

"Block Island" -- portion of a cartoon from the June 27, 1994 New Yorker magazine<\/p><\/div>\n

Randy Cassingham makes the argument: “There is no such thing as writer’s block<\/a>” and invokes the “10,000 hour rule<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

I used to tell students, “The first million words are just for practice.” But you can count blog posts on your way to the million.<\/p>\n

Cassingham’s version of a traditional exercise:<\/p>\n

But one day he told me he was “blocked” and hadn’t written anything for weeks. I went over to his house and said, “Want me to fix that for you?” He didn’t know what I was up to, but he definitely wanted help, so I gave him this assignment: sit his ass in front of his computer and start writing — right now!<\/em> I told him that I would come back in half an hour. Here’s the key to my method: I said if he could think of nothing else to write, he was to type “I have nothing I want to say” over and over and over again, until he had something better<\/em> than that to write.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Randy Cassingham makes the argument: “There is no such thing as writer’s block” and invokes the “10,000 hour rule.” I used to tell students, “The first million words are just for practice.” But you can count blog posts on your way to the million. Cassingham’s version of a traditional exercise: But one day he told […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-2710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-HI","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1214,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1214","url_meta":{"origin":2710,"position":0},"title":"Did a ‘Pagan’ Bury the Staffordshire Hoard?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 25, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The \"Staffordshire Hoard\" is a cache of 7th-century Anglo-Saxon sword jewels and other items recently found in England (and a great boost for metal-detector sales, no doubt).The caption on one slide of the golden hoard suggests that because a gold cross was folded in on itself before burial, the person\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1524,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1524","url_meta":{"origin":2710,"position":1},"title":"How They Built Stonehenge?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 18, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Maybe the work crews were smaller than we think. I found that I, working alone, could easily move a 2400 lb. block 300 ft. per hour with little effort, and a 10,000 lb. block at 70 ft. per hour. I also stood two 8 ft., 2400 lb. blocks on end\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11887,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11887","url_meta":{"origin":2710,"position":2},"title":"Why Is the Hippo Goddess Holding a Bull by a Chain in the Northern Sky?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 21, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"This carving comes from a Greco-Roman-era Egyptian temple in Esna,where decorated walls are being carefully cleaned and original colors seen again. As workers in Egypt remove soot and dirt from the temple, sometimes with a mixture of alcohol and distilled water, the original painted carvings and hieroglyphics beneath are so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/bulls-leg.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/bulls-leg.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/bulls-leg.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/bulls-leg.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4581,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4581","url_meta":{"origin":2710,"position":3},"title":"The Cure for Internet Addiction","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Seriously, Jonathan Frantzen wrote The Corrections blindfolded? So this article on writers coping with Internet distraction claims. Since most of my work requires copious reference to notes and text \u2014 and since I am a lousy touch-typist \u2014 the blindfold would not work. I understand what this guy did, however:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"writing\"","block_context":{"text":"writing","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=writing"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/SmithCoronaSilent1-300x251.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6195,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6195","url_meta":{"origin":2710,"position":4},"title":"“Block like an Egyptian”","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 27, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Too late for Yule, but isn't there a Kemetic-reconstructionist gift-giving festival for which these would be perfect? And give the copywriter a raise.","rel":"","context":"In \"Egypt\"","block_context":{"text":"Egypt","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=egypt"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":514,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=514","url_meta":{"origin":2710,"position":5},"title":"Mayor apologizes to PagansThe mayor\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 15, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Mayor apologizes to PagansThe mayor of the High Plains town of Ramah has backed away from interfering with planned Pagan event at the local American Legion hall.Mayor Tamra Herrara has apologized to a pagan group whose plan for a Halloween gathering cast the small plains town as a modern-day Salem.The\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2710"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2714,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2710\/revisions\/2714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}