On Spiral Dramaturgy

Writers block is the scourge of our age!  It’s a menace!  Why can’t we be as productive as we want to be?  In my life I have sometimes had an unhealthy relationship with food, and I developed the ability to eat very little for very long amounts of time.  But eventually I would hit a wall, like a hard wall of starvation. And I would finally feel hungry and I would order a big meal and be so excited for it, and then as soon as it sat down in front of me, poof, there went my appetite.  I think about writers block in this way.  It’s full of frustration and helplessness and no matter how hard we try it feels like banging one’s head against a wall.  But what is the use in banging your head against a wall?  Seriously – what good comes out of that?  It’s a wall.  You’re not going to make it through that way.  How do you tame a wild horse?  The faster you run after it, the faster it runs.  Sometimes direct effort is not the best path.  Sometimes, we need to take the long road. 

If you feel stuck, the best advice I can give you is to write about something else.  Something completely different in subject and form.  Go far afield.  Write about your day, about politics, about someone you have a crush on – write in haiku, essay, novel form.  And then as you write, with the softest of focus you can manage, start to think about the thing that you want to write.  But don’t write the thing.  Write around it.  Write about the theme, write about how it is connected to your day-to-day life, write about how it makes you feel.  And as you write, let yourself circle round and in, round and in, and let it be slow – don’t rush.  Don’t chase the horse.  Round and in.  Be slow and quiet and don’t seek the thing out.  Round and in.  Let the horse approach you.