9 Genius-Approved Ways to Avoid Writer's Block

I was cocky and I just kind of laughed. But if you've ever suffered from writer's luck, you know how daunting just starting a new project or coming up with new ideas can be. Oh definitely. And you know, I think about somebody like Harper Lee, of course from my home state. Not everything has to be about your state of Delaware on the show Mango. But you know, after writing to Kill a Mockingbird, she had such a hard time writing, and it was it was almost like she

was looking for distractions. And I found this great quote from her. I had not seen this before, but but she says, I found I can't write. I have about three personal friends who keep dropping in for a cup of coffee. I've tried getting up at six, but then all the six o'clock Risers congregate. I mean, if you've got three friends coming over for a coffee, like, don't

make coffee, make a smaller pot. But you know, writer's block is really hard, and I've always been amazed by like the people who can just crank out copy, like Jerry Seinfeld, Like do you know his trick? I don't think so, what is it? So? Jerry's a prolific writer and he was asked how he stayed so productive, and in this one interview he confessed he actually hates writing. It's just that he used to keep a calendar on his wall. Oh that's right. Yeah, I think I have

heard this story before, but yeah, I keep going. Yeah, And every day he'd right, and he'd marked this big X on the calendar, and his motivation for ruining the next day was just that he wanted to draw another X and he didn't want to break that chain. But that made me wonder, like, what are the tips other geniuses have used to stay productive? Like can smells or different clothing or certain tricks helped nudge you into finally writing that great American novel you've always wanted to write?

Like what are the funniest ways to beat writer's block, and us for today's show is all about let's dive in. Yea. Hey there, podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and is always I'm joined by my good friend Man Guesh had Ticketer and sitting behind the soundproof glass, just furiously working on his latest manifesto. He is one

motivated dude. He is. That. That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil, So Mango, part of the reason we did this episode was that you were telling me about how some of the folks in Hollywood used to deal with writer's block, right, Yeah, So I was on this website where someone had pasted an interview from the Hollywood Reporter with Joel and Ethan Cohen, the Cohen brothers, and uh, they were talking about this Hollywood producer named how Roach,

who's apparently a legend. I didn't know about him, but he did Larel and Hardy and Little Rascals and a bunch of famous movies and shows. And one of his tricks was when the writers were running out of ideas, he brings someone called a wild ye into the writing room.

And what's a wild e? Exactly? So it turns out a wild e is someone roach for recruit, either from like a mental institution, or it could be just like a drunk off the street, and he'd bring them in, put them at the writer's table, and when things were getting stagnant, like at a table reader a story meeting, these people would just blurt out these wild phrases or comments or sometimes just full stories whenever they felt like it, which feels ridiculous, but it also provided this like complete

non secutor And as the Cohen Brothers pointed out, like sometimes a good idea is a good idea no matter where it comes from or who it comes from. And I also think there were a lot of bad ideas blurt it out by the Wilds. Cute, but I have to imagine. But you know, speaking of the Cohen's, they like to beat their writer's watched just by starting another project.

So while they were trying to write and complete Miller's Crossing, which is a fabulous film, they actually switched to working on Barton Fink, and then they just switched back and forth until they had two scripts instead of just one. I mean, that's such an interesting way to beat writer's blog. Yeah, I mean, I kind of like the idea that like, if you can't finish one script, just finished two, right, So where do you want to go from here? All right? Well,

a very different direction. How about Dan Brown, who you of course know, is the author of the Da Vinci Code, and and it was reading about some of the ways that he would deal with writer's block. So just to keep his blood pumping, he would set an antique hourglass for every half hour, and when the sand would run out, he would do a bunch of push ups and stretches, which actually feels pretty normal, like an interesting way to deal with it. But when he's really out of ideas,

he does something a little bit more strange. So he slips into a pair of gravity boots and just hangs upside down bat style in order to work through the problem. I told you this was a different kind of idea, but it's actually more complicated than that. So he was giving this speech at a New Hampshire Public Radio event

and he described how he does this. So apparently he has this specially designed table where he straps himself in and then the table rotates around so that his head is where his feet should be, and his toes are pointing to the ceiling, and apparently the guy's been doing this for a while and it actually helped him come up with, you know, all those anagrams he's used in

his books. That is so weird, And I honestly feel like like having that much blood rush in my head would make me less inclined to come up with a good totally. That would be the only thing I could think about is how uncomfortable I was. But I mean, I guess how you braised him as pretty personal, you know.

I I've read a bunch of people's bios, like um, Louis Bunwell, the director, He had this chapter in his autobiography where he uh talked about how like a certain type of corner booth in a dark bar, and like a certain type of martini with a very specific vermouth. I think it was normally pratt. He would say those were the things that you need exactly for breaking through writing.

And uh, you know, you read his description and you think, like, this is so romantic and it feels like such a thing to do in the city, and you can see how ideas just flow to him in the setting. But for someone like me, like I hate writing when I've had even like a sip of alcohol. It does not work from me at all. Yeah, I would say the same thing. But um, you know, well, one thing that might work for you if you're looking for zero distractions is to follow edgar Allan Poe and also Jack Carrolla's

advice for writing on scrolls mango scrolls. Yeah, neither of them thought that it was smart to get up from your seat and have to go get another piece of paper. Now why they couldn't just keep a bunch of paper near them, I'm not really sure. But anyway, they felt like getting time. Yeah, but but they felt like getting up to get more paper would spur these other distractions. So Poe would actually attach pieces of paper together to make these long spools, and then he just used some

wax to seal it up. And that's actually how he delivered work to his editors. Can you imagine this. I would be so pissed to someone turned into scroll to me and uh and what about Jack Carroak, Well, it was kind of the same thing. So he always said that stopping to get more paper broke his concentration. So on the road that was actually scrawled out on a one hundred and twenty foot roll of paper. I mean that feels like it should be in a museum or something, right, Like,

it's pretty incredible. You know what My favorite Caroac fact is? What's that? So this is from when we did the swimsuit issue for Mental Flass and we found a picture of him in a bathing student and it just threw some facts next to it. But it's that he skipped his high school graduation to read Leaves of Grass, which

I just think it's so amazing. Meanwhile, I'm sure I've told you this before, but like I was forced to attend my high school graduation and the superintendent of our school read out all the lyrics too, and I swear this is true. What he referred to as the classic song from the movie Space Jams. What what is the classic song from the movie Space cham I believe I

can fly? Of course, So we were stuck in our seats and and he treated like every word was so meaningful, like he was like, I believe I can fly, God, I believe I can touch the sky. It was it was really inspirational, and we all left the school and became pilots. Of course you did, all right, Well, back to the facts. What fact do you want to go with next. Well, one thing I think could be a

cause of writer's block is when you're too comfortable. My mother in law actually has the story of when she was in college one summer and she was selling vacuum cleaners, and she said, like, on the weeks when she was particularly hungry or she needs something specific, like on those weeks, she'd somehow sell four vacuum cleaners, and when she wasn't, she just sell two or three. And I think it's

kind of the same with writing. And there's this great story from Sherwood Anderson in nine six he quit his job to focus on writing, and his publishers, who were kind to betting on him, sent him these weekly advanced checks, but he was having total writer's block, so he actually asked him to stop. And when they asked him why, he said, quote, it's no use. I find it impossible to work with security stirring me in the face. Oh gosh, that's pretty wild. I think I would find just the

opposite in that situation, you know. I I don't know if that's pretty interesting. Well, so, one thing I've read about is how people love to find the perfect writing spaces. So Roald Dahl had his you know, his writing shed where he walked to and he throw a blanket on his legs and right from an easy chair like that, to me seems like a little bit more of a

good spot to do your writing. And there was some writer was trying to I want to say it was Colin McCann, who has this tiny space on the floor between a bookshelf and the wall where he sits and types. It's it's kind of like a little nook there. But one of the most unusual spaces I've come across is George Bernard Shaw's. And in many ways his Writer's Help was full of distractions, like it had electricity and a telephone and a bell so people could ring for him.

And but one thing like it had this advantage of being one or two minutes away from the house, so when visitors would come over, his wife could answer the door and actually honestly tell them that he was out even though he was just you know, a minute away or so. But one of the most important things to

Shaw was good lighting. And his heart was actually pretty ingeniously built because it was like this giant lazy susan, so he could actually spin it and follow the sun as he wrote, which seemed like a pretty cool setup. That's ridiculous, but I like it. Okay, So I know we've got two more facts to go. But before we get to those, let's take a little break. Welcome back to part time Genius. We're talking writer's blocked now, will I know I can struggle with writer's block sometimes, But

do you actually ever deal with it? Oh? No question. Yeah, it's definitely frustrating when it happened. So what what do you do to deal with it? So? I like doing my research ahead of time and getting all the books and things I need. But when it comes to actually writing, sometimes I have like a super hard time getting started if I don't feel like I have a good enough idea. But then I'd say, like five or six years ago, I read this thing that Peter Kafka is this legendary editor.

He he told his writers and he said, just write out some beginnings. And you know, the idea is, just start something and write a beginning, and then write another beginning to that story, and then another, and even if you have to stop and all you have is a page of beginnings, isn't that a beautiful thing? And I love that quote so much, and somehow that works for me, like just you know, you start three or four things and pick one that you like and then just let

the words flow from that until they don't. But that's sort of my trick, even though we're not here to talk about my trick. So, well, what's your final fact going to be for this? That's still a pretty good trick, though, I don't think you've ever told me that, But or well, how about something about Salvador Dolly, who perfected the power nap?

So I love napping, so go on. Well, Dolly was obsessed with that dream space between falling asleep and being awake, so he tried to figure out how to put himself into that space for inspiration. So he had a little trick for this. What he would do is he would sit in a chair and put a tin plate on the floor and then fall asleep holding a spoon, like pretty specific so you know, or you know, maybe have

some keys over the plate or something like that. But when the object that he was holding dropped from his hand and onto the tin, he'd get startled awake, and and his hope was that he'd have this new wonderful idea in his head when he woke up. So that sounds like the worst way to wake up, Like it feels like you're almost falling asleep in his comfortable chair, but it's not really a nap. But I am kind of amazed. So so did it work well? He swore

by the method. In fact, in his book Fifty Secrets of Magic Crap Aftsmanship, he he actually writes here's the quote. He says, the moment the key drops from your fingers, you may be sure that the noise of its fall

on the upside down plate will awaken you. And you may be equally sure that the fugitive moment, when you had barely lost consciousness, and during which you cannot be assured of having really slept, is totally sufficient, inasmuch as not a second more as needed for your physical and psychic being to be revivified by just the necessary amount of repose. So I don't I can't say that I know exactly what that quote means, but it just sounds

weird and fascinating. Yes, yeah, I mean. Dolly was also afraid of trains, and he used to sit in the front of the train because he thought it got into places faster. He used to make his own cologne out of fish glue, so I can't say that I trust

all his ideas. I mean, those seems smart to me. Well, my last fact is about Charles Dickens, who needed a few simple things on his deskins firearms, so wherever he went and he often wrote from the road, he needed five bronze animal statues, a paper knife, a green vase, a desk, calendar, blue ink, and only blue ink, and some quills. So if you're really struggling to write something, it's probably because you don't have enough quills or bronze

animal statues watching you as your right. I imagine its sounding a little bit like the Steve Martin scene in The Jerk where he just needs the ass tray and the land. But I'm curious that why blue ink, Like, was he o c D about writing or what? Uh? Maybe, but you know, I've actually read it's more because he realized blue ink at the time dried faster, So it was this trick he used to keep himself moving and not smudging or having to block the pages as much.

M that's interesting. Well, you know, I'm not sure if you had the best facts today, but you definitely had the best story about a terrible graduation speech, and it made me feel a little bit bad for you. So I'm just gonna give you the trophy this week, a pitty trophy. I like it. You know. I believed I could fly, and today I did flies. Thank you, I changed my mind. That's it for today's episode from Will gave Tristan and the rest of us a part time gunius. Thank you so much for listening. M