[2021-11-06] Talker's block
You've probably heard of writer's block. But have you ever heard of talker's block? Me neither—until today.
A reference in an infographic on how to be a more efficient writer led me to Seth Godin's 2011 blog post on Talker's block. In it, Godin writes: "No one ever gets talker’s block. No one wakes up in the morning, discovers he has nothing to say and sits quietly, for days or weeks, until the muse hits, until the moment is right, until all the craziness in his life has died down."
Godin maintains that we get better at talking because we do it every day. In most circumstances, we don't worry about how we sound. On those occasions when we do care about how we come across, we often practice in advance so that we appear insightful and articulate.
"Writer's block isn't hard to cure," Godin argues. The answer is to write every day, even if the writing is poor because, in time, you'll get better.
It reminds me of the wonderful French proverb "C'est en forgeant qu'on devient forgeron." Synonymous with the English adage "Practice makes perfect," the saying literally means "It's by forging that one becomes a blacksmith."
Godin concludes his post by saying, "Write like you talk."
I have followed this approach for many years, ever since I read Brenda Ueland's If You Want to Write. "Though everybody is talented and original, often it does not break through for a long time. People are too scared, too self-conscious, too proud, too shy," writes Ueland. "That is because they have been taught that writing is something special and not just talking on paper."
"Talking on paper" would be an appropriate description of the kind of writing we learned to do in Journalism School. To overcome writer's block, our professors told us, say out loud what you're trying to capture in writing. We could turn to a classmate or to an imaginary listener—such as a parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle—anyone for whom the simplest explanation would be best.
I'm a big proponent of writing. It enables us to connect with others, to process our thoughts and feelings, and to share our stories for posterity.
For those of you who want to write but frequently get stuck in the writing process, you might try this technique to get past writer's block: simply start talking.
