Writer Amnesia: I Get It Every Single Week.
Writer amnesia is what I call it when I think I'm too stupid, unfunny, and underclever to pull some piece of writing together -- same as I thought before I pulled some piece of writing together the previous week. And the week before. And the week before.

This is what a timer is for -- writing with a timer, that is. I set mine for an hour and then just make myself keep going. I downloaded one that I have in the top left of my screen so I can see how I'm progressing timewise.

Well, as usual, yesterday, after feeling hopeless about a question for my column I was working on, I pretty much cracked it with 17:33 minutes left. (It had taken me a few hours before that to get it to the point where I had the first line and some pieces to go into it.)

I'm reminded of my friend Susan Shapiro's late uncle's advice. He's novelist Howard Fast, and she quoted him in her book, Only as Good as Your Word: Writing Lessons from My Favorite Literary Gurus.

Fast told her that there's no such thing as writer's block. "A plumber never gets plumber's block." ... "A page a day is a book a year."

He's right. And the answer to doing it is that you just have to do it. Make yourself do it. The timer really helps. And it's good for other tasks, too. When I'm bone-tired but still have reading to do, I'll set it for an hour, or sometimes 30 minutes. (There's a point at which you're too tired to be productive, but usually, you're just an emotionally wussy. Like I can be -- without my jackbooted timer.)

There's a scene in Martha Grimes "The Horse You Rode In On" that you might relate to, Goddess.

A novelist, Ellen, daily chains and locks her leg to her desk, and hides the key to the lock where she must strain to reach it. To avoid the distraction of watching the clock, she places her very loud alarm clock in a locked file cabinet.

Enter the killer...

bmused at February 13, 2014 6:31 PM

Just last week I read The Pomodoro Technique and I started using it a couple of days ago. I set the timer for 25 minutes (yes, I'm a wuss) and work away in short stints. It really does seem to help!

Jennifer K at February 14, 2014 9:55 AM

Amy Alkon

http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2014/02/13/writer_amnesia.html#comment-4259401">comment from Jennifer K

25 minute stints may work for you -- it's not that you're a wuss. I did have to set the timer for 20 minutes between hours so I wouldn't fuck off for too long!

Amy Alkon at February 14, 2014 11:12 AM

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