Author’s and Writer’s Block

By Susan Reichert, Editor-in-Chief, Southern Writers Magazine

Recently, Chris Pepple wrote a great post on Suite T about writer’s block. So many writers experience this. It is frustrating, to say the least to be working on writing a short story, article or novel and suddenly you can’t get it to move forward. You are stuck. It is like someone put a wall between you and your imagination of words.

Staring at a blank page trying to pull words out is a mixture of emotions no writer wants.

I knew other writers, even well-known writers had to have experienced writer’s block. So, I began searching to find what they said about it. Here are just a few.

“Writer’s block is only a failure of the ego.” — Norman Mailer

“Nothing will work unless you do.” — Maya Angelou

“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” — Jack London

“Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?” ― Kurt Vonnegu

“I don’t sit around waiting for passion to strike me. I keep working steadily, because I believe it is our privilege as humans to keep making things. Most of all, I keep working because I trust that creativity is always trying to find me, even when I have lost sight of it.” ― Elizabeth Gilbert

“Breaking through writer’s block is like thinking out of the box: Both require an ability to imagine a world outside your four walls or rearranging them to get a better view.” ― Susan J. McIntire 

“How time flies; another ten days and I have achieved nothing. It doesn’t come off. A page now and then is successful, but I can’t keep it up, the next day I am powerless.”– Franz Kafka

“Pretend that you’re writing not to your editor or to an audience or to a readership, but to someone close, like your sister, or your mother, or someone that you like.” — John Steinbeck

The quote I liked the most was: “Writing about a writer’s block is better than not writing at all.” ― Charles Bukowski

Next time I get this dreaded occupation of writer’s block, I will try Charles Bukowski’s suggestion and write about writer’s block.

However, if that doesn’t work, I will find the nearest art gallery and spend time there. With pen and pad of course.

What about you? What do you do when you have writer’s block?

The Dog Ate My Book?

By Annette Cole Mastron, Communications Director for Southern Writers Magazine

John Steinbeck's birthday was last week. He was born February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California. His work mirrors his varied lifetime experiences. He was a college dropout and worked as a manual laborer. His novels, The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, and East of Eden are some of my favorites. However after researching this post, I've added some of his books to my list of must reads.

Steinbeck's first draft copy of Of Mice and Men, met with an interesting fate. Ironically, the original working title for Of Mice and Men was "Something that Happened." The theme reflected through the story is that "sometimes things happen that simply show the way life is." Enter Steinbeck's new puppy, Toby. He ate the original manuscript of Of Mice and Men. 

Steinbeck lost two months of work in one evening. As a dog lover, Steinbeck took it all in stride. He wrote to his agent, Elizabeth Otis, “My setter pup, left alone one night, made confetti of about half of my manuscript…. I was pretty mad but the poor little fellow may have been acting critically. I didn’t want to ruin a good dog for a [manuscript] I’m not sure is good at all.”

Of Mice and Men was the first novel that received solid recognition. It was chosen by the Book-of-the-Month Club. A real coup for any writer. Almost overnight, Steinbeck rose to a much-sought-after writer. Steinbeck was nationally distributed and widely acclaimed. 

He gained attention from Broadway and authored the stage version of the book, which earned him a New York Drama Critics Circle Award. I guess Toby knew what he was doing, when he ate the first draft. Hollywood came calling, and a movie followed. Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men was the most frequently banned book in the 1990s. 

John tested out his writing by reading to his dogs. Do you read to anyone? Who knows Toby, the setter, may not have liked the first reading and may have done Steinbeck a favor. Look at how it turned out for Steinbeck. Suddenly famous, Steinbeck wrote in a letter to fellow writer Louis Paul, "I have promoted Toby-dog to be lieutenant-colonel in charge of literature.”

May we all have a Toby who edits our work.

Tortilla Flat

by Doyne Phillips, Managing Editor

Tortilla Flat, do you recognize the title? Written in 1935 by one of our greatest novelists, his fourth novel was an account of friends enjoying life after the Great War.  This sometimes forgotten novel was the author’s first critical and commercial success. It was made into a movie some years later with stars such as Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr and John Garfield. This often forgotten title was just the beginning for the author. Greater known titles, such as Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, Cannery Row and East of Eden were to follow. John Steinbeck was getting the critical and commercial acclaim as well as the recognition of the public with Tortilla Flat.

 

In our local Barnes and Noble there is a reprint of a promotional poster for Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men by noting him as author of Tortilla Flat. I found that interesting. I am looking back at all his great titles and the poster was looking forward with only the one successful novel under his belt. Tortilla Flat was his launching pad. The movie Tortilla Flat had yet to be filmed and wouldn’t be for another two years so there was not recognition from the movie. The recognition was strictly from the book itself which was published two years earlier. The Grapes of Wrath came along in 1939 followed by the film Tortilla Flat in 1942. Cannery Row was written in 1945 and East of Eden in 1952. All of which we now recognize as better known titles but again our timeline is seen from the future.

The promotion of Of Mice and Men was carried by the success of Tortilla Flat so the question is, “What is your Tortilla Flat?” What is it you can use for your launching pad? It is something well known or soon will be well known? Whatever it is you must use it. Steinbeck did and then in future years he used The Grapes of Wrath to promote Cannery Row and again all of the above to promote East of Eden. We must use what we have whether it is known or not. Move ahead with your success to support you no matter how large or small you may think it is. Use your Tortilla Flat and who knows, the next time you may use your Of Mice and Men to promote your very own The Grapes of Wrath. Promote yourself!