Plumbers block…

Sometimes I wonder if the more you write, the emptier you get. Well, it kind of makes sense doesn’t it? Like a reservoir emptying because a pipe has burst in somebody's bathroom.

Surely, if you pour out all those words then there has to come a time when you’ve pretty much used them up and the reservoir is empty. Isn’t that what writer’s block is about?

I overheard some advice this week. Actually, when I said overheard it really was addressed to me, but only incidentally. I was a willing bystander you see, a participant in someone else’s dream - an outsider looking in. The advice was on writing and it was good. The gist of it was this: Don’t expect to wait for writing to come to you; you have to make it happen.

Ah yes, I see.

The speaker went on to state that writing is a craft and has to be practiced if you want to get any better at it. As she said: plumbers don’t get up in the morning and say “I don’t feel inspired to do any plumbing today. I have to wait until that plumbing moment grabs me before I can plumb.”

For my part, some days I truly have nothing to write about. Some days I struggle to find a subject that interests me. On these days I simply sit in front of my laptop and start to put words on paper so to speak. Sometimes it starts with a single word, sometimes a sentence, but the minute I start putting words into the ether I begin to write. It doesn’t matter what I write and I’m not trying to make any great point usually; I’m not even ever sure that anyone will read the words I make. But for ten or twenty minutes almost every day I put down some words and usually find at the end that there is something to read. I like doing it, and it makes me feel good waiting for the words to come as they invariably do

See. There’s no such thing as Plumber’s Block.

Right then, I'd better go and attend to that leaking tap.