Sep 25, 2011 / General Advice & Pro Tips

Seth’s Blog | Talker’s Block

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.

Why then, is writer’s block endemic?

The reason we don’t get talker’s block is that we’re in the habit of talking without a lot of concern for whether or not our inane blather will come back to haunt us. Talk is cheap. Talk is ephemeral. Talk can be easily denied.

We talk poorly and then, eventually (or sometimes), we talk smart. We get better at talking precisely because we talk. We see what works and what doesn’t, and if we’re insightful, do more of what works. How can one get talker’s block after all this practice?

Writer’s block isn’t hard to cure.

Just write poorly. Continue to write poorly, in public, until you can write better.

excerpted from Seth Godin’s Blog.

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    1. I totally agree with your mantra “Forget the rules. Just write!” My sentiments exactly. Except that I suffer the exact opposite of “talker’s block” and “writer’s block.” 🙂 Woe to those who follow in my footsteps. Click below and see why. ;)http://hugmamma.wordpress.com/2011/09/26/daily-post-challenge-talkers-block-writers-block/

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  5. Very insightful! I recently realized that if I’m on a roll, I should just keep writing blogs and schedule them to be posted. That way if I have a day where I can’t think, I’m more likely to be covered.

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  8. This is exactly the approach I took for stage fright. Initially, I’d try to keep everyone in the audience fascinated and engaged — and then, about 30 seconds into the talk, I’d realize I was falling short of that goal, freeze up, and stumble through the rest of it. Eventually I realized that even doing a mediocre job would be better than that, so I started aiming for that — and then improved pretty rapidly.

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  12. There is a good little book that can help with writer’s block. It is the writer’s portable therapost by Rachel Ballon, Ph.D.,”Doc Hollywood” This is a helpful little book.

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  17. This made me think how I write down so much, but not what I need to remember. Lots in my blogs about sideways work issues and more in private diaries about how I feel, but rarely the important times and dates of who I had a cup of tea with and the info they shared – which 13 years on turns out to be important, argh. How I wish there was a google facility for my brain!

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  18. “Just write poorly. Continue to write poorly, in public, until you can write better.”
    This is a good idea for a freewriter.

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  19. That Seth guy is pretty funny . I like his advice except some people do spend days without talking and believe me , I am one who gets talkers block . I can’t talk very well . It seems I also can only write a few words about an otherwise great topic. It’s a cryin shame …

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    1. Sometimes I just play music for days on (even if I start to write like crazy, I’ll still play)… Just saluting the neighbors and the cashiers when running errands. When all you do is on platforms, you don’t need to talk a lot, do you?

      Yeah, Seth is quite an offbeat guy. He has brilliant ideas from time to time.

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  21. Erica, thanks for sharing this. I found Seth’s words, and Ira’s video inspiring. If Ira Glass, one of the most gifted story tellers ever, struggled in earlier years, than there is hope for me yet.

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  22. This is soooo true! I am always talking. Yet, something I can’t think of one thing to write. From now on I am going to just write. No matter what comes out. I will write and write and write some more. Hopefully, what I write will be something worth reading. Thanks for pep talk! Now it’s time for me to write today’s blog. Now…. what should I write about?

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  24. No dejamos de decir “La Naturaleza es sabia” lo que nos falta es saberla interpretar, y para ello es menester que nosotros mejores cada vez, no sólo para con nosotros mismos, sino para con los demás. Y al fin conseguiremos la armonía que tanto se añora.

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  25. I wrote about Seth’s a few ago… Yet I haven’t written much since.
    I’m taking the Post A Day pledge!

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