On Writing The Road Out of Nowhere…

Writer’s Block Flow

Flow. Stream. Rush. Percolate. Drip. Block.

There are few things in life more frustrating than not being able to think of the right word. You stand, mid-sentence, mid-stride and wait. It will come in a moment, and then it does. The times it does not are embarrassing.

Writers can easily suffer from the same thing, but with them, it is more fundamental. Every story, every grand narrative, every poem is driven by a thought seeking expression. And when you can not find it, you go nowhere. It is almost as if the thought inside of you can not think of the right word.

It’s called, “writer’s block.” It seems to have a life of its own, coming and going with a definiteness that seems wilful. When I wrote, “The Road Out of Nowhere,” I never had writer’s block. Perhaps it was because it is an adventure story, with an energy and life of its own. Perhaps it is because I didn’t worry about whether it would be literature, I just wanted to tell my tale.

These things are true, but don’t catch the feeling I had when I was writing down the tale of Jill, Rocket and Kyle.

I think it was because the story was waiting for me to write it.

Someone else was prompting me.

If I just stopped and listened for a moment, it flowed out of my fingers onto the page.

This might seem a strange thing to say, but many writers I believe know this feeling. There are many things in this world that are much more wonderful and strange than we’ve been led to believe.

-Matthew