"The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof shit detector. This is the writer's radar and all great writers have had it." - Ernest Hemingway, interview in Paris Review, Spring 1958
"When once the itch of literature comes over a man, nothing can cure it but the scratching of a pen. But if you have not a pen, I suppose you must scratch any way you can." - Samuel Lover, Handy Andy, 1842
"I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of hunger for life that gnaws in us all."- Richard Wright, American Hunger, 1977
One thing freelance writers can never avoid completely is when burnout comes knocking at the door. Right when you have a looming deadline, and you stare at the screen with absolutely no way to transcribe thought to words.
You get through it vowing you'll never take another boring project, article or gig like that again. Until next time. But next time, your memory serves as an enemy, reminding you how awful it really is going to be all over again. And next time is even worse than the time before.
Our minds and bodies are trying to tell us something when this happens. We can choose to listen, or choose not to, but eventually if we refuse to listen the body, mind or both starts to collapse.
Have you ever experienced burnout or writer's block? How do you deal with these very real career and creativity obstacles, which threaten to block your success?
