Selective Amnesia

Why do hack writers try

One of the ways I’ve handled writer’s block earlier was – hack at it. Not fuss over style, substance and syntax. Just, put pen to paper and drone on. The resultant prose read difficult. Heck, it even appeared to the eye difficult. Ugly wads of text. Punctuated by ugly wads of silence. But, that was the only way out. Well, the only way out I knew of. After the fourth such draft of hacked words, the block would show signs of relenting. Somewhere, somehow, inspiration to write better prose.

This bout of block has showed no such cracks. What worsens matters, I have even lost the drive to force it.^[1] Four posts were started, four abandoned. Stories fast reaching half-life stage on my hard-disk.

As to the title – I now realise why writers and film directors, and in some cases, both, write or do the things they do. It’s one of the ways to get out of the rut. Just – beat the thing out into half-recognisable shapes. Hack. Hack. Hack. Bent over the typewriter or keyboard, forcing letters on to the page.

Hoping, against hope, that the promised land is not far away.
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[1] Unfortunately, this still reads like the second draft.