As all professional writers can attest, some projects, articles, essays, books, do write themselves. And those are wonderful, wonderful moments. It's as if everything just falls into place and the words flow from fingertip to keyboard without the normal frustration, self editing and nagging self judgement. I love it when this happens. It is the antithesis of writer's block.
I have been experimenting with intention-setting. You know, setting a goal in my mind and then just leaving it alone to unfold. Now, when I come to a difficult story or article, column or other piece of work that needs to be done and I can't seem to get it to flow, I am now stating to myself and the universe, 'this will write itself." I did that this morning because a particular article with a looming deadline doesn't enthuse me. I have been hitting dead ends for sources and I just dislike the whole assignment. I have been doing this long enough to know that likes and dislikes don't have a place in my working world, so I have enough discipline to put that aside, and like a lawyer defending a scallywag, will devote myself and my skills to doing my best.
Once I told my husband that I had determined this story would write itself, the dam broke and the flood of help met me. Two informative sources literally fell out of the sky, and helped shape this heretofore shapeless mess of a story. I hope against hope that I have discovered a new way of tackling this kind of writer's block.
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