How John Steinbeck managed writer’s block

By Dennis Mellersh

Writer’s block is an affliction that can affect all writers, from master novelists with numerous books to their credit, to the beginner writer who is only early on in the process of becoming a writer and still some distance from writing a book.

Writer’s block in itself can range from being mild, such as needing some “inspiration” to get going with the writing task at hand, to the utterly paralyzing in which the writer feels hopeless and suffers from the despair of believing they are unable to write anything at all.

Fortunately for the milder cases of writer’s block, there are a number of techniques one can use to reduce the inertia and in effect “warm-up” to the writing task at hand.

An interesting approach on how to induce the required creative mood for the day’s writing is one that was used by the novelist John Steinbeck. 

This particular method is suggested within a collection of Steinbeck's thoughts on writing as well as tips for reducing writer’s block, which was published in the Paris Review Interviews Art of Fiction No. 45.

Steinbeck said, “It is usual that the moment you write for publication—I mean one of course—one stiffens in exactly the same way one does when one is being photographed. The simplest way to overcome this is to write it to someone, like me. Write it as a letter aimed at one person. This removes the vague terror of addressing the large and faceless audience and it also, you will find, will give a sense of freedom and a lack of self-consciousness.”

Steinbeck put the letter-writing idea into practice when he was writing East of Eden, his longest novel. Each day before starting to write the novel, he wrote a “letter” to his editor and friend, Pascal Covici.

The letters varied considerably in length, ranging from quite short to lengthy. He concluded some of them, after finishing the day’s work, by going back to the letter and writing further comments starting with phrases such as “work finished for the day and…now…”, or “Now the day’s work is done and I don’t know whether or not it is good…”

The “letters”, which are like a diary or journal when seen together, were compiled in book form and titled Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters and published by William Heinemann Ltd.