Dr. Wordsmith visits a patient with writer’s block

By Dennis Mellersh

You are trying to write your book, but for a day or two, the words you need just won’t come. It must be the “authors’ disease”— it’s writer’s block! You panic. “I’d better call Dr. Wordsmith.”

The doctor arrives with his black bag and instruments: He examines you thoroughly; checks your fingers’ for suppleness; inspects your pens to make sure there is enough ink for the words you need; he diagnoses your computer; yes, it has enough memory for your novel and the keyboard is functioning; he checks to make sure you have a thesaurus and a good dictionary; reviews your library and asks,” what have you read lately – anything unusual? Are you reading quality material or too much junk?”

He then moves on to your desk: “What did you write yesterday? Any particularly hard-to-write passages before you noticed the symptoms of writer’s block?”

He asks to see your journals and your notebooks where you write down your ideas and the advice you have gleaned from reading the biographies of respected, successful writers.

Finally he gives his diagnosis: “There is no blockage; it is simply a case of literary malnutrition, brought on by the unrealistic expectation that writing is simply having the  inspiration or desire to write, which is then followed by miracles of narration and dialogue flowing effortlessly onto the paper.”

 “Well, what do I do about it?” you ask.

“Unfortunately, there is no simple and fast cure,” explains Dr. Wordsmith.

“My advice to most of my writer patients is to relax and the condition will cure itself…as long as you read good writing every day, and show up every day and do some writing, any writing.”

“But, call me again if the condition goes on for more than week and I’ll refer you to one of my specialist colleagues, Dr. Persistence, Dr. MoreEffort, or Dr. ReadMore.”