The brain is harder to tame than the body. For physical jobs, like the barista example, you might get fatigued but it is more readily possible to enter a state of "muscle memory" where you are operating through your body's movements without engaging some specific mental circuitry, even though other parts of your brain are activated. I suspect some such circuitry is key for a purely mental act like writing. Long way of saying: it doesn't feel like the same thing. But I do agree that you have to like and look forward to whatever it is you want to do and excel at.
When it comes to journalism, writing can be an almost automatic process just like you describe. When you’re blogging or writing a quick news hit, you really can just bang it out with a minimum of mental effort. Otherwise no one would be able to do those jobs!
Thanks for this comment! I think if you can choose to not just crank out formulaic crap, more power to you. I guess the question is, can you do creative work if you aren’t feeling inspired? I can definitely write if I’m not inspired, and I often have to — that’s why I’m against the concept of “writer’s block.”
never experienced it but I am loathe to say so publicly because it sounds like bragging
I think there are times when should fill the tank and live rather than write.
The neural networks benefit from time away.
That’s not writer’s block, per se, but when the thread is thin…
It tends to mean “go be a person for a while.”
If you’re writing professionally this is called “taking a vacation” and I agree it’s a good idea!
Yeah. I mean “a long vacation” for sure.
But then again, I wish all vacations were of that cut. :)
Totally true. For 30 years at newspapers, I either had deadlines or was imposing them.
Any reporter who claimed to have writers block would have been ridiculed and fired.
I write no matter what. People are paying me to show up and do what I’ve committed to doing.
“Just not feeling like it” is amateur bullshit.
The brain is harder to tame than the body. For physical jobs, like the barista example, you might get fatigued but it is more readily possible to enter a state of "muscle memory" where you are operating through your body's movements without engaging some specific mental circuitry, even though other parts of your brain are activated. I suspect some such circuitry is key for a purely mental act like writing. Long way of saying: it doesn't feel like the same thing. But I do agree that you have to like and look forward to whatever it is you want to do and excel at.
When it comes to journalism, writing can be an almost automatic process just like you describe. When you’re blogging or writing a quick news hit, you really can just bang it out with a minimum of mental effort. Otherwise no one would be able to do those jobs!
Thanks for this comment! I think if you can choose to not just crank out formulaic crap, more power to you. I guess the question is, can you do creative work if you aren’t feeling inspired? I can definitely write if I’m not inspired, and I often have to — that’s why I’m against the concept of “writer’s block.”
Would I know any songs you’ve written?