Maybe we write too much. Maybe that’s what these physical, emotional, and psychological roadblocks to story making are trying to tell us. Must we always be writing (especially those of us who love it and need it the most)? When I get to that place in my work where it seems I cannot move forward even an inch—no matter how hard I try—I stop trying. I do something else. I would make a list of the things I do but it’s a list that would include almost everything there is in the world other than writing. I will say this: I used to play a lot of ping-pong and that was helpful. Then again, I don’t know that it was the ping-pong itself, but ping-pong as an example of an activity that was so far removed from what writing is allowed me not only an excuse not to write, but also an opportunity to do something that writing is not: active, social, mindful but mindless, pleasantly competitive, purely fun. Because really, all you’re doing is hitting a ball over a net to someone who you’re hoping will hit the ball back to you. That it will be there eventually, and that all you have to do is be ready, be present the moment that happens. Because it will, eventually. Exactly like writing.
—Daniel Wallace, author of This Isn’t Going to End Well: The True Story of a Man I Thought I Knew (Algonquin Books, 2023)
Photo credit: Mallory Cash