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Comment by paulpauper | Hacker News Reader

It's much easier to beat the 'writer's block' when there's a large,captive audience for your work.

Mercedes Lackey writes a lot about writer's block on Quora. Her position is that there's no such thing as writer's block, what people do is write themselves into a corner and their subconscious won't let them proceed with the story because every available path is silly or stupid.

The cure is to go back to the drawing board and figure out where you screwed the story up. The way forward could be as simple as introducing another character or as difficult as re-outlining the current story arc.

Huh, that's an absolutely brilliant way of describing it. I actually have an example of EXACTLY THAT challenge and solution.

My screenwriting goes in spurts. 7-10 pages a day for a few days, then rest for a day or two, maybe a week. I hit a wall in the screenplay I was basing on Enron + Robin Hood. Just around the Act I to Act II turn.

After two weeks, I got a print out of the last 10 pages, a pen and some highlighters for color coding, and figure out what was wrong. A couple sections in the wrong places. A dangling paragraph or thought. One afternoon, about 2 hours, and then it all felt right again. Went back to the routine and got it wrapped up.

hmm, I wonder if that doesn't explain the lack of a new GoTs book

that GRRM doesn't really like his options from where he is in the story

Citation needed.

If anything, most pop/rock musicians do their best work on their first records, when there's not any audience yet. It's the rarer beasts, like Beatles, etc that improve with later releases (this doesn't usually apply to jazz and classical, where maturity and experience matters more).

Besides, the idea of an artists having a writer's block because they have to follow a large hit, or feel pressured by their huge audience and the demands that entails, is so common it's almost a cliche.

I would agree with that, and it is a rare thing for bands to get better and not fall into that conforming pattern of what the label wants in order to generate money.

Its interesting to note that a lot of people parallel The Beatles with U2. U2 was always ahead of the curve in terms of music they were making. They were using EDM in their music as early as 1993 - years before other bands even began experimenting with it. Their Zooropa album had themes of electronic over stimulation and it was the start of them breaking away from their traditional sound - something they would continue doing until 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind.

Correction, they do their best work on their breakout record. Doesn't have to be their first. And the obvious explanation is regression to the mean, same reason you feel better after visiting a doctor.

This doesn't apply to Rollins and Black Flag. The work they did got better and better, more and more innovative, culminating in 1984 with the release of both "My War" and "Slip it In". Totally innovative records. And that's not to mention the graphic work/cover art of Raymond Pettibon. He's got a huge retrospective up right now at the New Museum in NYC. Amazing output from another creative workaholic from that crew.

Or, much harder to beat writer's block when there's a large audience waiting for more work. If the grip of "10,000 people are expecting X from me..." freezes you, you're blocked.

It depends on the artist, IMO. Some people are charged up by a large consumer base waiting for more work, some don't care, and some are frozen by it.

Best if you don't care -- per HR's discussion of Miles Davis. Sometimes Miles left his audience behind, but that was OK because he was being true to himself and his vision for his work.

J.D. Salinger, Harper Lee, Margaret Mitchell, John Kennedy Toole - these are just some of the great novelists who found massive success at their debut and simply couldn't repeat it.

I'm taking more about motivation and perseverance..imho, it's easier to keep producing writing/music/etc if you know there will be a market for it. I would be more inclined to find something new to say if I had 10,000 people waiting to consume it than if I only had 10 or so. But it doesn't mean the quality will be as good as earlier work.

> motivation

All new writers\performers\creatives have 0 people waiting to receive their work.

You don't need motivation, you need discipline. Write\create\whatever. It will be the only way to turn your 10 readers into 10,000 readers.

John Kennedy Toole doesn't really belong on this list. His most successful novel was published after his suicide.

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