Writers Abroad Magazine Issue 7 November 2017 | Page 6

WRITERS ABROAD MAGAZINE: THE THIRD SPACE
WRITER’S BLOCK. OR NOT?
BY Jill Brown
What do I do when my mind is a blank? When I can’t think of anything new to
write?
Questions, not answers, float around my head. How should I begin the next
chapter? What's an interesting theme for a short story? What was the opening
line of that poem which came to me in the middle of the night?
Generally, the first thing is panic, followed by a deep sigh and some heavy
breathing. Exactly what I did before I started to write this.
The empty white space on my screen was no help at all, so I glanced down at my
keyboard. Salvation! Taped to my laptop is a quote by the late Terry Pratchett:
"There's no such thing as writer's block. That was invented by people in
California who couldn't write."
While I'm not convinced about the second sentence––though I'm sure its intention
is humorous—I do agree with the first. More importantly, it has given me
something to write about.
So, where to start? By happy coincidence, I have to hand the Oxford Dictionary
of Literary Quotations. Flicking through the index, I find a section on Writer’s
Block.
5 | NOVEMBER 2017