Paper Presentation – Author | Speaker
The Blank Page as Alien: Overcoming Writer’s Block, the Psyche Monster in the House, to Cultivate Writing Flow.
COAH Postgraduate Research Conference 2020 Taliesin, Swansea University: 17 – 18 Sept. 2020.
Taliesin, Swansea University: 17 – 18 September 2020
Abstract: Writer’s block is commonly described as a fear of the blank page, which leads to procrastination and even project abandonment. In contrast, this paper postulates that actual blank page dread – a phobia of paper with nothing written upon it – is comparatively rare. I propose that writing resistance is a primitive instinctive reaction to what narrative structure theorist Blake Snyder, author of Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need (2005), defined as the Monster in the House (MITH). The MITH is the horrific villain, often a creature, in many science fiction or horror films. What the writer with resistance to writing is facing is an inner or Metaphorical Monster in the House (M-MITH). This debilitating M-MITH must be integrated into the self akin to C. G. Jung’s access and integration of shadow into consciousness by the ego. Unresolved creative crises, including perfectionism, or material that the artistic personality is not in touch with, can inhibit writerly voice and self-expression. This paper explores the relationship between writing resistance and writing flow, arguing that literary individuation requires a union of the paralyzing and generative psyche opposites. Practice-based self-inquiry tools, I submit, can be used to identify personal M-MITH writer’s blocks vis-a-vis the blank page and, combined with techniques to Access | Process | Release (APR) the shadow material, facilitate a return to the highly pleasurable writing flow state. Relevant quotations and images from the MITH science fiction film Aliens (1986), directed by James Cameron, illustrate these psychological and writerly concepts.
Keywords: writing flow, writer’s block, creative practice, creative blocks, psyche, creativity
#creativity #psyche #creative practice #writing flow #creative blocks #writer’s block