Scott Adams and Writer's Block

Posted on November 16, 2005

Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert and the Dilbert.blog muses upon the concept of writer's block in a recent blog post.

One of the most common questions I get is "Do you ever get writer's block?"

The thing I love about that question is that it reveals a wonderful optimism in the person who is asking. I suspect that the people who ask this question believe they possess deep wells of creativity and talent that are inexplicably blocked. All they need is the secret unblocking spell from a cartoonist and then a geyser of bestselling books will spray forth.

I wish I had that kind of attitude. I imagine myself asking an NBA player how he deals with Jumper's Block, under the theory that if I can learn how to unblock my jumping skills, I will no longer need a car. I'll just jump wherever I want to go, like the Hulk, but less angry.

Of all the authors we've asked about writer's block, we've never gotten a response quite like Scott Adams'. Still there was that one response by Terry Pratchett who told us that writer's block might be a sign -- just possibly -- that you were meant to do something else in life. Of course, he might have been kidding us. It's hard to tell with him.

---