The Antidote to Writer's Block (audio)

Substack Writers at Work with Sarah Fay Podcast

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The Antidote to Writer's Block (audio)

Sarah Fay Writers at Work

Feb 02, 2023

∙ Paid

Leonid Pasternak, “The Passion of Creation” (c. 1910s)

I love Wikipedia’s definition of writer’s block:

“Writer's block is a condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author is either unable to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown.”

So melodramatic: The author is unable to produce new work. Practically an illness: a condition.

I also love the image Wikipedia chose to accompany the entry: 19th- and 20th-century impressionist painter Leonid Pasternak’s “The Passion of Creation.” High drama. Total despair. (Google the phrase writer’s block, and that image will come up a lot.)

You have to understand that Leonid was friends with Leo Tolstoy, perhaps the most melodramatic author to set foot on this earth…

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