The Writer’s Itch
Every writer has an itch. It can be a small itch, or a big itch, but it has to be an itch. Orlando in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando has a very big itch, one that is related to the whole body; when the desire to write takes over her, her entire body shakes and trembles and tingles (if you haven’t already read Orlando it is an amazing book). My itch is quite annoying as it happens to me… in the middle of the night.
Quite often I am enjoying a dream when it takes over. At first it is like an annoying noise in the background of a dream, but it gets louder and louder and finally, it wakes me up: words flash, bells go off, you name it, I have it. Then the trick is that before falling back asleep, I have to recite the words several times in order not to forget them. In truth, I am too lazy to write them down.
How does your writer’s itch manifest itself? Have you ever tried to control it or ignore it? What happens when you ignore the itch? Once I tried to sleep through the itch and it turned into a nightmare: someone over a loudspeaker was yelling my name, telling me to get up and write things down. I nearly fell out of bed when that happened. My advice: do not ignore the itch! Obey it! Amazing things have come from writers who follow their itch rather than fight it.
How can you encourage the itch? Give it permission to disturb you at any moment during your day (or night in my case). It’s unbelievable the words that will come at you! Truly. My friends used to tell me to take sleeping pills, but I always replied, “Why sleep when I could write the next best-seller? Let me sleep when I am dead”.
March 10th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
This is the kind of itch that calamine lotion won’t make go away.
April 18th, 2011 at 8:16 pm
You can certainly see your enthusiasm in the work you write. The sector hopes for even more passionate writers such as you who are not afraid to say how they believe. At all times follow your heart.
May 1st, 2012 at 10:51 am
I have this writers itch all the time, mainly at the wrong times. I get it when I’m in class in college, all of my revision sheets will have a couple of lines that are completely irrelevant to the work I was meant to be doing… It also happens when i don’t have any paper and so it ends up all over my arms and my desk and even my bookmarks… the things is I don’t get the writing itch when I actually need it, such as in coursework or exams…is there a way to control my itch and perhaps direct it’s energy in to something more productive like my college work??
May 4th, 2012 at 2:28 pm
Hi Yazz!
That is a good question. To command the itch takes a lot of focus, I think one trick is to free your mind of thoughts before trying to write. It’s an oxymoron really but the less you think, the more you will write from the heart. That is how I write. I hope this helps you out a little bit! Good luck!