# been suffering from imaginary writer's block for months it's really been bugging me - despite the fact i _appear_ to understand the notion of 'being a writer' is mostly entirely bullshit the mere notion of "writer's block"(tm) presupposes one is indeed 'a writer' that is someone involved with a craft that fits precise cultural definitions _writing_ on the otherhand needs of presuppositions and baseless unfounded ideas and ideas about whatever the hell 'being a writer' might mean not that there aren't fairly solid and commonsense boundaries on what 'a writer' is and isn't but rather that one need not simply fret about the cultural notion termed 'being a writer' in order to partake in the process called writing what one writes will be shit of course but that doesn't matter - hashtag antiwork just get in all down first and let others sort out the meaning after and it's not about 'giving oneself permission to write terribly' because you were going to do that anyway the mere notion of 'being a writer' is _itself_ the source of the discomfort and anxiety one feels about 'the writing process (as a writer)' when 'merely writing' easily bypasses all of that pseudo heavy-shit but then don't mere write anything either - in fact 'write less' is my one and only piece of (perhaps equally bs) 'writing advice' to be added to the writer's slush pile (or rather the pile of slush that is 'being a writer') why in fact be anything - why not just communicate what you had to say all along - ie that communication is impossible but one has no choice except to try **i've been meaning to write a book about the strangeness of videogames for months now** but so far all i've got are the images themselves which are part of the book - but no words just a load of unstructured notes - and almost no will to attempt it i can honestly see no reason to begin it - mind you maybe that's part of the reason right there writerly projects such as 'books' and 'novels' also presuppose beginnings middles and ends - that is careful planning in other words writerly labor - but what if one doesn't want to work at all what about reconsidering the whole project as something that's already begun and one is merely making notes on a process already well under way and under _its own steam and impetus_ in this sense one need not uselessly worry about 'where to begin' - because _one is already there_ (that's zen innit) which reminds me of the small insight i had into tai chi this morning while trying to open a plastic bag of ground coffee i suddenly realized that the merest intent to use strength is already 'not tai chi' and merely external // republic of bob