End laziness now!: Deconstructing conceptual blockers

Laziness is a concept—a general, abstract idea, created by humans to articulate something they struggle to explain. Concepts are simple stories that allow us to make sense of the world, but often lead to making poor sense.

In the language of narrative therapy, a concept like laziness leaves us with a ‘thin conclusion’ where a ‘rich description’ could be. That’s because we tend to identify really strongly with certain concepts that diagnose our behavior. We say, “I am so goddamn lazy” or “I am the laziest person alive” because we don’t know why we are behaving a certain way, or what to do to change this behavior.

Laziness is just one example of a conceptual creative blocker that can be eliminated through a process of deconstruction. Other conceptual blockers are talent, perfectionism, productivity, motivation or grit, and badness/goodness.

This week, I want you to consider what concepts are dominant in your life that block you creatively, and begin to deconstruct those concepts in order to find the real story—the rich description of your writing life—underneath.

Deconstructing blockers

Step 1: Identify

What is a dominant concept or a few concepts you associate with your creative blocks? The list above is pretty good, but there are more. Any time you find yourself identifying with a problem in your process or diagnosing a problem with one idea, there’s a concept worth deconstructing. Notice how these blockers can be found by examining your “I am” sentences related to your process and writing:

• “I’m not talented enough” - talent

• “I’m a perfectionist” or “I’m not perfect” - perfectionism and the state of being perfect

• “I’m not productive enough” or “I’m unproductive” - productivity

• “I am not motivated enough” - motivation

• “I am a bad writer” or “I’m not good enough” - badness/goodness

I highly suggest revisiting your Story of My Writing from prompt 001 to identify these concepts and the role they have played in your life.

Step 2: Contextualize

1. How do I define this concept? (It’s pointless to look this up—ask yourself what your operational definition of this concept has been).

2. Where did I get this definition? (I like to ask, ‘Who told you that?’)

3. What assumptions does this concept demand?

4. Bonus question here: Who profits or benefits from my received ideas about this concept? (Concepts are stories, and no story exists outside a social context. Concepts you might hold very closely in your identity may have been created by someone else to control your output, encourage consumption, and maintain hierarchy, often through harmful negative stereotyping of certain groups. In other words, many of these concepts are neither inevitable nor necessary to function individually nor as a community—how have you been made to believe otherwise?)

Step 3: Evaluate

1. How has this concept dominated or controlled my creative work? What behaviors or patterns do I explain using this concept?

2. When I say, “I am so lazy” or “I’m too much of a perfectionist,” what is it that I’m not accomplishing and would like to accomplish? (Be specific.)

3. What times can I remember where this concept wasn’t at play? (When have I been less controlling about the outcome, a hard worker, etc?)

4. Then, ask what would happen if this concept just didn’t exist?

   • If there’s no such thing as laziness, what are some other possible explanations for the behavior I identified?

   • If talent is a lie, what are other things that could be keeping me from accomplishing this goal?

   • Or, if being perfect or good enough have been defined for me by someone else, can I reject or redefine them now?

   • If productivity is just an idea, how would that change the way I approach or feel about my writing?

Rewriting the story

Perhaps you discover through the start of this deconstruction that you’re not lazy, because laziness doesn’t exist—actually, you’re not prioritizing some aspect of your writing process; you’re not setting aside adequate time to get into flow; or you are afraid, and you’d rather ‘have laziness’ than make the hard decision to begin.

Here, revisit your Story of My Writing and open a new draft or start editing. Through deconstructing concepts and ideas about yourself that are holding you back, you can begin to re-write that story to one that is hopeful, optimistic, and recognizes your real strengths and skills.

A final and important note—this is also about your skills as a writer. Great writing asks what the truth really is, behind jargon and ideology, beyond faction and belief. Great writing tells new stories by bringing many stories together.

This can also help us identify really bad writing—by which I mean harmful and dangerous. Bad writing tells you there is one answer to the question being asked, one solution to the problem, one trick, one view, one way.

So, by investigating how over-reliance on concepts can lead to a flattening of our self-understanding, ability, and reality, we practice the skills of writing while simultaneously unblocking our writing process. Deconstructing concepts helps you practice defining terms we take for granted, evaluating problems and solutions, and considering multiple stories.

Next Monday, I’m going to write about creating writing rituals—in part by embracing what you think of as ‘being lazy.’ Sign up now, don’t miss out on Monday posts and creative writing prompts every Friday!