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Stupid writer's block. I've been in front of this computer all weekend and all I have to show for it is a page. One stinking lousy page. If I used a typewriter, I'd have about 50 wrinkled up lying around the trash can. At least then I'd have something that I could point to that could show I at least TRIED to write this weekend. Everything that I typed was garbage. I even tried to tell myself that if I keep writing, I can edit it later and it won't be as bad tomorrow when I reread it. Did this work? No. I just reread the page that I have and it stinks!
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you think thats bad? I had a little fever yesterday so I sat down to relax and do some writing around 2pm, and then before i knew it it was midnight and I had something like 40 pages. Oh yes, my fever was also something like 105. I read over what I wrote this afternoon and discovered a key rule for the future. Do no attempt to write in a feverous haze, you end up with a lot of gibberish and at least one passage discussing monkeys in detail... and monkeys have absolutely no reason to be in your novel...
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Although I once broke through a block on a novel with a well-timed sinus infection. Wrote something like 30 pages, went back, realized it was all in present tense (and the other 60 pages or so were in past)... and I honestly hadn't noticed the difference. I'm still pulling tense errors out of that particular section, and I've done some heavy-duty rewrites, but it definitely pulled me through the writer's block and pushed me back into flow on that one. (If the novel's finished, I'll call it a success.)
Thing is, sometimes the piece needs a break, you need a break, or maybe you need to figure out how to get past the self-awareness and back into flow. When my expectations are too high on something it makes getting into flow much more difficult-- I can't think a piece of writing matters, or it's dead. Enough time for liking it in rewrites. I can't go back, or it's dead. Time expectations also kill it. The only thing that works well for me is BIC, at least 1 hour every morning, and hoping that the flow shows up. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn't. I think it's getting more frequent, but I don't think that very loudly. Can't scare the flow muse away.
I've forced myself to write before with three word sentances. I had a scene that looked something like this. "He gets coffee. She says, "What are you doing." He doesn't answer and leaves." Tense issues, no flow and yuckyness. But, it got me past the scene that I was having trouble with to one I wanted to write. Then later I came back and 'edited' the coffee scene, which really meant writing it, but fixing is always easier than creating for me. Its an easy way to trick myself.
I also write on the subway. I find that I think about the story till I get to the station, then I write till the train comes. The fact that I'm interuppted when the train comes, and when I get to my stop, gives me a sense of urgency and the same breaks that procrastination does.
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I'd be afraid of writing past my stop. 'Course, that would be a good thing, since it would mean I was on a roll. Literally.
I'm finding more writing blockiness with book number two. I think Shawn was right, the second book is harder, although I think it has to do with what we've been discussing in the 'to outline or not to outline thread.' Like Shawn, I'm not a detailed outliner, but for book two I have a better idea where I'm going, lots of points I plan to get to, unlike with number one for which I had only one scene I knew I wanted somewhere midway.
But I look at what I've managed so far and realize that if I just put fingers to keyboard, the words do come. So I'll keep at it, trusting that book two will eventually write so naturally that I'll miss my stop.
[This message has been edited by Kolona (edited May 03, 2004).]
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BIC = Acronym for Butt In Chair. I suspect there's nicer ways of putting it, but it all boils down to the "show up and eventually the muse will come" school of writing.
On writing past the subway stop: I once managed to read past my stop on the school bus. Huge problem, calls to the school, bus radioed, special stop. Very traumatic, at least for the bus driver. (I didn't even notice until someone started yelling at me to get off.) The next day in school, someone said "Hey, they were calling you on the intercom. Are you so stupid you forgot to get on the bus?" I informed her that I forgot to get *off* the bus. Not the best rebuttal.
Like OSC, I don't believe in writer's block. I believe writer's block is your unconscious telling you something is wrong. That you might not be listening to the muse. The best thing to do is to stop thinking and just start writing.
Two things that have helped me:
(1) From Anne Lamott, I learned the one-inch rule. I only need to see one inch in front of me. I only need to know what the next paragraph will say. After I write that paragraph, then I only need to know what the next one will say. Soon I have four or five pages and I'm finished for the day.
(2) Never throw anything away. Again I learned from Anne Lamott that the best thing to do in this situation is to simply "free-write." Let loose on the page. Write five, six, or seven pages. Don't worry about what your writing. What you're doing is allowing you unconscious to explore your story. You're freeing your unconscious. It may take six or seven pages and then--WHAM!--there it is. It might be one line, or even a paragraph, but there it is. You know where the story is going. Everything else might be crap--and it ususally is--but you've found the pearl in the vat of mud. Sometimes it's worth getting dirty.
[This message has been edited by October (edited May 03, 2004).]
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Try backing up to a point where the story was working and flowing. Try starting from that point and see if you were trying to make the story go where it did not want to go.
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Thanks for all the help and encouragement guys and gals. My inner critic was being especially harsh this weekend, so I fired him. :} I have to remember those 6 important characters: BIC WOP
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Dark clouds surrounding me, is it getting stuffy in here? Am I going blind? I should really get that bump on my head checked, wait I don't have a bump? How on earth can I fall down the stairs and not have a bump?
Did I fall down the stairs?
I'm more blocked than Shaq in an all star game. (see I can't even describe my blockage well!) Usually when I'm blocked it means there was something I need to do. Problem is I think that thing is to write. I've put myself into an infinite loop. Perhaps it has something to do with the fall down the stairs
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Pyre, unblock yourself by taking that post and using it to begin a writers' block article for a writers' magazine. That's a nice non-run-of-the-mill hook. Posts: 1810 | Registered: Jun 2002
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I just spent the last three days working out my writer's block through that nasty 9 letter word...outlining!
That's right...I started out with a rough skeleton, a starting opint, an ending opint, and three major plot points. I wrote 12 chapters and kept writing notes to myself "add this" "take that out" and "get the characterization on her better". Finally, I set it aside and outlined the 12 chapters I had just written....actually it turned into 13 by the time I was done with the outline. I slipped in clues and red herrings I had forgotten about (it's a mystery) and squeezed in an interview that had completely slipped my mind.
I didn't even outline in a forward direction, is the thing that strikes me. In the forward direction, I've still just got an ending point and a couple of plot points. But in this rough draft of my novel, I think I've found a new and useful method (for me, anyway). As long as I realize I have to rewrite the whole thing, I can keep going, using the stuff I've written and the working outline as my guide for future chapters. The stuff I've actually written will begin to make less and less sense as I push through, essentially building the outline through a rough draft. (I don't know why, but with nothing but empty pages I have a lot of trouble creating an outline....I need words to bring it to life.) By the time this novel is over I suspect that the beginning will look very little like the beginning does now (especially since I added a chapter 0) and that many subsequent chapters will be altered, but for my revision I will have everything I need...a highly detailed outline and a clear sense of direction. With that in mind, I can use the rough draft like another planning ool (and writing practice) and I believe my second draft will be very close to finished. (Needing editing rather thatn rewriting.)
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Very good point. When I'm not doing too well writing my novel, I often find that outlining it in a little more detail for the next chapter helps a lot.
I'm not sure if its having the outline, or stepping back and looking at it from a different direction for a while that helps though.
quote:By the time this novel is over I suspect that the beginning will look very little like the beginning does now (especially since I added a chapter 0)
All books should have a chapter 0, in my opinion. But then I sometimes program in assembly language for the fun of it, so perhaps I'm just perverse.
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so I fired him. :} I have to remember those 6 important characters: BIC WOP
