"Idol hands make the devil's work." If you can focus on a career, hobbies, sports, a relationship(s), and whatever else, and the urge to write still presses you, then I would say write, but when you have a lot of time on your hands, it's easy to confuse boredom with genuine inspiration or artistic desire.
Yes, idle hands make the devil's work. I can assure you, though, that I have not simply mistaken my boredom. Boredom is rarely a mode in my existence. As well, I'd chance ask you to define "genuine inspiration" or "artistic desire." While I am thankful for you to put me in my place for making this post, I think you have made great leaps.
This isn't (completely) directed at you. It's a blanket statement for everyone who "struggles" to write. There's absolutely no reason to be "afraid." Do yourself a favor, make a goal, (~100k novel for example), and finish it in four months. Your perspective now and then will be very different. I've been 20 before, I understand mental masturbation!
I'm in this same position right now and didn't know how to get out either... So thanks everyone for the suggestions!
Hey man, I rather like what you wrote. Keep at it. A friend of mine once said this: Writing is 10% inspiration and 90% staring at something blank while hating yourself. I mean, it's a joke, but it's funny because it reads as true. Anyway, we've all been there. Hell, I'm still there. I cope with it by parodying it in my "Progress Journal." Are you hip to Charlie Kaufman? He's written two excellent films that are pretty much entirely about people staring at blank things while hating themselves: Adaptation, and Synecdoche, New York. It's almost like he took his fear of creating and somehow transformed that into a creative force. They're self-indulgent flicks to be sure, but also highly original, completely hilarious, and very well respected. Maybe they'll inspire you; they certainly inspired me. Also, for what it's worth, I find it a hell of a lot easier to write now than I did when I was 20.
It is a good joke. Thank you for the comment, too. I will make sure that I watch those two films; I can imagine that self-indulgent art is likely to be the most profound, as it relies on a deep connection with the self.
I'm not committing any great moral wrong by making shitty writing. Once I understood that, the whole process became a lot less depressing and a lot more productive.
I want to write. I want to write. I WANT TO FUCKING WRITE! I have participated in flash. I have participated in a couple poems. Is it a release or a tease? All I want to do s freaking write. But, it takes something I haven't got. Time. Back and forth. Back and forth. If you entered my cage, I could mangle you. Unfortunately, I don't manage my own cage. Growl. Snarl. A minute at a time. A minute at a time. The frustration of a minute at a time makes me dread the hunt and starve for words. You watch me in a cage not knowing what I can release. Go ahead; ignore the signs; I'll make you famous. Or, you could give me the time to make you legend...
Did you hear about the serial killer who killed everybody who shared his junior high locker number? No? Sorry, I had to work.
Lol. Why haven't you got time to write? Could you not set aside like 2 hours in the week, go to the library, lock the study room, stay up till 3am or whatever and do it? If it's kids, could you hire a babysitter or ask the in-laws, an aunt, a friend to take care of them? If it's work, could you take a day off? Call in sick?
@Garball, I know how you feel. I decided back in my twenties that I wanted to write a novel. But first I had to go to grad school. Then I realized universities weren't expanding faculties, they were reducing them. Didn't want to get the doctorate and not be able to use it, so I switched to business school - another 5 years and into my early thirties. Start career. Two kids born. Three more years. Wife decides to change HER career direction - three more years. Job change. Five more years, and now I'm in my 4os. Both kids with special needs. Write fiction? No, sorry, you have advocacy pieces to write, son, and parent trips to the state capital to organize and an agency to get involved in. Now, I'm writing fiction but stealing time late at night to do it. Another job change, a department to manage, major strategizing to do. Now, I'm nearly 50. Need to find a permanent placement for my oldest, more planning, more fighting. Corporate infighting on the job. More years slide by. Last straw hits back at age 56 and I go work for the government, getting my life back. But it was another five years before I had a completed novel (now being beta read) that was the novel I really wanted to write. I know. Sounds a little like a song by Five For Fighting. But here's the thing...those stolen writing sessions late at night kept me sane. My kids got the services they needed because of my advocacy. And while the advocacy stuff didn't help my prose style, the real life experiences I had along the way served up enough writing ideas to keep me busy until the day they carry me out of this life, feet first. Whenever that is. Write when you can. Read when you can. Laugh when you can and cry if you must. Never, ever, ever say the words, "if only." Do what ya gotta do. Live life and take lots of mental notes. Because when the deluge ends - and it will - you're writing will be all the better for it. Hang in there.
When I started writing and was tight for time, I quit reading for a while. Wouldn't want to do it forever, but it opened up some time temporarily. I also stopped watching TV, and only rarely watch movies. By stopping my consumption of other people's media, I found time to produce my own.
I try to temporarily limit all my free activity to writing. No t.v., Goodbye Youtube - sob, no art - errgh. I sometimes also battle depression which eats up my time. It feels like the Nothing sweeping in to destroy Fantasia in the Never Ending Story. I wind up sitting and staring. I don't really have any advice or helpful words - just I know what you're going through. Don't lose heart.
The bird is actually yelling for help, but I can see where you can get confused; it does sound like singing.
I think you are not feeling like writing from inside, yes, it is true all this is only excuses for not to write. It is simply that, there are no techniques for making you a writer, or there is nothing which can increase your interest in writing. It is a feeling anyone may get from them only.
If you want to shift a block - any kind of block - there is not one fix-all answer. However, I have something which will help you get started. It will be slow going at first; just hide all the timekeeping devices until you are finished. You will be surprised how much you write in how little time. Here's the deal: think small. Like, really small. Don't describe a town, describe a house. If you are still stuck, describe one face of the house. Or one brick. Or one square centimetre of that brick. The smaller you think, the easier it will be to put pen to paper. Then just continue.
Writers write for a whole bucket load of reasons. I don't buy into the elitist myths about writers 'having' to write. Some write for a living, others because they feel they have to write, others because they enjoy writing. I write because I get great pleasure from the act of making stuff up and telling a fictional story. What is important imho is to identify which kind of writer we are, and use that knowledge to deal with 'writer's block' if and when it arrives. In my opinion most writer's block is due to either fear or procrastination. Fear of not being good enough, of the story or plot not being good enough, and fear of failure. Procrastination because life is complicated and all kinds of life's complications affect our psyche and our ability to be creative. If we don't deal with those issues that feed into our psych we cannot sit down, relax and create.
I hate writer's block. I get it every now and then. That's when I eat and do actual work for college and stuff, lol
