I had been on more or less a creative hiatus. Starting in February I began to climb the ladder to the better job in the same occupation; no relation to writing. I bought a suit, tailored to fit a recent me and the ties and shirts to go with. I attended an industry conference in March, received an interview for the end of April, an offer two weeks later and seven weeks of class from August until now. I was buried in preparation, technical systems manuals, no plots, characters or enlightening material. What they say about writing and reading lots became poignant because I didn't have time for any of it with frequency, therefore, all of my sad and limited skills slid backward. I was Charlie Gordon for a bit, but now I have to re-start. I see the same mechanical issues that I had managed to get rid of in the past year. So I get to terrorize you all with recently re-visited and more terrible style. I hope I can warm up and get back in tune for November.
I remember Algernon but don't remember the details. I'll have to look it up. I certainly understand being terrorized.
Charlie Gordon, with an IQ of 68 has an operation to become smart and does well but slides uncontrollably back to what he was before. We all have to practice to maintain skills and talent we use every day but I pretty much attacked them. heh. Island of Dr. Moreau had the same theme, operate on animals to make them hyper-intelligent but in the end, they just reverted to their base state.
I actually don't think writing skills erode very quickly, if at all. What does fade with a lengthy layoff, in my experience, is familiarity with any particular story ideas you may have been working on. Sometimes they come back to you and sometimes they don't. It's also possible to read something you've written months ago and not looked at since and blurt out, "Where the hell was I going with that?!"
Bingo! I recently revisited a piece of my WIP that I had "lain to rest for a while" and trying to retrace where I was going with it took me a while. I literally forgot an entire element around which this section is rotating. It was something that came to me during a run, and for some reason those endorphin-induced epiphanies have a hard time sticking in my long term memory.
What is your process when you hit a writer's block? On the advice of beta readers, I have decided I need to write a scene 2 which a.) introduces the main character's best friend b) shows what it is like for the main character, a teenager, to have a single parent who suffers from clinical depression c) establishes that the main character and his best friend will soon be graduating from high school I have spent most of my day staring at a blank sheet of paper trying to write this.
By process do you mean that loooooonggggg period of time in which I roam around the house and do anything but write? I have tried dozens upon dozens of cures for writer's block and I think there might only be one. Face the blank page. That said, how about the best friend shows up with fast food just as the main character is facing a cold, empty kitchen? The parent arrives sometime during the meal and manages to ask how school is; the best friend mentions this thing called 'graduation.'
That's not bad. I'm thinking of having the friend and the main character working in the garage on an old beater the parent bought for him. The parent had it towed to their home and intended to work on it with the main character, but never got around to it (due to lack of motivation from clinical depression). Placing this scene in the garage allows me to mention the snowmobiles in the garage (something else that the parent had intended to do with the main character, but never got around to doing). They live in Colorado Springs, therefore, they have access to snow for most of the year. The thing is, I can't find the, for lack of a better word, -energy- of the scene (i.e. the clash of passions).
Maybe the parent got the teen the wrong kind of car? Parent chose the one he/she wanted in high school. Teen is absolutely sure he doesn't want to be anything like his parent? There's a lot probably floating around between them in terms of energy. Have you tried freewriting just the conversation? Let them rant at each other for a page and see what you get?
I see your point. I can add to that how skills used over a long period of time are very resilient to time off, whereas my developed skill-set could be considered relatively recent and quite susceptible to time off and attacks upon it.
I don't think I can do that. It'd That'd make the kid an ingrate and an asshole. That's not the character arc I have planned. The character arc is about self-acceptance. Interesting. I'd still need to find a way to fit it into the character arc I have planned. How can the parent's choice become a way to reveal the protagonist's issue of self-acceptance? No, because I can't get into the characters' skins yet. I need a way to tap into the energy of the scene, then the dialogue will be easy.
Maybe the way to tap into the scene is through the car? What does the make/model say about the parent and, in the long run, about the protagonist?
Is it possible we're on to a cure for writer's block? Does it help to know what the scene is not? You have an idea, deep down, and the more you consider other suggestions and reject or respond to them, the clearer the scene becomes? I just hope I'm helping. . .
I like to ask a friend, family or otherwise. Bonus points if they know absolutely nothing about my story or situation. I give them the rough details (e.g What would you do if you where in X situation) sort of thing. They usually answer with something that irrelevant but it is usually enough to get ideas rolling again. Makes me think of things I have not already thought of.
Personally i don't believe in writers block - I have times that I don't feel like writing - in those period I don't write - but when i do want to write, i write ... that whole sitting there with no idea what to put thing is pointless, just accept that sometimes it isnt happening and go play instead The other thing is to give yourself permission to be crap - just write something, too often people are hamstrung by the idea that perfect prose has to flow from their pen and thus whatever they write isnt good enough - kick that idea into touch, its known as the shitty first draft for a reason.
I use this idea sometimes, but I take it a bit further. I write with the intention to write the shittiest stuff I can. My inner critic gets confused and shuts up. I'm a pretty good editor, so, when I've finished writing the shittiest stuff I can, I just clean it up.
I started on my book back in 2009. I worked on it off and on, like many writers I think. I had about three years of a straight block. I'm sure the reasons for everyone's blocks vary. Which means the solution strategy depends on what's behind it. But per your question, here's what I started doing and it's worked out quite well. I learn my characters well enough to know what they would do in any situation. I then write little side stories pitting them in random situations. I even tried a scene from Star Wars. The scene was already written; I just dropped my character in and watched things unfold. This kept my creative juice flowing. I liken it to eating small, but several meals, to keep a metabolism going, as one fitness expert suggested to me. The side stories I write, I think only one went past a page. But at least I kept writing.
Bad ideas are just good ideas looked at from the wrong perspective. This might be the worst advice of all, but blue-sky it. It's something done in the video game industry where you think of every idea under the sun, no matter how silly or absurd, and find inspiration in that. It might also help you to step away from this project for a bit and work on something else for a while.
I hosted the MSN Writing Forum for many years which is where I first discovered epidemic "writers block." I'd heard of it in movies, but never met anyone claiming to actually have it, till there. THEN, it seemed two-thirds of the people there had it. I asked them all (as I did have the time) about what they were doing. Invariably it began, "I thought of this character, so I decided to...I got so far and then...." As was mentioned above, that started looking like writers block = not having a story. It seems there was an accompanying epidemic of "character driven stories," a term what seems a bit alien. Thinking up stories, instead of thinking up cool characters and trying to fit them into a story that is expected to reveal itself over time, sure seemed like a cure for writers block to me. See, you don't start writing till you have a story to tell. Otherwise, you're just typing.
This was a wonderful post, thank you. There are bits I can relate to, too, especially about using writing to connect. Since this summer, I've been around people a lot more, and it's been a different experience. My writer's block comes from idea development - there have been a couple of concepts I like, but they've never felt as fully formed in my mind as they used to be. Although maybe I'm being more critical? This really wouldn't be so much of a problem if I didn't have to write something as part of my coursework this year and actually pitch it in a month!
This is probably an excessively personal topic, but my reasons for discussing it here, I feel, are just.. I know I'm not alone in that I don't feel as if I'll ever be able to live up to the high standards that are placed on written works, or the standards and goals I have for myself. Simply put, I don't feel like I'm good enough to create something worth reading. These feelings of inadequacy spread like the plague and begin to make me especially critical of any ideas that come to my mind at any moment, and I'll become bitter towards anything I think of, putting forth almost excessive amounts of time and energy trying my damnedest to make it perfect... and its stressful. This also results in me losing any motivation to write anything in the first place, because even though I have ideas... I don't believe I'd be able to do them justice and I begin to lose the desire and incentive to write. Like I had said before, I know this is probably very personal, and some may already be thinking I should discuss this with someone closer to me. However, I feel like opening myself up like this to other writers will prove more beneficial to my situation, because, while friends can somewhat help these feelings at times, the help is never permanent and it doesn't help push me towards being able to overcome what this does to the activity I originally considered a passion of mine. So, I merely wish to ask: If anyone else has felt this way, and it affected their writing in the same manner, how did you overcome this?
Stephen King's On Writing features excerpts from some of his first drafts. They suck as bad as everybody else's do
