Haha...good advice. I like that idea. Don't lose your sense of humor, or all is lost.......lost in a story or book or movie...you name it. I think that is why my 35,000 word novella sunk like the Titanic....ICEBERG...ICEBURG ahead!!! It was too dull and depressing. I need to work in the humor. Horuseye...good eye! Thanks for the good advice, I will try to remember that one too.
With me it's different. I'm not sure if it's even writer's block; I just can't make myself write. I want to write and I spend hours driving myself bonkers, willing myself to put down something. I tend to watch TV or facebook instead. As a result, though, I think I'm becoming less creative. Help.
You had no trouble writing that post. . . Write anything. Set some goals for yourself and meet them, even if you're just posting on a forum. Any writing is better than no writing. Gradually raise the bar.
Thanks for all your helpful advice. These aforementioned issues aren't really issues I can ever hope to deal with or get rid of so the best I can do is just ignore them.
It sounds like you are simply intimidated by the blank page. If I sit and stare at a blank page, I get the same way - can't think of a thing to put down. Think about how you made this post - you had a problem, thought about what you wanted to say, then clicked in the right spot and simply typed. Approach your story the same way. Think about what you want it to be about before you sit down to that blank page. Something else you could try, if you already know what you want to say but are simply worried about creating that perfect first paragraph - don't write the first paragraph. Start at the second paragraph and come back to the first later - if you find you need to. Think of anything you put down on paper the first time through as simply ideas, and leave it to the editing process to clean up your writing. As long as you have some basics down, you have something to work with. It can all be fixed up later. As you write more, you will find your first draft getting better, and needing less fixing.
For alot of writers, writing is a kind of therapy to vent their problems out into a healthy medium. TRy that.
You have been trying to ignore them thus far, have you not? Ignoring most problems in life will not make them go away, they need to be dealt with somehow - or simply vented. Do not allow yourself to dwell on these problems for long though. give them a certain amount of time, with which you either sit and think of solutions, or sit and write, to vent them out, and then move on. Vitally important, that moving on part. As someone said, depression feeds on itself. The more you think on it, the worse you will feel about it. Choose to be productive, instead. You know, you can play, have fun, go to work, or whatever, but in the grand scheme of things, it all seems pointless at times. Like you are living, but for no reason. GIVE yourself a reason. Perk yourself up, improve peoples days. Choose to impact other peoples lives in positive ways. To me, sometimes, it feels like my writing is the only thing that will still be around when I am gone, so making it the best I can is a duty. Write more. Write lots. Keep a diary - keep two of them, and keep all depressing thoughts out of one of them. If you must enter something depressing, pick up the depressing journal and make an entry - but don't let it exceed one page. And then return to your happy one, and write something positive. Anything. You control your mind, and your subconscious thoughts will follow, even if it takes them some time to catch up to you. You are in control of where you want your mind to be. Take care. Be strong.
There is a lot of good advice here and i think i need to follow some of it myself lol, i disagree with the comments about anti depressants though as in my experience they simply don't work, but then i am pretty depressed at times, one thing that does help though is knowing that depression isn;t neccesarily a barrier, take a look at people like Winston Churchill who was a manic depressive (and dyslexic) and what he achieved
Telling someone to just "deal with your problems" doesn't solve jack -. My long running depression and insomnia stems from psychological problems that I can't help, in my case OCD. I can't make it go away. I have to keep doing what I do or I'll go insane. My main issue is actually writing itself which is a learning disorder I've had my whole life. When I'm depressed it becomes even worse. I have countless ideas in my head and I can't get them out. Over the past year everything I use to enjoy no longer does. I pushed my guitar aside, I pushed my video games aside, all my various hobbies became null. And now I've recently hit an all time low and writing seems too hard to pick up. I let the thoughts cycle endlessly and it affects my ability to function, even at my job. Well here's my take on writing. Completing a piece gives me a huge sense of self satisfaction and self worth. Same with completing a song on guitar. My advice is not to ignore your problems but to just keep writing anyway, because if that is your true passion you shouldn't hold back. I try to relate to my characters to the point where my own problems transcend on to them. It then becomes a sort of therapy for me as my characters become parts of myself. This is how I deal with and I know we clearly don't have the same problems, but it drive me nuts when I hear "deal with it" because I CANNOT deal with it. My whole life people have been teaching me how to work through it, and pretty much that' all I can do. My problems are strictly psychological, if I can't learn to work around them, then I am completely screwed and my depression will only get worse. EDIT: On antidepressants. I'm actually tempted to go back on them. I had a bad experience too, but remember they affect everyone differently. I've heard from people who said they've really helped them get through hard times. Since I am not a doctor I cannot recommend whether you should try antidepressants, that's between you and your doctor. I can say this though, if you try therapy make sure you like your therapist. My first therapist got me no where but my second one really helped me identify my problems and get me through my school year
I teach writing to kids, as a teacher, and the latest thing to hit pedagogically is the NY Writing project. Their idea is this ( and I teach it and dig it): use a specific set of prewriting strategies that you like. The ones we've worked on are 1. use a timeline. Take any period of time and line it out. mark down any memorable episodes within that time frame. The idea isn't to write yet, it's just to dig for gold. When you start the timeline- say 2008, or my trip to the east coast- you have no idea what you'll hit. You just scribble what happened and when something with strong emotions- love, hate, jealousy, pride, humor, etc.- gets caught in your net, you prewrite more. Close your eyes to relive it and jot down the details. Go from there 2. make "people lists". Take anyone who has brought out strong emotions in you- again, positive, negative or whatever- and write memorable moments. Again, hoping to strike gold 3. make "place lists". same idea, but with places. Smell, feel, taste, etc. good luck and good writing!
Disappointed reaction to my ideas once put on paper. Anyone else? I have this continuing reaction to pretty much all of my writing and I was wondering if this happens to anyone else? I have interesting ideas in my head but after I start to flesh them out on paper, it's almost as if there is a catharsis (not in a good way) or it feels very anticlimatic, so I have sort of a depressed feeling about the work when it is on paper. I become depressed about it either immediately, or later that day and think the idea is stupid and it no longer fascinates me the way it did originally. I do go back to the writing of that idea and continue to work on it, but it deflates my interest in my idea, so I have to work a bit harder to "reinterest" myself each time. Is this a usual experience that I need to just ignore? Do others experience this as the feeling that what is on paper will never be as good as what is in their head? Thanks for any thoughts! cieeciee
The idea is what initially inspires you to write, but it really isn't that big a part of what makes a piece of writing succeed or fail. Think of it. You can express your idea in a paragraph or two. Maybe, if you have given it a lot of thought, you may need a few pages. So what is the rest of what makes up a novel? You may think of it as "fleshing it out", or "developing it", but these are just euphemisms for filler. The real story isn't in the idea. The real story is in the characters, and their growth and interactions. The story idea is only a framework that gives the characters purpose and challenges. The characters are what give life to the story, and what will keep you inspired, not the idea. The idea will grow old to you, and if there isn't more to the story to keep you interested, and to keep your readers interested, then how can you expect to stick with it?
Yes, yes. As Dave has already mentioned, you must give time and nurture to your piece. Do not be in such a rush to find brilliance gleaming from the paper in just minutes. A mighty oak starts from the most unassuming little seed, and takes time to grow.
I found this post very useful as I have the same problem. Thanks for bringing it up, and thanks to Cogito and Wreybies for your comments. So, separating the writing and the idea that spawned it may seem like an obvious idea, but they're two different arts and need to be treated as such.
Margaret Weis (Death Gate Cycle, Dragonlance) describes writing as "99% reading". What I've learned from her example is to be cautious of burning out my creative drive. That seems to be a possible explanation for what is happening to you. Allow me to briefly elaborate. When writing, there is so much that we as writers want to get across and get written that we sometimes forget to stop and think about it! We want to "follow our muse" as far as it'll take us, but more often than not, this causes a creativity 'burn out' and our writing slowly loses quality. When we stop to read what we wrote, we are entirely unhappy with the end result and will explain some of what you are feeling at this present moment. In order to combat this, set yourself a goal. For example, before I began working on my first novel, I set myself the small goal of not writing a complete novel, but getting a grabbing entrance to my world finished followed by a character introduction. Those goals were met and I moved on. It really does feel like an impossible task if you say to yourself, "Today, I'm working on my novel." Instead say, "Okay, today I'm working on that scene where the reader learns who built the Tower and why." To return to Margaret Weis: once you've written what you had intended to stop, read it, and then read it again. Fix what tastes bad and then read it again. Repeat. There are proponents of the idea that you should slam out your Novel as fast as possible and then do systematic full revisions. For some people this might work, but it sounds to me as if you are similar to me in that I need small successes to encourage me throughout the long process of writing a book. Give this system a try and see if you are a bit more uplifted and confident about your abilities. Good luck!
I think it relates to the emotional energy generated during the process of transferring the internalized scene to paper. The 'chewing the cud' period, when the dots of the planned piece are connected by our subconscious and conscious selves, can see a seriously intimate relationship grow between aspects of who we are, and what we're about, and the developing journey of the character or characters involved. The process of releasing this emotional connection in the writing of the scene generates a trauma on several levels, often leading to a heightened sense of struggle as the actual words bring the scene to life. How many writers can testify to the tension that builds during this process, often ending in a sense of emotional fatigue and depression? I think it's down to the fact that, as writers, we're forced to express emotions and repeat experiences that we may otherwise prefer to keep buried. What do you think?
I went through the same thing for a while. Things sound great up top, but in black-and-white type they look like junk. My problem was that I had these huge, great ideas, but simply didn't (and still don't (yet!) ) have the skill to make them as grand to others as they were to me. I've actually recently started NOT writing when inspiration hits and I have an idea. The reality is that the idea is never as good as it seems in the instant that it hits you. Let it float around, let it evolve, let it flesh itself out in your head for a while until it is no longer the world's greatest idea. That's an important thing - then you actually have to write it in the fascinating way that you first imagined it. Keep at it. I think you'll break out of it in a while. In the meantime, perhaps start writing some fun, quick stuff that you don't have any expectations for. You might surprise yourself. ~ Micah
I don't get that for short stories at all. I do get it sometimes during the writing of a novel. I almost couldn't finish the first draft of my forth novel. It took five whole months, when I usually finish a first draft in a month or two. I would read the previous chapter, then make myself get excited about what happens next. How long does it take your working on a project before you feel like this?
I suppose this makes the most sense to me. My gut is I just have to keep at it and over time, the interest will ebb and flow. That's my gut anyway. So far, I have been very good at doing a lot of prep work and some writing, but I do have this sort of deflation with what was a great idea when I was working it out yesterday. I was just wondering if anyone else had experienced the same thing, but just kept plowing through. I definitely was noticing I was burning out. I get going and I can't stop until I have "all" the answers. For me, the deflation comes either right away, or within a day when I start to review my idea in my head and I, of course, start to come up with all kinds of reasons it is mundane, or been done (which I know from reading many posts here that ALL ideas have been done, so this is no excuse for stopping a project). It is weird, it is kind of an automatic emotional reaction... not rational I think, ultimately. Within minutes or the next day! I definitely think this is a good idea that gets the juices glowing again. I will try this and just keep plugging! Thanks!
After nearly a year of scrapped projects I'm really aching to get back to my old writing habits, but dunno exactly how. Anyone got any suggestions as to how to get back on the writing bandwagon? ,thanks ahead of time.
The first thing that comes to mind: start writing. It can even just be a freewrite of some sort. You don't need an idea to start writing.
It sounds to me like you are letting the self esteem monster get a hold of your work and tear it to shreds. First drafts can be garbage sometimes - that is okay. It is a part of the writing process. Your only aim with a first draft is to get some semblance of your ideas down onto the paper. YOU know what you mean when you write it out the first time. Then all you need to do is edit it. Either edit or re-write it, to improve your writing, and ensure that others can see your ideas as well in the same light you did. If you delete your first draft and drop the ideas along with it, you simply fall on your face, back to square one. Best-selling authors don't write their first books by deleting their first drafts - they edit it and craft it until they feel it is presentable. A book is a work of art. As a sculptor, you wouldn't spend hours creating something out of stone, and then decide you don't like it, and trash the whole thing - you work out how you can improve it. There are always ideas out there, and yes, most of them may have been done before - but no-one has done it exactly the way you would do it. There are always twists that you can throw in to make your work different from anyone elses. If all writers today let the idea that it has all been done before anyway stump them, there would be no new books, no new movies or tv shows. Yet there are plenty of those, showing the same stories in different lights and keeping LOTS of people interested. Let your first draft be your first draft. Then make it better.
