While writing, painting or any other activity that takes a high level of concentration and focus I reach a point after a a bunch of hour of hard work. I run into wall and get frustrated or even irrationally angry. "RAWWWWR! Stupid writing! I'm going to become a plumber! Pipes can't be this frustrating! Rawr! And I would share occupation with super Mario! Damn this writing business! " Just a general silly frustration. I'm not displeased with the work and 5 minutes before I could been laughing with joy working. But then all of the sudden my brain goes on strike, overworked and tired and I need a real brake, like a hour walk with the dog before I can return to the work again. Does anyone else share a similar experience?
There comes a time when everyone needs to take a break. Art, unlike a job, isn't something you can just punch in at 9:00AM and do until 5:00PM, when you punch out. Inspiration and motivation comes for art...whenever it bloody well feels like it.
It's called tiredness and you seem in need of a break, if not necessarily a sleep. Nothing seems right in those situations, but it's useless trying to fix the perceived problems because one cannot think clearly. It's an annoying paradox.
Well, I can assure you that you are not alone. If you feel that way, as you said, you must take a much needed break. Forcing your brain and body in such situation is unhealthy, and like all professions, writing needs a healthy mind, and body. But I have to admit sometimes some ideas can get me so excited that I can spend a whole night writing without sleep. But those are rear occasions and I rest whenever I feel tired.
Hey, you got in hours of great work in a sitting before hitting a wall. That's a good thing. We all hit walls. At least you don't have writers' block that lasts 10000 days at a time...
But I'd still say you need a certain amount of professionalism if you're serious about it. If you're going to improve, you need to sometimes write when you don't feel like it. This is probably the quote which people are most sick of, but genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, and I doubt Stephen King, JK Rowling, Iain Banks, et al, just simply pack it in whenever they feel the words aren't flowing. Right, frustrations as a writer. I'm afraid I get frustrated easily, whatever I do. If I feel I'm not performing how I can, I quickly become fairly temperamental. Writing doesn't suffer so much as I can just get up and walk away and go on the PS3 for a bit or go outside and kick a football about for half an hour. But sometimes it is good to take a break just for those feelings to subside.
I do the same thing; play some PS3 or watch television for about an hour, then go back and start writing again.
Uninspired/unmotivated writing is just writing...not what I'd call art. My reference was for quality work, not busy work just to keep you from getting rusty. ...And the big shot writers occasionally produce less than stellar work as well.
I don't often get frustrated while writing. It usually comes from re-reading my work the next day (A no, no for writing a novel). Thus i waste hours editing (Super big no, no for writing a novel). And i get frustrated spending time editing, rather than writing new fresh material. I know my issue though. Its called entering the job unprepared and lacking in the fields of SPaG. Bummer.
I think its important to make the distinction between "you not feeling it" and "it not feeling you." Lothgar has a valid point. Trying to write for your novel for the sake of writing everyday isn't beneficial if you're frustrated. Better to relax, do other things and let your mind take a break. Though you shouldn't break for so long that you start to get rusty. w176, I love your reference to Mario. Kinda makes me want to play a Mario game.
I accept that some days it's sometimes not a good idea to write for various reasons. But if you write just when the mood strikes you've not got the discipline. A writer who sits down in front of his or her word processor for two hours a day regardless, even when the story isn't working for them, stands a better chance of making it work than a writer who will sit down only when they get inspiration. The more someone writes, the better they'll be able to overcome those moments when the story isn't working and they feel uninspired, even if they sometimes do need to take a break (we all need to - maybe once a week I'll feel something isn't coming together and take that break from it). Just so long as the story isn't ditched in frustrated petulance - that's where the professionalism comes in. You have to persevere.
I don't quite follow you here. "...Not got the discipline" for what? The discipline to write everyday, with or without inspiration, just to meet some arbitrary deadline? I'm sure that would work well if all you are writing is some serial piece for your daily newspaper. If you refer to my above post you'll see I was referring to inspired writing as an artistic expression. Not just something written for the sake of writing something, but rather something that has depth and meaning, both for the writer and (hopefully) successfully expressed to the reader as well. I'm speaking of a piece of writing that connects with the reader and evokes some response on an emotional level. You can't get that kind of writing unless you are "In the zone"...and either you are or you aren't "In the zone" on any given day. For the record, I don't consider most of what I write to fall in to the "Literary Art" category. "Literary Entertainment" perhaps, but not really "Art". Personally, I consider the time I spend relaxing on my bed, listening to music in my headphones and working out ideas, concepts and the mechanics of how various plot twists might work out in my mind to be just as valid work as the time I actually spend pecking at my keyboard.
I can see where you're coming from, Dante. Even when the words for my current story are not really flowing, I try to put some work in, whether it be a little bit of SpaG editing, trying to smooth out my outline, or something else. Occasionally, that helps spark some creativity that likely wouldn't have hit if I'd just thrown in the towel for the day, and even when it doesn't, at least I got some work done.
Heh, yeah, I will re-read obsessively when I can't work up the creativity to write... it helps me get back in, because if I'm editing something I will more often than not end up writing whole new sentences/paragraphs, and by the time I reach the place I left off, I'm wound up again. Dedication is important, but you can't force it. Being disciplined might be just as much writing when you feel like it, rather than carrying on doing something else even though you *could* write as it is forcing yourself to write when you don't want to. Because there are always times when you let writing fly by you and later regret not doing it. In any case, I try not to write up to the frustration point, but I've been writing so long now that unless I'm in a really bad mood I can keep going without hitting it for a pretty long time. I also do take very frequent breaks so the writing itself, I might do lots of, but not all at once, so I'm never exactly drying my eyes out staring at words appearing on the screen. If I do hit it I will go take a walk or make tea or something. Usually I can get back to the story once I return with a clearer head.
Hey ... I guess this is off topic, but re: this quote: "RAWWWWR! Stupid writing! I'm going to become a plumber! Pipes can't be this frustrating! Rawr! And I would share occupation with super Mario! Damn this writing business! " Am I losing my marbles, or have you posted this before? It says this was posted 1 day ago but I seem to remember reading this sentence (not sure about the whole post) about a week ago.
I think you're mistaking my argument, as you pretty much just made it here. In this case, the distinction between "uninspired" and "frustrated" is important. I haven't felt exceptionally inspired recently, but I was able to write a decent chapter. For the past few days however, I have started to feel frustrated and wasn't pleased with the results of my writing. I chose to gave myself the weekend off to get a fresh start on Monday, but I do not see this as being "unprofessional."
I just take a break. =) It always does me good. Watch a movie, listen to music, chill with the boyfriend.
That's what my guitar is for. But really, I doubt I actually have what it takes to be a published author because I reach that point on a regular basis. Sometimes I force myself to write, even if I don't feel like it, and that does not seem healthy in my eyes. So, it's wither take that break, or just keep writing and see where the words take you.
Sure, big shot writers occasionally produce less than stellar work. A lot of that crap was probably written when they felt "inspired". And, I'm willing to bet, most of the really good work that they're famous for was written when they were "uninspired" and were working anyway. Writing when uninspired does not mean just bashing out any old crap and calling it good. When a good writer is uninspired, he'll still work seriously, honestly trying to do the best writing he can, even though he doesn't feel like the Muse is singing to him that day. Maybe nothing good comes of it, but more often, because he's talented and disciplined, he makes progress. The easiest thing in the world is to say "I'm not feeling inspired, so I'm not going to waste my precious time trying to write when the gold just isn't there. I'm going to Recharge My Creative Batteries by watching TV and playing video games." And because it's the easiest thing in the world, tons of talented people do it. These people have ambition, ideas, and a deep-seated conviction that they can be great writers, that they have great stories in them that they'll write just as soon as the ol' Muse starts singing, but after ten or fifteen or twenty years, no significant writing has been done. This isn't bull****. I know this from personal experience. The big difference between a talented would-be writer and a real literary artist is that, come hell or high water, the artist GETS THE WORK DONE. That means he writes, dammit, even when he doesn't think the gold is there. Because the gold is always there. It's just that some days the digging is hard.
*clap clap clap* Awesome motivational speech! It should be posted everywhere there is lacking resolve.
