Writers block

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Is there any good way of stopping it?


I haven't written anything in months, I felt I had some inspiration, I want to do a piece for the college paper, I don't know what style to take for starters, I was thinking of doing a piece about writing itself, I can't really take much for granted with the audience, I suspect they wouldn't care about a dance piece, or a full on dance piece.

But the screen remains blank, do any of you have any particular tactics for ridding yourself of writers block? I keep beginning and then ending.

Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 4 April 2003 13:49 (twenty-two years ago)

I just write for like 20 minutes solid. Don't stop. Let everything, no matter how stupid, come out.
It's like a muscle, you have to keep it in shape. It won't just sit there waiting for you.
Also, when I have a desire or need to do some serious writing, I avoid ILX at all costs. WAAAAAAY too distracting.

Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 4 April 2003 13:54 (twenty-two years ago)

What Horace said. Set yourself a word count deadline, for instance, and then do it. This is essentially the tactic of NaNoWriMo and it proved to be great in terms of me breaking my own block (at least when it comes to fiction).

Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 4 April 2003 13:56 (twenty-two years ago)

I wish that worked for me. I love the principle of writing, say, 1,000 words a day no mater what, but I never do that. If there's nothing there, nothing comes.

Then again, I think stress blocks me badly, and there's been a lot of stress for me lately.

ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Friday, 4 April 2003 13:57 (twenty-two years ago)

I love the principle of writing, say, 1,000 words a day no mater what, but I never do that

billy liar to thread, for starters. and horace OTM with 'muscle' idea.

pete b. (pete b.), Friday, 4 April 2003 14:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I write something to a constraint (such as not using the letter e, or using only the keys on the left hand side of the keyboard). Whilst the conscious mind is dealing with the problem at hand the subconscious generally gets up and running under it's own steam, hence no more block.

Matt (Matt), Friday, 4 April 2003 14:06 (twenty-two years ago)

i know the feeling ronan...

robin (robin), Friday, 4 April 2003 14:49 (twenty-two years ago)

The muscle thing is probably a good point, yeah. I am in all ways very flabby and out of shape. :)

But the idea of writing anything, however stupid, wouldn't work... because some days I think everything I've ever written is stupid. Very little confidence.

I'm not sure where the urge to be creative comes from, really. I wonder if it's a delusion. (BTW, there is one sample of writing on my Web site which I'd be interested in feedback on -- good or bad -- if anyone ever finds they have nothing better to do.) My feeling changes daily. Today I think: mediocre hack with no inspiration.

ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Friday, 4 April 2003 15:01 (twenty-two years ago)

the writing stupid anything I mentioned isn't for anyone's eyes, not even yr own. just almost to get your fingers moving. ILX is actually good for that too.

Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 4 April 2003 15:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Hmmm... I certainly *do* write one or two stupid things on here!

The stupid thing, though... [getting incoherent now]... what I mean is, well, my eyes get to see it. And I think those are the most damning eyes that see anything I do.

I suppose writing blog nonsense also counts, though. I guess in these ways I write a reasonable amount, but nothing that amounts to anything very useful. God, I'm so tortured and anal.

ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Friday, 4 April 2003 15:14 (twenty-two years ago)

I once took out one of those "how-to" write books from the MTL Library, and it was all like two or three paragraphs from diff. writers, and Tom Robbins was the best (no matter what I think of his stuff): basically, he said, always have a dirty magazine around (easier with internet), because your best writing will come when you have a hard-on.

more funny than necessarily useful, really

Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 4 April 2003 15:20 (twenty-two years ago)

"This is essentially the tactic of NaNoWriMo"

But NaNoWriMo only comes once a year! I failed last time and am ready to try again, but I have to wait half a year.

A Nairn (moretap), Friday, 4 April 2003 15:27 (twenty-two years ago)

i've got this. also: animator's block.

mitch lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Friday, 4 April 2003 15:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Cheat! Start now!

jel -- (jel), Friday, 4 April 2003 15:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, and yeah Writers Block is terrible, I mean the sum-total of my music writing is NYLPM and the Focus Group, and they are all pretty much just off the top of my head. I doubt have the ability to draft and critically engage.

jel -- (jel), Friday, 4 April 2003 15:32 (twenty-two years ago)

.

gabriel (gabe), Friday, 4 April 2003 15:32 (twenty-two years ago)

gabriel makes a good point!

jel -- (jel), Friday, 4 April 2003 15:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Hey! That's my new novel you're stealing! :(

ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Friday, 4 April 2003 15:37 (twenty-two years ago)

What I do to get rid of writer's block:

- read a book and if I see a nice phrase: steal it: write it down on a pad: poetry is best for this.

- read music reviews and if I see a nice trope: steal it: most recent example of this: Mark's really old "Yello" article, I rewrote it with Barbara Morgenstern allied with Julia Volkova (for Bang, haha)

- sit and write, write, write; then edit. You should edit to like a tenth of what you originally wrote if you're being cruel to yourself.

- review something you currently can't get out of your head by trying to understand what it is has it lodged in there: this solves the problem of having to come up with ideas (eg "is rock the paradigm form of popular music?") and gives you an immediate angle

These are what I do. If they don't work, play Pro Ev 2.

Cozen (Cozen), Friday, 4 April 2003 15:41 (twenty-two years ago)

David, did you download the Morgenstern song from the Monika site?

jel -- (jel), Friday, 4 April 2003 16:07 (twenty-two years ago)

It's on the album I think jel. I mean that's what I understood when I went to the site.

Cozen (Cozen), Friday, 4 April 2003 16:19 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah, oh you ordered the album? Oh, I never thought of doing that (I usally just hunt around for things for ages 'til I find them, though it's probably in the section just above the US indie in Rough Trade at Covent Garden)

jel -- (jel), Friday, 4 April 2003 16:21 (twenty-two years ago)

I bought the album from Mono in Glasgow. It's very good. (I don't think Bang want my review :***(

Cozen (Cozen), Friday, 4 April 2003 16:29 (twenty-two years ago)

I am just getting over a long bout of writer's block. I've found the thing that really gets me out of a block is to write letters, or even e-mails, to other people... I had been working on a story for a few months now, but wasn't going anywhere with it. Then, a few weeks ago I wrote an e-mail to my boyfriend that I spent a lot of time with (Nothing really short and casual). After that, I had all sorts of ideas for my story. I guess what I am saying is, if you can't write fiction, or reviews, write something.

Mandee, Friday, 4 April 2003 16:46 (twenty-two years ago)

do you think bang will take my cheeky girls review?

jel -- (jel), Friday, 4 April 2003 16:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Things I do:

* Take a shower. I associate taking a shower with waking up in the morning, so it's this whole like fresh-start bit. Especially if I brew coffee while I'm in the shower.

* Don't eat. I don't mean "ever" or "for days on end" or anything, but I find that I am less inclined to write, and to write well, if I'm full, and that if I'm at least a little bit hungry, I stay more focused. When I was finishing up my last novel, I got up, showered, worked, and didn't eat anything until I had at least 1500 words.

* Erase the last paragraph I wrote and start over from there -- make something different happen this time.

That's stuff I do when I'm blocked on something in-progress, though -- it's been a long time since I've had "I have no idea what to write about" writer's block. When I'm looking for a new idea, though, I pick up a book from one of the shelves or boxes, ask, "Okay, what could I write that would appeal to someone who likes this?" and continue that process until I like the answer (I write fiction, though).

Writing-other-things-to-get-rid-of-block -- blog/journal, email, letter, whatever -- has never once worked for me, and the bulk of the people I know who tried it ended up abandoning whatever sort of writing they were originally trying to unblock (fiction, usually) in favor of whatever the new thing was.

Tep (ktepi), Friday, 4 April 2003 17:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I haven't written anything in months.

Well, the first thing you need to do is get over the idea that what you write on ILx isn't "writing."

For me, the block is basically against doing anything that will cause me to cut a figure in the world, that will hold me up to judgment - also, I've a fear of blowing it, that something that was beautiful in my mind will look like shit on the page. I had the idea for my "Death Rock 2000" piece in 1981, based on thoughts that had their germ in 1970. So that's not bad, only 30 years to write an article.

Every morning I write three pages of whatever's on my mind - I mean, whatever, just trying to get it down on the page, the equivalent of the "Print Screen" button on the computer, withoug worrying about spelling or finishing sentences. Then I usually rip the thing up. The point isn't to produce literature but to reestablish that the page is my home, my page, not anyone else's, and it can bear any garbage that happens to be in my mind.

Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Friday, 4 April 2003 17:06 (twenty-two years ago)

withuog worrying about spelling

That was an honest-to-god typo. I swear.

Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Friday, 4 April 2003 17:08 (twenty-two years ago)

that's all very Moveable Feast of you Tep.

but, yeah, give yourself incentives. I don't smoke indoors, so I give myself a target word count to achieve before I step outside again.

Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 4 April 2003 17:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Oops, I meant "withoug." Sorry.

Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Friday, 4 April 2003 17:09 (twenty-two years ago)

of course, that's exactly why i turned into a major asshole when I tried to quit last fall. I had no reason to do anything, because I've set up my entire life around rewarding myself with sweet sweet nicotine

Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 4 April 2003 17:09 (twenty-two years ago)

blog/journal, email, letter, whatever -- has never once worked for me, and the bulk of the people I know who tried it ended up abandoning whatever sort of writing they were originally trying to unblock (fiction, usually) in favor of whatever the new thing was.

Oh god, that depresses me. I've had a blog for a few years now and I'd never abandon fiction over something so dumb (sorry bloggers).

Mandee, Friday, 4 April 2003 17:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Moveable Feast reminded me of Fitzgerald, which reminded me of -- drinking! One drink, for me, can sometimes help, especially if I know what I want to write but not how to start it. More than one drink is usually counterproductive, but one drink can loosen the screws.

Oh god, that depresses me. I've had a blog for a few years now and I'd never abandon fiction over something so dumb (sorry bloggers).

I think the reason for it is "with blogging, I get instant feedback" (most of the "bloggers" I know are actually LiveJournallers, and feedback is pretty quick and easy and common). Also, it is maybe easier to live with a constant feed of "Gosh, your journal is so well-written, I'll bet you'd write great stories!" than actually writing those stories.

Of course, all of my stuff is just "This does/doesn't work for me, who knows what it'll do for you." Curing writer's block is like curing insomnia in a world without sleeping pills: everyone's got a remedy, most of which won't harm you for the trying.

Tep (ktepi), Friday, 4 April 2003 17:35 (twenty-two years ago)

can you 'stop' a block? wouldn't you wanna unstop it?

Clare (not entirely unhappy), Friday, 4 April 2003 20:19 (twenty-two years ago)

my system is sitting for an hour writing nothing, writing a bunch of shit, and then deleting the first half of it. the second half tends to be close to acceptable.

Maria (Maria), Friday, 4 April 2003 20:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Good advice, I took Horace's initial advice and I have a rough thing done at this point, once it's started I tend to be sorted and the ideas come along quite easily.

Ronan (Ronan), Saturday, 5 April 2003 09:57 (twenty-two years ago)


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