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8th Day, Write or Wrong: Writer's Block
Although not creative writing in the normal sense, I do write for a living. Not to get into details (because I am a shy hedgehog) but I do legal writing.
And today I am struggling with writer's block. I know generally what I want to say, I know where I want it to go, but I spent the better part of the afternoon staring at the screen trying to get the words to fall into place. Of course, part of that may be that the new Ship has launched and I'd rather be playing on the brand new shuffleboard court...but I suspect I am using that as an excuse.
So how do you all battle writer's block?
And today I am struggling with writer's block. I know generally what I want to say, I know where I want it to go, but I spent the better part of the afternoon staring at the screen trying to get the words to fall into place. Of course, part of that may be that the new Ship has launched and I'd rather be playing on the brand new shuffleboard court...but I suspect I am using that as an excuse.
So how do you all battle writer's block?
Comments
There was a science fiction writer (Niven? Pournelle?) who used to do his writing on a bare-bones computer in a room with no distractions, including no internet connection. Some days it feels as though that's what's needed. And when I'm really having a hard time concentrating on writing, I turn off my phone and put it in another room. (Get thee behind me, Words with Friends.)
Rossweisse // I'm not dead yet
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I did something very similar this past Autumn writing a spoof of the Hobbit and serializing it on my Facebook page. I was writing about 1/4 a chapter a day, and maybe I skipped a day or two, but had to keep coming back to it. People kept writing, "More!" so I kept going.
If you're stuck -with a given work- then there are a couple tricks to try. Taking a new angle on it -- a different viewpoint, a different character -- is often helpful. Or a different form -- could it be a sonnet? An invoice? (I did this once.) Sometimes a quite elementary change, like resetting the font in the word processor, kicks it loose. Everything looks different in Goudy or Arial Light.
Personally, I struggle with deadlines. I need to have things done plenty before them, because they often make me freeze (My PhD thesis is on hold, partly because I have adeadline for the latest changes).
I also find a writers group can be helpful. Informed, encouraging commentary, with (often) ideas for how I might need to change the current section, and how I might them move it to the next stage.
You're a better cat than I am. I found the few writer's groups I have belonged to to be singularly worthless.
Online groups are also good. The aim is to find others to support you (mutually), and different groups and people will work differently.
I resemble that remark. Writing is the part of my job that I am worst at (by quite a long way) - and this covers everything from meeting minutes and short emails to journal articles.
At off-the-cuff responses, even written ones in emails, I'm fine, but once I stop to think, I start second-guessing what I'm saying, and replanning, and then generally finding excuses to do something else more pressing.
My solution, in so much as I have one, is to try and just start writing. Accept that what I'm writing is rough, and I'll probably come back and fix it, and the pressure to get each turn of phrase right is gone. So I just write something, and then write something else, and once I've got the bulk of the document roughed out like that, I can go back and add in the steps that are missing from a logical presentation of my argument.
With my legal writing, part of it consists of summarizing the evidence and I seldom have a block with that. It consists of "just" documenting what was said in depositions or oral testimony. It is not very creative, although value judgments need to be made as to what is relevant to the dispute in issue. Nevertheless, while sometimes I am bored to tears, it is easy to write. My problems come in the more creative portion, when I am taking those facts and forming an argument.
Now that limits some of the "Block Breaker" techniques--I cannot really change characters, viewpoints or formats. It's a legal document. I can work on another project (my desk is stacked with them) but in the past I have found that counterproductive: I find that I need to keep the facts of one case in mind. Mingling cases can result in embarrassing situations. Like the time I happily wrote how persuasive Dr. Quack was--even though Dr. Quack did not testify in the matter and I actually meant Dr. Charlatan.
But walking does help clear my mind (although pacing the hallways has its limits). If I have a particularly tricky problem to work out, I do take walks outside to great benefit. But that is more for cases when I do not know where I want to go with the writing. "Just write" works for that situation, too. I just start weighing the evidence and see what turns up, knowing that massive editing will be needed later.
This most recent block was caused more by a lack of concentration. I didn't have any knotty bits to unravel: I knew exactly where I was going. I just could not focus because there were other workplace issues wanting my attention, which is why I said the Ship Launch was more of an excuse: I took refuge in the Ship to try to shake off thinking about the other problems.
But today I chose doing a brief "mindfulness meditation" to clear my head. I brought myself back to concentrating just on breathing and settling my stray thoughts. Once I felt settled, then I turned back to my draft and was able to finish it.
I find that the best place to get ideas going is in the bath; that's where I do most of my 'writing'. Then I write it down at the computer. Other folk go for long walks, or make cakes, or knit, or dream up their ideas when they're asleep. And some people find an Outliner program useful; Douglas Adams apparently did, though he still had trouble actually getting his ideas down on paper unless forcibly sat down to write.
No doubt composers and painters have similar problems and develop their own dodges to get round them. Eric Coates, I've read somewhere, couldn't compose unless he was sitting at his desk and wearing a three-piece suit.
Never mix up your hats! You only can wear one at a time. They are all necessary, but piling them all onto your head at once just gives you a headache.
Never tried it, my own trick is to write often. If I am not writing then it is harder to start but if I have just written things then words seem to come more easily.
Jengie
(formerly known as QLib)
I usually try to work through it by just writing a tiny bit at a time. It's a lot easier to make a a tiny bit "good enough" to satisfy my internal critic, than it is to try and churn out loads of material at once!
Of course, sometimes I just have to slap down something and come back to fix it later.
I'm a journalist, so I'd say it's open to anyone who writes.
It is jsut that more people write creatively than academically.
I so agree with this. I know it works. I would advise others to try it. And yet, I'm frequently too obstinate/stupid to try it myself.