Greetings!
Writer's Block is my mortal enemy, but at the same time I bow to it.
I'll get to a scene where everything is going smoothly and suddenly, I'll hit a wall. Usually I sit there impatiently, trying to think of something--anything to write down. After about two hours I'll know that I'm suffering from a case of Writer's Block.
I used to get really down when I got Writer's Block. I imagined that anyone who'd actually sat down and written a book didn't suffer from it. Of course, I've now learned that ALL writer's suffer from it and that we all love to procrastinate as well.
But when we've gotten bored of playing Robot Unicorn and Tertris online, and when our tweets start to turn into nothing but reiterating "I'm bored" in new and fancy ways over and over again, we have to get back to writing, and Writer's Block will still be there.
As I said before, it used to get me really down because I couldn't think of anything to write. But now I've realized, that's not true at all. I always have something in mind to write about. But the way my brain works is that I have to write everything in sequential order lest everything be thrown out of control.
I have learned to completely ignore my desire for order. The rest of my life runs on controlled chaos and it's worked great for me for the past 20 years. Why not just, apply it to my writing as well and then pull it all together like I do with the rest of my life?
This is probably the most brilliant thing I've ever done, which isn't saying much, but it pulls me out of my writer's block which is awesome. I simply skip ahead. What do I know I want to write about? What do I know is going to happen? What I can I write right now that is going to help me?
And I write that instead. Usually, after I've done that I've been able to think of what's going to happen before what I'd just written and then the block is gone.
It doesn't always work. Sometimes it just leads to more Writer's Block which will then lead to me over indulging in Oreos and Harry Potter fanfiction and, eventually, sleep. When my block is this severe I know that it's time to get up and walk away and do something productive. Most writers I know cringe at the thought of being productive, but eventually we have to put on pants and get some laundry done or do some dishes. Sometimes, Writer's Block is nothing more than your brain needing a break. And while our body's only impulse is to write until our we've rubbed off the letters from our keyboards, sometimes our brain says to us "look, Crazy Person, I'm not going to help you advance the plot until you make stop looking at this computer screen for a while."
The last technique I've developed for writer's block is eliminating distraction completely. This doesn't mean turning off my TV and getting off Twitter for a few hours, I have to leave my computer for a while, break out my purple binder and hand write my work. This, out of everything else, is what has proved to be the best thing I've ever done. It takes longer to hand write and my hand definitely cramps up when I do it, but I think without the temptation of the internet or solitaire, it's easier. Not only that, but I think because writing by hands takes longer, it also makes you think more because you have to take your time with every single word, whereas on my laptop, I can crank something out easily because my hands have memorized the keys and that makes it go by so much faster.
Writer's Block sucks. It totally sucks, but it's also challenging. My only desire in the whole world is to write and when I get blocked then I feel like a drug addict who can't get a fix. I just don't feel like I'm functioning unless I'm creating something with my words. The only way to get my fix is to find ways around Writer's Block so I can do what I need to do.
Fare thee well,
April
No comments:
Post a Comment