Archive for the 'Writer’s block' Category

“The drudgery of being a professional writer comes in
trying to make good days out of bad days and in
squeezing out the words when they won’t just flow.”~Benjamin Cavell

I know how this writer feels.

Sometimes the words just flow easily and on days like that it is the most wonderful thing in the world to be a writer. It is exciting when a piece of writing just works so beautifully that little or no rewriting is needed. It is exhilarating when you read something you’ve written and you are amazed that you put those words together in just the right way. It is wonderful when you get everything just right.

It isn’t always like that.

There are days when it is sheer drudgery, when you are feeling ill, or lethargic or just plain tired. Or there might be some life issue pressing in on your thinking and sapping the creative energies. In the bad days I’ve found a few solutions that work for me. Try them – you may well find that they work for you too.

Overcoming the bad days

1. Take a break – even five minutes can help.
2. Stretch – your muscles will love you.
3. Look at the birds – stare out the window and observe the birds.
4. Go for a walk – around the garden, the block or wherever.
5. Write in your journal – it doesn’t have to be great literature – just let your feelings all pour out.
6. Do the crossword in the newspaper – I find that the cryptic crossword so stimulating I try to complete it daily.
7. Nap – sometimes the brain needs the refreshment of a short sleep. (Take note of the word “short.”)
8. Read – the mental stimulation can be very beneficial.
9. Laugh out loud – read some jokes – or watch a part of a funny DVD.
10. Pray – I find that prayer focuses the mind on connecting with God and this often leads to renewed inspiration. Others might find meditation to be useful in calming the mind enabling it to refocus on the writing task.

These ideas work for me. I hope that you find techniques that work for you.

Good writing.

Further reading:

• Looking for inspiration
• Strategies to keep you writing
• Life sucks – writing on the bad days
• Life is just not smooth sailing
• Writing when the wheels are spinning
  

I’ve had about four weeks of frustration with my writing and blogging. I feel like my wheels are spinning; lots of activity but I’ve been going nowhere.

Actually, the driving analogy is very apt. I seem to have done nothing but drive over recent weeks. I do occasional relief driving for a local courier company. I recently went back to work full time for three weeks. While the pay was good, the hours were very long and the work exhausting. Not a good time for writing. In fact, there was little time spare for writing. I’m still trying to catch up with my email.

I’ve been trying to get back to the writing this week but I have really struggled to build momentum again after such a long break. I will not call it the dreaded “writer’s block” but it was not far from it. Many writers experience dry periods where it is a struggle to get the writing moving again. There may be plenty of activity – like the engine revving and the wheels spinning – but there is little if any forward movement. Sometimes we just can’t get going.

Robert over at the Middle Zone Musings writes about this topic too. His post called “How to counter the dreaded blankpageitis.” In this post he refers to my short story starters. These posts I have written are designed to get you writing so what about it? Give it a go – it can be great fun.

Good writing.

Another article worth reading – with several suggestions I know help me can be found here: Life sucks – writing on the bad days.

Our local daily newspaper has always had a full page of cartoons. I enjoy reading these cartoons whenever we get the paper. Some of them are very witty, others are clever and many of them reflect life’s struggles.

One cartoon earlier this week showed one of the characters sitting at an old fashioned typewriter. The caption read:

“Nothing’s more terrifying to a writer than facing a blank piece of paper – except reading back what you wrote yesterday!”

Facing the blank piece of paper is bad enough, but going back over yesterday’s writing and finding it less brilliant than you thought possible at the time is rather embarrassing at best and downright infuriating at worst.

What to do?

Writers have no option but to rewrite. Sometimes it is wise just to scrap the whole piece and start over again. Wait a moment though – don’t totally throw it away or hit the delete key. Even the worst piece of writing can potentially be reworked and used in the future.

The real key is knowing when to give up on a piece of writing and when to slave for hours trying to whip a poor passage into something acceptable. That discernment takes years of experience. Experienced writers know the difference between time that is spent reworking a passage and time taken to totally start again.

I’m not happy with how this article has come out. Maybe I should leave it until tomorrow before I rework it.

Or delete it.

Good writing.