The Ideas of March
When I sold my first
book, I was ecstatic – until I hit a writer's block that lasted
for a year and a half. Now that I've experienced it, I know that
it's both real and painful for a lot of writers. It's not that
you can't write… you show up to the page, you type a few sentences
or a few pages, then you look it over and realize there's no
story there, no heat, no energy of any kind. You don't know why
or how this happens, and the more pressure you put on yourself
to jump back up to the level at which you were, the more your
talent seems to degrade. After a while, you don't even want to
put yourself through the disappointment of trying. At least,
that's what happened to me.
There are ways out of it, however. For those
of you who feel “stuck,” I hope this helps…
- First of all, be gentle on yourself. Don't
tell yourself that writer's blocks are silly or stupid. Don't
look at your favorite prolific writers and say “they never
get writer's block!” (In fact, don't compare yourself to your
favorite writers at this point… not what they're writing, and
especially not how much they're making.) Be kind. It's just
a phase. You burned out a little – your creative well is empty,
and it'll take some time to get that back. Most of all, be
around supportive people. People who are pushing you and who
don't believe blocks exist will only make you feel worse.
- Encourage your creativity. The
book The Artist's Way is all about getting creatively
unblocked. Although it's not for everyone, it does have one
interesting suggestion: Once a week, go on an “Artist's Date.”
That's something fun, almost childlike… and it has to be alone.
You can go browse in a used bookstore, or go to a movie alone,
or spend time doodling in a park. Buy glitter and crayons and
glue, and fiddle around. The bottom line is, your creative
subconscious works best when you give it fuel and then get
out of its way.
- Try a new approach. If
you're a seat-of-the-pants writer, then you might try outlining…
it's sort of like sneaking up on your idea, rather than plunging
right into it, and consequently getting stuck in chapter 1,
scene 1. Or, if you're a die-hard plotter, don't let the need
to get all the details right paralyze you. Go straight for
some pages of draft, and see if your subconscious is trying
to tell you something.
Give yourself permission to write
poorly. This probably seems obvious, but it's valuable.
When you're in a writer's block, your perception is all messed
up – what you think is the worst drivel in existence is probably
not as bad as you think. You just need to get away from it. The
important part is getting your writing motor started again. The
fine-tuning will come later. One way I've found, which can be a
little stressful but worth it, is trying Book-in-a-Week. There
is an online group where you sign up for the BIAW, and during the
first week of the month, you e-mail what your page count is every
day. Number of pages is more important at this point than quality.
And you might find that what you're writing is better than you
think!
First published in the SFA-RWA
newsletter, March 2003. For more information on SFA-RWA, click here. top
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