I'm drunk on...
29 Jan 2009 03:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wayfaringwordhack...other people's words and worlds.
For the past few days, whenever I sit down to write, either nothing comes or I feel like an utter hack, something I can't set aside no matter how many times it happens to me. Not only are my own words not there, my passion is nowhere to be found.
My friend Shaz suggested I'm concentrating too much on the individual scenes and perhaps need to sit back and think about the global picture, imagine what I need and want from the story as a whole. It's true that when I do that, I get excited by the grand, sweeping saga of the whole. If only I can hang on to it long enough to work on the small pieces that needs must form that whole.
footlingagain suggested that I meditate on the story, and I've tried that, too. I never last for long, though. Too easily distracted am I.
What do you other writers do when you can't quite get into that story place?
For the past few days, whenever I sit down to write, either nothing comes or I feel like an utter hack, something I can't set aside no matter how many times it happens to me. Not only are my own words not there, my passion is nowhere to be found.
My friend Shaz suggested I'm concentrating too much on the individual scenes and perhaps need to sit back and think about the global picture, imagine what I need and want from the story as a whole. It's true that when I do that, I get excited by the grand, sweeping saga of the whole. If only I can hang on to it long enough to work on the small pieces that needs must form that whole.
footlingagain suggested that I meditate on the story, and I've tried that, too. I never last for long, though. Too easily distracted am I.
What do you other writers do when you can't quite get into that story place?
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no subject
Date: 29 Jan 2009 01:21 pm (UTC)My coping mechanism is to write down the deadline(s) I'm facing, then check off each one as it gets accomplished. Somehow just having the maintaining of deadlines out of my head gives my subconscioud the space I need to be able to write.
no subject
Date: 29 Jan 2009 05:25 pm (UTC)Yeah, I see your point.
no subject
Date: 29 Jan 2009 03:56 pm (UTC)(you probably shouldn't listen to me *snort*)
no subject
Date: 29 Jan 2009 05:19 pm (UTC):P
no subject
Date: 29 Jan 2009 07:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 31 Jan 2009 08:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 29 Jan 2009 08:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 31 Jan 2009 08:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 29 Jan 2009 09:00 pm (UTC)There's also this:
http://writerunboxed.com/2009/01/28/reclaiming-the-joy-of-writing/
Don't know if any of this would help, but backing away is not just my technique, apparently.
no subject
Date: 31 Jan 2009 11:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 31 Jan 2009 08:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 29 Jan 2009 10:38 pm (UTC)But seriously, turning off the brain, allowing it to relax, not forcing it to get out words is what I try to do and I achieve that through mundane physical tasks such as housework.
no subject
Date: 31 Jan 2009 08:31 am (UTC)I detest housework on one level, but I know that 1) I feel so much better when it is done; 2) the doing of it helps me think (about writing so SCORE), 3) it's easier to think and relax in a clean place--I don't have to walk around with blinders on; I can be in and enjoy the space where I am. Makes it easier for my mind to work correctly.
So, yeah...need to clean house.
no subject
Date: 31 Jan 2009 12:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2 Feb 2009 07:32 am (UTC)How's yours coming along?
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Date: 2 Feb 2009 09:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2 Feb 2009 04:52 pm (UTC)Good luck getting that cat hair situation under control. :D
no subject
Date: 6 Feb 2009 02:57 pm (UTC)The mind needs training as much as the body. (Mine gets away with murder. .. and laziness.)
If you can't write story, give yourself an exercise. Type out what you saw out your window that morning, or make a list of every word you can think of that starts with T or rhymes with fly. Do some typing drills: The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy frog. The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy fog hah fog is a funny typo for frog and the fact is it was foggy out when Timothy went for the milk. He had to go because his sister was lazy, even though her boyfriend called her a fox.
Just make yourself keep typing for a bit, maybe 5 minutes or 10. If you don't wander into your story, maybe through a backstory (say, what the hero did on his third birthday or the history of country x, where someone invented carrot souffle for the funeral of prince Flor), start a fresh sheet and aim for it.
no subject
Date: 7 Feb 2009 09:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 7 Feb 2009 04:18 pm (UTC)Good luck!
no subject
Date: 8 Feb 2009 12:19 pm (UTC)