Writer´s block - How do you deal with it?
I need help. I´ve been writing for all of my life but started to do it formally a few months ago.
If you write, you know what I´m talking about. Recently I had an experience that is messing with my mind. I was robbed at gunpoint in a Guatemalan Highway and since then I can´t seem to find the inspiration to write.
I have at least 5 stories about my traveling but every time I try to write them I get blocked.
My dad, who also writes a lot, used to tell me when I was a kid: A writer needs to sit down and try to write 8 hours a day, it doesn´t matter if he can´t do it, he must sit down and get to it. If it is no use, he must read, think or just sit there, but he has to be there 8 hours, the inspiration will come eventually and you want to be in front of the writing machine when it does (This was in the early 90´s so no computer in the house).
Now I am here, asking for your opinion, what do you do to inspire, to get rid of the writer´s block?
Context: I'm a professional writer. Specifically, a journalist for an online tech news publication, which means there often isn't time to nurse a block.
Life circumstances can and have impacted my ability to write, but what has worked like clockwork for me every time is to just sit down and write.
Write your opening sentence and if you don't like it delete it, or better yet go to the front of it, hit enter twice, go back up to the top of your page and write a new one.
Repeat until you either have something workable or more than five minutes have passed, and then continue writing.
At the end of this you might have something that isn't very good, but from there you can rewrite and refine. It might take you a bit longer to write something than you're used to, but you will have written it, block or not.
One last thing: author John Green says a thing (which he used in his novel The Fault in Our Stars) which I agree with — Pain demands to be felt.
If the robbery is dominating your thoughts, then write about that. Get it out of your head and onto the screen. Even if you never publish it.
Excellent reply!
That doesn't only apply to writing...:)
I am sorry to reply so late. I took some of the advice here and took some time off steemit. Well, from writing actually.
Exactly, to just sit down and write, it doesn´t matter if it is a good one or a bad one, if you get to it, you might get somewhere, if you don´t well, you learn from every experience.
I truly appreciate that you took the time to write this, as I said, I did read it, I read all of the advices here and took off and tried to get mi mojo back. I am following you just for your amazing reply, it really helped me to read how other people fight off this problem.
Keep on writing dude!
Writing about this situation is writing ;)
I go with Enerst Hmingway here:
Write about the challenge to write as you have been starting to do in this post. And don't decline payouts - even a question is valuable content that may be rewarded ;)
Big hugs 😘
Oh damn... I am only seeing this until now...
I read some of the advice here and decided to stop writing for a bit (not that you don´t know it) hehe.
I will also take the advice, it seemed to me that payout for this would be unfair for people who put sweat and tears to their posts, and I didn´t want to drain their pool :/ But you are right, valuable content should be rewarded.
Hugs from Guatemala!
It's not always about sweat and tears. Some publish YouTube links and earn hundreds of bucks. You opened a discussion about writing. So no need to hide yourself and refuse value :)
Have a good day, traveler!
I cannot really give advise on writing as its not somehting I excel at but when I get a block in other areas for me stepping back and going for a relaxing stroll is somehting that helps me to step back and hopefully come back re energized
Hey man, every advice is good advice, sorry for taking so long to respond but I actually read some of the responses and decided to take advice and get a bit back to see the bigger picture and didn´t write for a while :D
NO need to apologize and thanks for taking the time to reply
It helps me if I just stop for a few hours and not even worry about it at all. Or if I do something I like to do, like watching a movie or reading a book.
But don't worry! You won't have writer's block forever.
I know, my late reply should be punished! Hehehe actually I did what you told me (among a few others) and took some time off of the computer. Did some nice things and enjoyed myself, I think the mojo is coming back!
I missed watching a movie! I saw The Beach and Lucy and didn´t cared about my writing and puff, I think it is back :D
Yay, so glad for you!
Hi, Eric!
I know exactly what you mean. I come from a country where armed robbery is a common occurrence - I'm not exaggerating, If you haven't been mugged at gun point in a year, you consider yourself lucky - But a robbery is not the only bad experience that can make it difficult to keep putting down words.
A fight with a family member, a hard week at work, or even taking a break from your usual writing schedule can end you up with big difficulties to keep writing.
I hate to call it "writer's block", I think we give the situation too much power by ascribing to it its own name. But however you call it, not being able to sit down and write what you want can almost always be reduced to a lack of focus; you need your mind in a place - that oh so sought after "inspiration" - and it insists on being somewhere else.
I'd begin by recommending you to keep present the operative idea of "what you want". If you are working on a book, you WANT to keep writing that book, when nothing comes because your mind is somewhere else - like re-living a bad past experience - it can quickly devolve into a tug of war, of what YOU want to write Vs where your mind's focus wants or even needs to be.
What I find most helpful to get back into the writing mindset when I'm in a place where I can't manage to work on something I want, is to surrender control. Which in principle will be very frustrating, to begin with, after all, that manuscript won't finish itself or that post you need for work has a deadline.
The thing is, the more you fight it, that's what you do, fight. But if you allow yourself the freedom to try something different, you won't ever have the so-called "writer's block". You will always have something to write, even if is not what you intended initially. Take this blog post, for example, is something you wrote while not being able to write something else, and you think this is bad, but I'm telling you is not, is part of the process. Allow yourself to write completely unrelated stuff, maybe try some farfetched scenes you know won't end up in the story, do crazy things like writing a bit about what if one of your characters were in your favorite movie. If your mind keeps slipping into a traumatic event - like your mugging - turn it into a story, what if it happened to the protagonist of your story? what if your protagonist was the one that mugged you?
Before long you'll realize you can always, without exception, write; the trick is not fighting your brain for focus but lead it gently back to where you need it.
I usually don´t take this much time to reply, I am sorry for answering so late but I actually took some of these advices and took off, my computer didn´t get a lot of love from me these days and I went out, got my mind clear and didn´t worry about steemit or writing too much.
Hey man, I have a ton of friends from Cordova, Mendoza and BAires! And yes, I get what you mean.
The idea about surrendering control is something that really helped me. I just went with the flow and did ehat the heart wanted and not the mind, I might have wasted some days but I think I am back on track. I think I got my mojo back. I want to thank you for taking the time to write this and share your experience, it surely helped me and for that I am following you.
I hope you start writing soon pal! Where are my votes going if you don´t post?!
Saludos amigo, y gran inglés, la mayoría de mis amigos Argentinos no habla nada de nada de inglés.
Hey man! don't worry about the late reply, I'm just glad to hear you are doing better and my advice helped a little.
BTW I'm currently on Argentina but I'm originally from Venezuela (Just clarifying since the mugging situation I was talking about was relating to the situation there, not here, I have nothing but good things to say about Argentina so far :) )
And btw, I just did my introduceyourself post and I'm planning on posting here more regularly, I hope you get some useful writing advice from them, be talking to you :)
I just looked at it! Perfect! Oh I get it now. Argentina has some issues about poverty and crisis but yeah, the situation on Venezuela is harder... I look forward for your posts! Keep in touch!
I've found that I can't force my way through it. It's like making music. Sure, hammering your way through it will force you to get better at the mechanics, but it will be clunky and painful to read.
Have you ever played racquetball? One thing I learned from racquetball is that you hit the ball when it is near you. If you let it pass you because you think it is going to bounce a certain way and come back from a better angle and you can hit it better then, you will usually be mistaken, and will find yourself madly sprinting after a ball that is bouncing away from you.
Similarly, ideas are like a racquetball. They flit into your head, then are gone. I've found that I can't remember later the great idea, the fun concept I had while I was taking out the trash or making breakfast. Stop right then and write down the idea. Then later, look through your list of ideas. All will appeal to you, and for me, the inspiration is what makes the writing. If I'm inspired, all I have to do is start typing and it pours out.
Being robbed at gunpoint is a major mind effing and you need some time to process that intense experience.
We, humans, operate basically from two perspectives, a duality. The two directions available are the physical and the opposing mental/emotional (in our head). So from my viewpoint; when I am having a mental or emotional block, turbulence or adverse conditions within my head, I go for the opposite tact and put hard physical effort into my actions and keep the focus on the job at hand.
And when I'm physically exhausted I meditate for a few minutes or play my bass to relax.
If my suggestions sound reasonable, please give it a go and the five stories you are trying to write and are failing to come forth, just may be temporary.
Tis seems a matter of mental/emotional vs physical balance. Tip the scales my friend.
I used to force myself to write pornography when I had writer's block. Because I'm not actually a consumer of pornography and it makes me feel awkward as all hell, my brain would start throwing stuff at me to stop.
I haven't written a lot over the last couple years, so I haven't had a need to fight it that bad over recent years.
Ohhh damn, you just made me watch hentai to get some inspiration my friend! Just kidding, I read some replies and decided to back off a bit, hence the late reply, Im sorry about it.
I get it, the more you spend outside the field, the harder the shoes get :/