Often, in the life of a writer, self-doubt creeps in. A form of Writer’s block, it’s notorious for bringing writing to a screeching halt. Doubting our writing capabilities in the middle of a project often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and the writing may, indeed, SUCK.
I find that when I’m ‘in the groove’ the words flow easily appearing on the computer monitor as fast as I can type them. But when writer’s block rears its ugly head, the monitor stares back, taunting me, laughing at me. And I stare back at it, then down at the keyboard, then back up at the monitor. But there’s nothing…
So how do you get rid of the block? What methods do I use to get back to writing?
Here are a few things that seem to work:
- If you’re not locked in to a topic, pick one that you’re passionate about, one that gets the creative juices flowing. I find if I’m interested in what I write about, it’s much easier to keep the words coming and to finish the task.
- Try Free Association. Sometimes a writers tendency to edit as he/she goes along will bring on the dreaded ‘block’. Get rid of your “editor’s hat”…there’s plenty of time for that after you’ve done the draft. Relax, close your eyes for 10-15 minutes and think of things NOT pertaining to your writing.
- After you’ve done that, try setting a timer for 10 minutes and start typing anything that comes into your mind…even if it makes no sense at all. A childhood verse, what you would do on vacation, words that rhyme…anything at all as long as it has nothing to do with what you’ve been writing. The idea is to free your mind of all distractions and just write what comes naturally. Then transfer that freedom to the writing task at hand. Works every time.
- Another easy thing to try is to break your project up into smaller portions. When looking at the project as a whole, it can feel overwhelming and seem like a monumental task bringing on writer’s block big time. Cutting it into smaller chunks ie., a few paragraphs, a page, or a chapter, if it’s a book; or the headline and subhead if it’s an ad, will make it flow that much easier.
- And exercise. Whenever your writing is blocked go for a brisk walk around the block, take a swim, ride your bike or use the treadmill. Physical activity increases the blood flow to the brain and releases nervous tension…and it’s been know to release a muse or two.
These work for me…I’d love to hear what works for you.
Categories: Writing · creative writing · the writing process
1. Verbs HAS to agree with their subjects.
2. Never use a preposition to end a sentence with. Winston Churchill, corrected on this error once, responded to the young man who corrected him by saying “Young man, that is the kind of impudence up with which I will not put!
3. And don’t start a sentence with a conjunction.
4. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
5. Avoid cliches like the plague. (They’re old hat.)
6. Also, always avoid annoying alliteration.
7. Be more or less specific.
8. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (usually) unnecessary.
9. Also too, never, ever use repetitive redundancies endlessly over and over again
10. No sentence fragments.
11. Contractions aren’t always necessary and shouldn’t be used to excess so don’t.
12. Foreign words and phrases are not always apropos.
13. Do not be redundant; do not use more words than necessary; it’s highly superfluous and can be excessive
14. All generalizations are bad.
15. Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
Categories: Writing · funny stuff · grammar
- I think it’s bad to talk about one’s present work, for it spoils something at the root of the creative act. It discharges the tension. ~Norman Mailer, Writers at Work, 3rd series
- To withdraw myself from myself has ever been my sole, my entire, my sincere motive in scribbling at all. ~Lord Byron
- If I’m trying to sleep, the ideas won’t stop. If I’m trying to write, there appears a barren nothingness. ~Carrie Latet
- Words are but the vague shadows of the volumes we mean. Little audible links, they are, chaining together great inaudible feelings and purposes. ~Theodore Dreiser, 1900
- It is the little writer rather than the great writer who seems never to quote, and the reason is that he is never really doing anything else. ~Havelock Ellis
- The coroner will find ink in my veins and blood on my typewriter keys. ~C. Astrid Weber
- Many books require no thought from those who read them, and for a very simple reason. They made no such demand upon those who wrote them. ~Charles Caleb Colton
- Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good. ~Author Unknown, commonly misattributed to Samuel Johnson
- How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live. ~Henry David Thoreau, Journal, 19 August 1851
- I am a man, and alive…. For this reason I am a novelist. And being a novelist, I consider myself superior to the saint, the scientist, the philosopher, and the poet, who are all great masters of different bits of man alive, but never get the whole hog. ~D.H. Lawrence, preface to Shestov, All Things Are Possible, 1938
- Write your first draft with your heart. Re-write with your head. ~From the movie Finding Forrester
- It is impossible to discourage the real writers – they don’t give a damn what you say, they’re going to write. ~Sinclair Lewis
- Dancing in all its forms cannot be excluded from the curriculum of all noble education; dancing with the feet, with ideas, with words, and, need I add that one must also be able to dance with the pen? ~Friedrich Nietzsche
- Writing is both mask and unveiling. ~E.B. White
- Let’s hope the institution of marriage survives its detractors, for without it there would be no more adultery and without adultery two thirds of our novelists would stand in line for unemployment checks. ~Peter S. Prescott<!–, Newsweek, 8 November 1976–>
- It’s not plagiarism – I’m recycling words, as any good environmentally conscious writer would do. ~Uniek Swain
- True Ease in Writing comes from Art, not Chance, as those move easiest who have learn’d to dance. ~Alexander Pope, “An Essay on Criticism”
- Writing is utter solitude, the descent into the cold abyss of oneself. ~Franz Kafka
- An author in his book must be like God in the universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere. ~Gustave Flaubert
- If I fall asleep with a pen in my hand, don’t remove it – I might be writing in my dreams. ~Danzae Pace
- There’s only one person who needs a glass of water oftener than a small child tucked in for the night, and that’s a writer sitting down to write. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic’s Notebook, 1966
- One ought only to write when one leaves a piece of one’s own flesh in the inkpot, each time one dips one’s pen. ~Leo Tolstoy
- A man will turn over half a library to make one book. ~Samuel Johnson
- What things there are to write, if one could only write them! My mind is full of gleaming thought; gay moods and mysterious, moth-like meditations hover in my imagination, fanning their painted wings. But always the rarest, those streaked with azure and the deepest crimson, flutter away beyond my reach. ~Logan Pearsall Smith
- No author dislikes to be edited as much as he dislikes not to be published. ~Russell Lynes
- A story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end… but not necessarily in that order. ~Jean Luc Godard
- Loafing is the most productive part of a writer’s life. ~James Norman Hall
Categories: Writing
This blog will be the proving ground and launch pad for my new True Crime thriller titled: “Mask of the Beast: the Life and Crimes of a Convicted Triple Murderer. “ I will also post my thoughts on writing as well as items of interest to writers and those who want to be. And, because of the subject matter of my new book, items pertaining to True Crime, forensics, and yes, even murder most foul, will also be fair game. It should be quite an interesting ride…
Categories: Forensics · Murder · True Crime · True Crime Stories · Writing · creative writing · the writing process
