Jenna Jones (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} jjquixoticquest) wrote in ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} torquere_social,@ 2008-11-15 08:12:00 |
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Good morning! I'm Jenna Jones and I'll be your host for the day. I'll be in and out a lot today as Saturday is my "let's do everything I didn't have the energy for during the week" day.
It was my intention, when I scheduled this, to post snippets from my Nanowrimo project for you, but my creativity had other plans and I unfortunately don't have a lot to show.
So let's talk about writer's block.
One of my favorite novels is Bag of Bones (I initially typed Insomnia which is also one of my favorites but not about writing) by Stephen King; like many of his novels it's about a writer, and this particular one is going through severe writer's block--it's so intense it's more like a panic attack than merely being stuck. Personally I've never had writer's block so bad that it made me feel like I couldn't breathe, but during my worst bout (the Bad Nasty Evil Writer's Block of 1999, as I think of it) people noticed how unhappy I was to the point that when I started writing again they remarked on it. (One of my friends at work said, "You're writing again, aren't you," and I said yes, and he said, "I can tell--you're smiling a lot more.")
Some years ago (after Bad Nasty Evil Writer's Block) I read Blocked: why writers stop writing from the New Yorker. Basically it says that writer's block is a fairly modern invention (blame the Romantics--I always do *g*) when the concept of creativity changed from something the artist does to something done to the artist. And that writer's block is a fancy name for stress, depression, fear of failure, or fear of success.
As a result I've tried to stop thinking of writing as passive, as receiving the words, and to think of it as active, as making them. This has helped a lot: when I feel like I can't write I can face it terms of "I'm tired and stressed and need a few days to sort myself out," as opposed to "Oh no, my muse has abandoned me!" Waiting for my muse to come back only makes me miserable; acknowledging that I need to recharge gets me back on track.
So, writers, what's your cure for writer's block? What do you do when the words just don't come? Readers, do you have a favorite portrayal of writer's block, in literature or in film?
It was my intention, when I scheduled this, to post snippets from my Nanowrimo project for you, but my creativity had other plans and I unfortunately don't have a lot to show.
So let's talk about writer's block.
One of my favorite novels is Bag of Bones (I initially typed Insomnia which is also one of my favorites but not about writing) by Stephen King; like many of his novels it's about a writer, and this particular one is going through severe writer's block--it's so intense it's more like a panic attack than merely being stuck. Personally I've never had writer's block so bad that it made me feel like I couldn't breathe, but during my worst bout (the Bad Nasty Evil Writer's Block of 1999, as I think of it) people noticed how unhappy I was to the point that when I started writing again they remarked on it. (One of my friends at work said, "You're writing again, aren't you," and I said yes, and he said, "I can tell--you're smiling a lot more.")
Some years ago (after Bad Nasty Evil Writer's Block) I read Blocked: why writers stop writing from the New Yorker. Basically it says that writer's block is a fairly modern invention (blame the Romantics--I always do *g*) when the concept of creativity changed from something the artist does to something done to the artist. And that writer's block is a fancy name for stress, depression, fear of failure, or fear of success.
As a result I've tried to stop thinking of writing as passive, as receiving the words, and to think of it as active, as making them. This has helped a lot: when I feel like I can't write I can face it terms of "I'm tired and stressed and need a few days to sort myself out," as opposed to "Oh no, my muse has abandoned me!" Waiting for my muse to come back only makes me miserable; acknowledging that I need to recharge gets me back on track.
So, writers, what's your cure for writer's block? What do you do when the words just don't come? Readers, do you have a favorite portrayal of writer's block, in literature or in film?
