Wondering what everyone thinks of it, if you get it, what you do about it, what you think it even is or if you think it even exists.
I've been not writing much lately. When things don't go well in my personal life, I find my imagination is just flat, and sometimes it just goes flat for a spell anyway. Often when I've been writing lots of fiction for a few months, I'm just done for awhile. At those times, I just don't have it. I can write nonfiction but that's about it.
I really don't care about it. I just let it be and do other things. It always comes back. I hear others who seem to agonize over it, though.
Thoughts on writer's block?
I’m much the same as you, seemingly. I have my manic periods where I can’t stop writing, and the flat periods where I just don’t produce very much. A lot of it depends on work. When it’s busy, I just don’t have the time to think about it, and by the time I get home I just want to be with the family.
I used to worry about it, especially during a prolonged period of writing very little. The inspiration always comes back though. Or at least, it has so far.
I get writer's frustration more than writer's block. I'm always working on something, never short on ideas, but sometimes I have to problem solve for a long time before something works. I don't think of that as block; block would be if I had nothing I wanted to work on at all.
You have to try and write something everyday, even if it's just a stupid sentence like: Why can't I write? Write that a couple of times, then try to answer the question. Be honest and open and don't worry about grammar. Sometimes you'll find a juicy nugget in what you've written that spurs your imagination.
Another trick is list all of the ways you can kill someone with a doorknob. Just sit down and list them out. Let your mind run wild. If that doesn't work, I don't know what will.
I got this sentiment from Chuck on youtube somewhere, paraphrasing heavily-
When you really have to shit, you run to the toilet. If you don't, you don't sit on it and squeeze. That's where hemorrhoids come from.
When the writing is slow, I try to enjoy the things around me. People, music, books. Those things usually stir something in me and then the writing starts flowing again. It's good to get a breath of fresh air sometimes.
I think I'm more on the same page as Chacron. Lately I've been really frustrated and burnt out (probably from writing so much so suddenly, like writer's tendonitis) and I've found it absolutely impossible to focus for any sort of extended period of time. I have plenty of ideas, sure, but I just can't find the motivation to sit down and get anything done. I guess my solution has been I started a tumblr and have just been using a private blog to kinda sort out my feelings and recharge while still writing very little so that I can ease back into it.
When the writing is slow, I try to enjoy the things around me. People, music, books. Those things usually stir something in me and then the writing starts flowing again.
I like that...reminds me of Keith Richards saying in Life that when he couldn't write songs he would play other people's.
I only get it if I don't have my twenties chapters formed in my brain ahead of time. (Bare in mind they are smaller chapters, around 1,000 words.)
With poems, I usually look at the natural scenary and wait for the muse to come.
If this happens to me (and of course it does), usually I'll just take a walk while listening to music because it gives my body something to do while I think, plus the music frees creative juices. I don't always come up with an idea but I love that feeling when I say, "It's so obvious! Why didn't I think of this before?" I'll either plan it out in my head or just go and write it.
