Writing Blahs
January 10th, 2008 by Allison Winn Scotch
So everyone’s heard of the winter blahs, but what about writing blahs? You know what I’m talking about: those times when you’ll do everything, and I mean everything (including but not limited to: cleaning out the closet, checking the mouse traps –ew- paying your estimated taxes, reading catalogs you’ll never order from, and hell, even exercising…to name just a few things that, ahem, I might have done today) to put off writing. I’m smack in the middle of these writing blahs. Even writing this blog post was an excruciating exercise in discipline. (Thanks, Teri, for my deadline or I’d never have made it!) I’m a writer by trade and by implicit definition, so…what can I do to get back on track?
The answer is: I’m not sure. Which is part of the reason for this post. I’m hoping that you can help.
First, let me say that I think this burnout or maybe more accurately, this lack of real desire to hit the keyboard running, is entirely normal. There are days, weeks and months when I can’t start writing fast enough and when it’s all I can do to slow down the hours in the day so I have more time for work. So, I suppose, this ennui is the ying to that yang. Normal; nothing too concerning.
Still though, I don’t entirely enjoy it. I grow antsy with my boredom, resentful of the actual work I do have, and generally listless. I want to be burning up the keyboard, so now, I have to find a way to light that inner-fire because checking the mousetraps in my kitchen isn’t doing it. Here are some of the things that have, in the past, helped relight that flame:
- Forcing myself to write. Sometimes I find –as I’m finding in this blog post – that once I start, it comes a heck of a lot easier than I thought it would when I was doing everything BUT writing.
-Taking a day off. (I already did that. See above.) But in all seriousness, sometimes just as it’s important to push through the block, it’s important to give yourself breathing room and some mental distance from your work. You’ll return fresher and better for it.
-Reading something that someone else wrote: something great that makes me want to better my own writing.
-Find something you’re really and truly excited to be working on. This might be an article that’s paying you a bucket load of money or it might be your fiction that no one is paying you for (yet). But the surest way to break out of your rut is to get inspired.
And that last item is just my problem. I wrapped the draft to my next novel, and now, I’m looking for my next great idea to psyche me up. Once I find it, I know that I’ll more than make up for these wasted days by writing for hours on end. Using the law of averages, it should all come out even.
But tell me, what do you do when you’ve hit a writing wall?
The problem is real, and if I had a solution for it I’d be raking in the royalties for my book on how to beat writer’s block. For me, it always helps to read through one of my favorite novels by Robert B. Parker. I find that the easy flow of his writing inspires me to get back to my own work and try to emulate his masterful use of language.
One thing I’ve found that works when I don’t feel up to doing something like writing: find something else I don’t feel like doing, and alternate. For example, I say to myself, “I am either going to write or clean the attic!” Then, when I start cleaning the attic and get tired of it, I sit down to write. When I get tired of writing, I go back to cleaning the attic. That way, two activities I didn’t feel like doing get done, and it’s harder to procrastinate because I’ve limited yourself to two equally unappealing options.
And if one the options was entirely too unappealing, at least I got ONE useful thing done…
A very dear friend once told me ‘if you’re going to harvest the tree, you’ve got to feed the roots.’ As writers, we are constantly harvesting our creativity. There’s a limit to how much we can take from ourselves before we have to nourish our creative roots.
I have found that the writing ‘blahs’ often are a sign that I’m not taking good enough care of myself, either physically, emotionally, or creatively.
That’s when a break is important.
I find engaging in a physical task helpful. The dog likes my ‘blahs’–she gets a lot more walks. My family also gets a lot of home made bread and other treats.
Good post.
Best,
lisa
Lisa, I loved this: “if you’re going to harvest the tree, you’ve got to feed the roots.” I may print it out and put it on my monitor.
Usually when I feel writing resistance, it’s because, as Lisa said, I need a break. Often, I don’t take one, because deadlines are there all of the time, but my work is slow and often error-pocked. And then I may get sick.
How about you take a day or two OFF? I have a feeling you don’t get a lot of pampering time, with your schedule and young family. Go for a massage, a pedicure, meet up with a positive friend for lunch, go see a fab new Off-Broadway show, read some of your favorite mags and drink hot chocolate–and tell yourself you’re not going to work at all. (Bring along a hand-held recorder in case you think of any brilliant ideas, but don’t allow yourself to work on them until your break is through.)
Hang in there, Allison!
Even when I don’t have the writing blahs, sometimes I need to take a break and reassess, regroup. I have to force myself, but I think it helps me avoid the Blahs.
I’m taking one of those breaks today (reading about writing doesn’t count!)
I have several things that I try, usually one or the other gets me back on track.
-Setting a timer. I power through in short bursts. Write for 15 minutes and then I MUST read something or do something else. I find that after a few of these I tend to resent the timer going off to tell me I have to do something else. Nothing like taking the right to do something away to make a human being want to do it.
-Bake. Some people dream up ideas in the shower. I dream them up while baking, but I think this can apply to any favorite activity. Do something where you can enjoy the activity and just let your brain wander.
-Get friends/family involved. When I’m really struggling for inspiration or a swift kick in the creative pants I call in the reserves, dear soon to be hubby, mother, best friend. Bouncing ideas often gets the next ones going again.
Remember you can do this!
~J
I read a good book and give myself permission to take time out of writing until the book is finished. Usually that does the trick for me!
I’m with Lisa and Kathleen- the roots of my tree get fed by reading. If that makes sense. Like Lisa said, we ‘re constantly harvesting our creativity, and I find that I get my creativity from reading a good book. Often something in the book sparks an idea about whatever I’m working on.
I think writer’s blah’s (or block) is no different than any other sort of worker apathy. Sometimes you just wake up and don’t feel like doing your job. Waiters sometimes get sick of waiting, psychologists sometimes dread listening to the same old problems over and over, fishermen sometimes think they’re going to puke if they smell one more fish.
The difference with writers – the only difference - is that, since our job involves describing things, this simple laziness is blown out of proportion, into some great romantic notion of existential torture that writers alone must bear.
Do bike messengers take the day off because they don’t feel like facing traffic that day? If a fisherman started griping about his “ennui,” he’d get slapped upside the head with an halibut. And you can bet the writer’s block excuse doesn’t wash for staff writers with daily deadlines.
So, how to overcome writer’s block? Take the day off and eat chocolate in front of the TV? Or put your calloused fingertips back on the keyboard? The answer is the same as for any other laborer: is your mortgage paid off yet?
Cultivate a desire to do it. I avoid lots of things. Often because a tiny nugget of anxiety makes me not want to do them.
Think in terms of opportunity. It’s not, “Oh man I HAVE to write.” It should be, “I want to write.” Maybe there’s an opportunity to flesh out a character, or a particular scene you’ve been obsessing over.
Find desire to explore the details. Not wanting to write is usually based in some form of negativity. Kill it and find something you like or want. What excites you about your story? Don’t you just want to dive into that?
Did you say you just wrapped up the draft to your next novel? Are you aiming for perpetual spring and summer? Even the earth lies fallow before budding out again. The prolific Isabelle Allende has a certain date in February when she begins her next novel each year. Maybe what’s required for productive writers is a prolonged break with a definite end date.