 Short Stories: December 04, 2019 Issue [#9900] |
This week: When There is Nothing in the Tank Edited by: Jay's debut novel is out now!  
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When There is Nothing in the Tank
Working your way out of a writing slump is not an impossible task! Here are some thoughts on what to do. |
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Stephen King famously implores the readers of his seminal writing book, On Writing, to do anything but write, if one suspects that they are not a writer.
Even if you are a writer by his standards (essentially, that you can't not-write, that you will inevitably return to it once your energy returns), you will arrive at a time when you simply are not writing.
Maybe you just don't want to right now.
Maybe your life is too busy or stressful for it right now.
Maybe you just finished an enormous project (NaNoWriMo, anyone?) and you need to rest before resuming work.
It's super common this time of year because of various seasonal and family obligations, but it can strike at any time. It can happen without warning, it can be part of a long slide. There's no one pattern that fits everyone, though it can be easy to see it in yourself with some reflection if you are finding yourself struggling to get words on the page.
I like to think of this fallow time as time to refill the well. That said, it's important to think about why it is, if you find yourself in such a place.
Burnout is extremely common, especially after a period of high activity. If you work on a big project at great speed, it is likely that you will need recovery time to come back to it. Additionally, it can be hard or even impossible to write if your exterior life is weighing too hard on your interior life--it happens! If you suspect what you are experiencing is burnout, be gentle with yourself and try not to demand too much in the way of writerly or creative output--usually with some rest and time, you'll feel better.
If you're ready to write but simply feeling uninspired, I strongly recommend to indulge in the kind of books, movies, television, music, or podcasts that will help you find your way back.
This might be instructional stuff, but my preference is to find the most indulgent things that I love with little reservation, in my case, because I really need to be reminded of things that make me excited to create--shows and books that inspire me to do "this, but different"--the things that made me want to be a writer. We all have something like that; don't be afraid to pull it off the shelf and revisit. You may be surprised at who you find in there.
Give yourself space and time to be kinda terrible at this for a while.
I have a License with Permission to Write Badly, administered to me by Jim MacDonald at Viable Paradise a few years ago, and I look at that document possibly more often than I ought, but it gives me a little bit of energy with regards to feeling like I don't have to be a literary genius, I just need to finish the draft. Find something that gives you permission to make things without requiring perfection. Some people find that writing in Comic Sans can free them up; for me it doesn't quite work, but a tandem trick is to write the draft in a larger font size than you typically would--think like size 14 for Times New Roman or other, similar fonts. (Essentially, the "trick" works to make your writing flow at around 65-75 characters of text per line, which feels more like reading a book and can better help with pacing out the writing as you go!) Whatever it is, create circumstances where you can let yourself work while less impeded by the specter of perfection.
Another thing that can work to free your brain up to make something new is to simply take a story you wish you had written and simply smash it together with another story you wish you had written. Steal a favorite character from someone else's book and give them a new name--I promise they will start to transform into your own unique thing by the time you're done with your first page. It's inevitable. If you like and are interested in what you are writing, it will transform your work as you go--so add in the plot elements that you like, add in the character dynamics and tropes you like, find new ways to engage with old stories (we ALL engage with old stories; originality is not a meaningful distinction).
If you can't write--rest. If you're done resting, write! If you can't do either--don't beat yourself up for it! Stockpile those ideas somewhere and come back to them when you simply can't stop yourself. The words will be there--I promise.
Until next time,
Take care and Write on!
Jay |
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From "Writing Your Way In" :
Howler of the Moon  writes:
I've explored quite a bit while writing scenes that may not appear in a story. Right now I'm writing about a side character's struggles to find room and board, but the writing isn't meant to be anything big.
Those kinds of stories are super helpful, I think, for shaping characters and settings!
Quick-Quill  writes:
One of my favorite things is when I see a quote, picture or scene and say WHAT IF? What if people were thrown together in an elevator that got stuck? We have the movie Devil, WHAT IF a man you see every day is reported missing and ends up on your doorstep asking for help?
(I will finish that story/novel one day) Prompts are the best way to break a writer's block. My only draw back is some of the roll-of-the-dice plots are so inane I question who writes them.
I definitely struggle with prompts that don't suggest a clear line of some kind of conflict or interest for the reader--and the writer! What-ifs are a great way to find good prompts like that, I think. |
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