Posts Tagged ‘Writer’s Block’

It’s coming up on the end of another month and another year. I feel this year has been a little better to me, and I’m hoping naughty nine will be even better. So, it’s time to look at my last years resolutions and see how little I got accomplished that I had planned at the beginning of the year.

But, first things first – How was yer Crimmas?

I had a pretty good one. Lots of nice presents, fun times, noisy kids and some assembly required. At the top of the list – A nice new comfy business chair. I like to spin around in circles until I’m dizzy… Oh, and it’ll probably come in handy when working as well… But mostly the spinning.

So, onto other things, I had a number of plans for this month. My Todo list wasn’t a very long one but that didn’t stop me from not doing all of it. I did read a little more, as I’d planned, and I also got a short Doug update finished. I got my Christmas shopping done, buying awesome presents for everyone to tear open, look at in confusion for a moment and then toss aside in anticipation for larger presents from others more willing to open their wallets.

Last year I made some resolutions for the year. Here’s what I came up with.

#1 -Complete Two Novels.
#2 – Keep to a sleep schedule.
#3 – Complete 3 short stories.
#4 – Loose Weight.
#5 – Cut down my smoking.
#6 – Save Money.
#7 – Get out more

As for number one – Mwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha… ha.

ha ha ha.

ha.

Two?

ha ha ha…

Anyway… onto number two. I was having trouble sleeping back then but it’s been pretty good for a while now. The secret is to close your eyes early and open them late. Number three – finally, some good news. Not only did I do this one, I DOUBLED it. Booya. Four and five – I’m starting to get a roll on but there wasn’t a great deal of progress this year. Ditto for six and seven.

And as for ‘09. I haven’t really thought that much on resolutions except for one thing.

Write 1000 words every day.

Simple. Easy. Straight forward.

I can handle a thousand words a day. I’m sure of it. If I know what I’m writing then I can get through that in an hour or two. Although most of the time I don’t know what I’m writing, so It may take a little longer. But, dag nabbit, a thousand should be easily done.

By this time next year I should be sitting on about three hundred and fifty thousand words more than I am today.

Ouch.

It’s funny cause it’s true…

All that I’ve written so far is absolute dreck.

But even still, the story is coming out and there have been some rubies in the dirt. Sometimes things that I had imagined vaguely have come out exactly as I had imagined them.

But other times the opposite has happened. I haven’t achieved the atmosphere that I’ve wanted. And I wonder, told as it is, If anyone would bother reading past the first page.

I’ve just been writing it in a very linear fashion. Beginning, middle, end. And I wonder if that’s the best way to tell it.

BUT that isn’t the real reason I’m here.

I’m at that point where I have to write a scene but have no idea how to write it.

Yesterday I managed barely 500 words. That’s a whole lot short of my word count goal.

I put that line there because that was the moment I reached this decision.

To move forward.

I spent all day yesterday trying to work out how to write this scene. How to inject a dream-like beauty into what is essentially an undignified act.

So I’ve now given myself a deadline of twelve o’clock today.

If I’ve not finished it by then I’m going to write an marker and move on to the next scene.

- Well, that’s it from me now. I didn’t write what I came here to write but all the same it has helped me out.

Presently, I’m taking a break and watching the classic Michael Keaton movie Multiplicity. I remember when this first came out, me and a friend of mine would constantly quote Number 4’s lines to each other. “I like pizza!”

But the other good news I have today is this –

My writer’s block, or should I say writer’s laziness, is starting to ease up and I’m actually getting stuff done. I say ‘ease’ because it’s still running slowly, dripping through in dribs and drabs. But if I can keep it up, It’ll pick up speed and I’ll be rolling like a penguin on a steep hill.

Here’s a little word count thing-a-mabob -

Well, That’s it for now, just a short update. Back to work, Steve.

It’s true.

It’s a world where I have godlike powers. I create, I destroy, I can wrap reality around my little finger and wear it as an ostentatious pinky ring. I have absolute freedom.

And I forget.

I tie myself up in the duct tape of logic, the hand cuffs of sensibility, the noose of the real life.

Then I wind up in the tangled web of writer’s block.

I blame my job.

Then I see something. A catalyst of sorts. Something to get my chemistry set bubbling, something that makes me scream like Mel Gibson in Braveheart – “You killed Jesus you damned Je…..” um, wait, that’s not it… “Freeeeeeedom!” (that’s the one)

By the power of greyskull, I have the freedom. Why do I forget this?

The answer is easy. Penguins.

I have no one to please but myself. Screw you, My imaginary fan base. It’s all about me. If I want to write a serious character driven drama about the difficulty of father-son relationships that ends with the son calling up the power of the penguin gods to cut the legs off of all his enemys… and as punishment for calling them too often without buying the pizza pockets, the penguin gods turn his father into a polar bear which only adds to the father and son’s problematic relationship – well, I can.

It may not sell, but then anything I don’t write won’t sell either.

The hardest part of writing, I have found, is the part where you’re writing.

Now… I’m off to write with all the freedom of an anarchist hedgehog.

Peas out.

I have some terrible news for you all… I stabbed myself in the brain and now I’m dead

I know. It’s a sad and tragic loss but then… meh.

I was quite happy and sure that I was about to do a profound amount of work yesterday as I left my previous blog entry but then, when I had quickly closed down my Firefox (so careful not to slip and accidentally start waisting time on the net) and opened up the yWriter. I Clicked open a new scene. I put my fingers to the keyboard and then…

My brain said: “Duh, do what now?”

So I stabbed it with a pencil.

Okay, really, I’m not that brutal… especially not to myself. I argued with my brain for an hour or two. we managed to spit out a few paragraphs that sounded like they were typed by a preschool teacher with a lobotomy and two broken arms.

THEN I stabbed my brain with a pencil.

And then I gave up for the day, I only had a few hours left till work so I thought I’d get in some reading time. I’m reading Darkly Dreaming Dexter at the moment, and loving it. It’s macabre, it’s ironic, it’s got a twisted sense of humour. It’s the best book I’ve read since…the last book I read (but, to be fair that was Perfume)

So what to do about my “Writer’s Block”?

I don’t like the term though. It seems insurmountable, impassable, something that will stuff your writing up forever.

I am now calling it “A Lame Patch”

There, easy and sure to go away.

Do I need inspiration? Waiting for that could take forever.

Do I need to get over myself and just write? It’s difficult to keep going when you know what you just wrote belongs to be thrown in the trash, set on fire, pissed on, frozen with liquid hydrogen and smashed with a hammer.

Do I need to go back and work on plot some more? Maybe.

And that’s what I’m doing, in part, at the moment.

In the mean time I’ve gone back to working on Mal Macabre.

I want to open a project up which is absolute crapola. One that can be crap and will be crap. I need a crap file.

That’s a good idea Todd. I’ll get right on that.

Here’s a quote for you all -

“Writing is easy. All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until the drops of blood form on your forehead.” – Gene Fowler

Well I’m off to work now… I LIE!, I’m heading to the couch and picking up my book.

Ner Ner.

Your Right!

It has been a while since I’ve written a blog entry on my writing progress… which is what this blog was meant to be about – for the most part. so here it goes.

Anxiety. Panic. Confusion. Procrastination.

Reading good books can do you as much harm as good when your a beginner writer. You read Philip K Dick or Chuck Palahniuk or any one of a hundred writers, you finish the book and you say ‘damn.’ You say ‘damn that was a great book,’ and then you think of your own writing a feel the anxiety.

You say “how in the hell could I ever write that well? Write a book so good that a person would finish the final page, put the book down and say ‘damn’? as I just did”

It’s impossible.

That’s the panic your feeling. You know you won’t quit writing. You just can’t imagine your life without doing it, for a moment you try and think of what it would be like if you did quit. you ask yourself “what do normal people do instead of writing?” and you draw a blank.

And so you imagine your life – forever obscure as an unknown or forever condemned as talentless. Maybe the most you could hope for is that people will finish your book and say “Bah, I’ve read better.” Or maybe people won’t ever finish reading your book. Instead they close the book half way through and use it as a door stop or to prop up a wobbly table. Or maybe you won’t ever be published at all.

The Horror.

And so you stare at the blank page. You say to yourself “Just write. Write and we’ll deal with how good it is later.”

And that’s where I’m up too.

Thanks for asking.

I have started several blogs before – each time thinking the same thing ‘this time I’m going to keep it going to keep it up’



and each time I haven’t.



I recently started using Firefox which has a cool little add-on for blogging called Performancing – a little icon sits on your status bar and when you click it up slides a window for typing in – you can add to an entry all day and just hit publish when your done… and i thought to myself ‘this is great, I’ll start another blog and because of this tool It’ll be simple to keep it going’



I signed up for this blog almost a week ago and I’m doing the first entry now.



So maybe it won’t last.





But I want to have a blog and keep it up for two reasons – I want to be a writer



so for one – It gives me a chance to write everyday about anything – even if I’m suffering from a bout of writer’s block and

for two – hopefully some people will read my blog and maybe when I finally finish a book and get it published they’re be people ready to buy it – or at least help get the word out.





that’s it for now

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