Writer’s Block: Real or Myth?

Writer's Block: Segement of Berlin Wall at the Newseum in D.C.
Segement of Berlin Wall at the Newseum in D.C.
This week my accountability group is blogging about writer’s block and how we deal with it. Last week’s post on what has writing taught us and what we have learned over the years is also part of our How I Write series.

“Is writer’s block real or a myth and how do you deal with it?”

I believe writer’s block is a real phenomenon. Ok, probably not as literal as the wall in the picture above, but it can feel that way some days.

However, I don’t think writer’s block is necessarily a bad thing that you must sit and bang your head against. It’s merely a signal. Your muse, or your well of creativity, hasn’t abandoned you, it’s just undernourished. Ok, so if you don’t subscribe to the whole muse thing, think of it this way…

Your subconscious and your conscious mind are in total agreement here. You don’t know what’s going to happen next. And until you step back, stop banging your head against the problem, nothing’s going to be resolved in a pretty fashion that you’re going to be happy with in the long run.

So, what can we do once we’ve recognized this signal?

  • Read: What should you read? ANYthing and EVERYthing that interests you. Read for fun. Read to soak up the skills of the author. Read aloud if you want. Just luxuriate in the words. Let them wash over you. Even reading something that sucks can inspire you to do better. Reading up on the craft of writing helps me think about how I’m putting the words together and gives new ideas to try.
  • Relax: Take some time for yourself. Pamper yourself. Listen to some music. Take a nap. Reconnect with friends.
  • Play: Do something you enjoy, just for yourself and for the heck of it. Get down on the floor and play with the kids (borrow someone else’s if you need to and they’ll thank you!) Spend some time pursuing a different hobby.
  • Exist: This one is harder to explain. It’s similar to meditation, in that your focus is on something repetitive and preferably wordless. Exercise, playing an instrument, knitting, doing the dishes, gardening, walking, showering or soaking in the tub can all fit the bill. Be yourself as much as you can be, and step beyond that. Sounds corny, but works for many and gets the words flowing.

The main thing that all those things have in common is they are ways to refill your creative well and give your subconscious time to work through the question of “What next?”. Writing or any other creative endeavor can be a drain on us. We really need to take time to find balance (one of the things my accountability group focuses on) to give us the time to step back and plan (even if only subconsciously) instead of always running full tilt at the keyboard.

I find I work best when I can routinely cycle between cramming stuff into my brain and then later dumping stuff back out on the page. Others may not find that works for them, or they need a much shorter and less distinctive cycle to feed their muses.

Another thing you can try is a little different in that it’s not a refilling, but more of a rebooting or flushing action.

  • Write: You can use a journal to dump out all the crap your subconscious is wrestling with and save it for later. Experiment with a new technique. Something new. Something mundane. Writing exercises or writing prompts may help spark your creativity too.

Your Turn: Share how you maintain balance and refill your creative well in the comments below.

And if you’d like to read about what the rest of my group thinks about writer’s block and how they deal with it, you can find their blogs here:

* Alexia Reed * Angeleque Ford * Danie Ford *
* Emma G. Delaney * Kimberly Farris *

Cyclic in Nature

Writing as Art IconIn the past three years (Gosh, it doesn’t seem like it’s been that long!), I’ve come to realize that my writing process is quite cyclic in nature. This isn’t so much tied to the time of year when I may or may not have more free time, but feels more like one of those buckets on a waterwheel. First, it dips into the river and scoops until it’s overflowing, along the trip up out of the river, some may splash out, but really it empties in one big dump to contine back around again for another refill.

Sketch of a water wheel by Jon Constable, Oct 11, 1814I seem to always be in one of those two modes, where I’m either pulling all sorts of things into my brain or dumping them back out again. The river of information includes several sources such as books, blogs or workshops on the craft of writing, published novels both in Regency Romance as well as any other out there (and sometimes the further the better), poking around into various research sources, as well as just plain ol’ people watching. Depletion of these creative stores is where the actual writing and idea generation come in. Once my head is stuffed full of ideas and they have a chance to percolate, they simply must escape again.

The problems come when I foolishly try to work against this cycle. I should know better by now that trying to generate new word count when I’m in need of an inflow period, it isn’t going to be pretty. Talk about a feeling of writer’s block. Oddly enough, reading an article or book on the craft of writing while in the middle of an outflow period, doesn’t switch the flow, it just doesn’t click or get absorbed as well.

Since returning to writing mode late last spring, I’ve been busy building word count and struggling to reach “The End” of Beneath His Touch. The good news is that I have something written for the whole plot line. The problem I’m up against now is that I need to go back and layer in actions, descriptions and thoughts around the runs of dialogue that went down so smoothly in the past couple months and every word is like pulling teeth.

I’ve been fighting the urge to set it aside and work on something else, anything else, because it feels so close to be able to say, it’s done, but I know it isn’t. Also, my critique partner is ready to kill me over the cliffhanger chapter endings and she KNOWS she’s only 4 chapters from the end. I’m nearly done with chapter 18, but the thought of doing two more chapters is killing me.

Because of Veteran’s Day, the kids had a four-day weekend. This translated into more segmented time for me, especially since their dad was home sick one day there as well. I made the mistake of picking up a craft book. Yup, I have even less desire to go work on those last two chapters now. I want to either start a new project or go back to page one and rework all the progress I’ve made in the last three years on this one. And I said I picked up “ONE” craft book right? Wrong. I may have said one, but that lead to at least two others as the weekend progressed.

The great thing about going back and rereading these books is that after letting them percolate for a while and trying out some of the techniques, those ideas become assimilated and internalized. So it’s a great feeling to go back and read them again to find that I get something new from the text, or something that didn’t quite make sense before, suddenly clicks.

My brain is telling me that I’m ready to embark on my next journey of study. But I’ll be good. I’ll force myself to flesh out these last two chapters, but then look out! I’m ready to dive in and conquer plotting. Yep! I seem to be going about this completely backwards, but I believe it’ll all be good in the end. By the time I figure out how to string scenes together effectively, all the other stuff will hopefully be second nature.

If you know of any good books, workshops or websites discussing plot, I’d love to hear them!

So much for a post about what I learned by finaling in the SYTYCW contest, but I think I covered that in the introduction to my Excerpt Monday post that will go up tomorrow morning with the extended opening of Marcia’s story: Revealed. So come back tomorrow to check that out!

Focus Point

out of focusIn photography terms, a focus point refers to the small brackets, lines or circle in the middle of an autofocus point-and-shoot camera’s viewfinder that indicates where the camera is pointing. In broader terms, I like to think of it as what I’m currently putting my energy toward: be it a project, a routine to reinforce or an outlook to cultivate.

Lately, my focus point has been my son and his headache(s). We’re still dealing with this on a daily basis. He has made it to school this week for the state standardized testing, but today was a real fight to get him there. “Mom, this is my second worst headache. EVER!” *sigh* He was feeling a bit better over the weekend and the past two days after school he’s been miserable. He complained yesterday that he spent an hour and a half in the health office and even got sick, but the health tech wouldn’t call home because he’d missed so much school already. Hopefully, she’ll call today if he feels as bad as he says he does.

So what’s this have to do with writing? I have no focus lately. I’m still only about 15 pages into this book and I’m fighting for ever word. I don’t think I can say I’m actually experiencing writer’s block in the traditional sense of the phrase because to me that implies that you’re putting in serious effort in trying to get something onto the page. It feels more that I don’t know where I’m trying to go with the story so, I’m muddling my way through a heavy fog.

One of the things, I’d wanted to work on in my mentor program was learning to build a road map I can trust. I feel like I’m still a ways from that point. It feels like there are too many unanswered questions in the “yes, but HOW do I show this happening” part of my “working outline”. I like my characters to surprise me, but I find I still need a very detailed roadmap in order to get anywhere.

I know I have focus issues on the best of days. Having so many less than ideal days in a row is frustrating to say the least. Maybe I just have the attention span of a fruit fly, but there’s got to be a better way to work with it instead of continually against it. I need to find a way to deal with constant interruptions to keep track of where my thoughts had been and where they should be going.

I think this is why the snowflake method was so appealing. The idea is to constantly build on what you’ve already got. With Revealed, that approach seemed to work rather well. I suspect the trick is making sure all of the basic elements are present from the beginning.

Anyway, off to write something down…

Where’s my Calgon?

Too many deadlines!
Too many deadlines!
I now have less than a week to finish and submit this short story. EEEEEEK! Where the heck did September go?

I’ve been up against multiple deadlines this month and I’d hoped to have this story finished well before now. However, that’s definitely not the way it has worked. The characters have been not cagey, but playing their cards close to their chests, we’ll say. Every paragraph has been a struggle to write. I think it’s the added pressure of knowing it was intended to be submitted for real and that I’d promised myself that when it was done I’d send it to Jodi. Yeah, no pressure or anything.

“Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.”
— C. Northcote Parkinson

So, where does the story stand? Pretty much where I left it over a week ago. I have five basic scenes/plot points to hit and I know there are a bunch of things that I need to bring back to wrap it up nicely.

So, what’s the problem? A distinct lack of focus and motivation. I feel like I have a perpetual headache. Most of my other obligations have wound down for a bit but there’s still the daily grind to accomplish as well. However, I still feel like that Greenday song, “Wake Me Up When September Ends.” Oh, not anything from the lyrics or the video, just the title. After two essentially sleepless nights last week, I could use the extra Zzzz’s. Maybe that’s part of the headache?

So, why am I whining (am I? I tried not to. Honest.) about this here? DH and I drove an hour or so north of here for a friend’s birthday party on Saturday night (*waves hi to TinyFroglet!*) and to mourn the passing of her youth. She turned 40 this year as well. Anyway, she said she really enjoyed reading the blog because I wasn’t afraid to be honest about my struggles with this process. So thank you for pushing me out of the rut and making me realize that explaining it and thinking out loud about it does actually help more than just ignoring it and hoping it’ll go away again.

So, what am I going to do about it? First, I’m going to go check and make sure the premier of Heroes is taping tonight, then I’m gonna sit down with my timer and jump into one of those chat challenges at Romance Divas. Ready? Here I go….

Faceless Hero

A Regency Gentleman
A Regency Gentleman

I’ve been trying to work on a short story at Bria’s instigation. I’ve got a basic plot line and some conflict thrown in. I know what the hero and heroine were like as kids, but now that they’ve grown up, I barely know them any more.

I have a general idea of how they’ve changed since childhood, but I don’t have a sense of who they are. I’ve never considered myself as someone who needed visual models to base a character upon, but this pair isn’t coming out into the light for me. I don’t know if all the concentration on craft this week is scaring them off (or me), or what, but it’s frustrating.

I decided to surf around for a while today looking at some man candy, cause, really, it doesn’t hurt to look right? Anyway, I was struck by how young some of the models looked. Really, I know I’m getting older, but the little boy lost look just doesn’t do it for me. I need some muscles, some touseled hair, and yeah… a five o’clock shadow doesn’t hurt to prove the guy can actually grow some facial hair and likely isn’t jail bait.

So from there, I started looking for Regency portraits and even Hollywood’s interpretations of the Regency Gentleman. If you thought styles and aesthetics have changed rapidly in just the past 50 to 60 years or so, there’s nothing so eye-opening as looking back 200 years. Granted we have far more modern conveniences to rely upon, but the fellow at the top was one of the few that caught my eye. I definitely like my historical romances with a healthy dose of fantasy thrown in.

Maybe I’m just putting off making any decisions because that would mean I’m getting closer to the point where I have to sit down and writ this thing. I probably just need a swift kick in the behind as it can only be 8k max at the most for the anthology call. Since I can’t seem to come up with names for them either, maybe I’ll just type OUR_HERO and OUR_HEROINE again and hope something comes sooner or later. (Yeah, that’s why I still have a Lord SO_N_SO in one of my manuscripts. I’m just scared if I give him a name, he’ll want his story told too! Bria’s already hounding me for, his heroine, Daphne’s story.)

Maybe if I go dig around in the conflicts and the story events it’ll become clearer who these people are for me. Wish me luck!

Shouldn’t I be writing?

So, I got an reply email from DH after I sent him to let him know I fixed a couple things on his website:

“Shouldn’t you be writing? ;)”

Doh. Caught procrastinating again. He knows how I get when a puzzle is put in front of me.

To be honest, I have been running a lot of things through my head and discarding a lot of them immediately after. I know one of my problems with working on turning this folktale into a story is not having a clear idea of the characters it’s about. I have the sequence of events that need to happen, but very little idea of who they need to happen to except in the most general of terms. So, that brings me to the idea of prewriting.

Prewriting Activities

Along with the cycle of studying craft, reflecting upon new concepts, and a reading spree to recharge, I also realized stories come faster and less painfully when I sit and think about the characters and their situations. I don’t mean only in terms of plotting or character sketches, but that and more.

I wanted to explore a couple new ways to get the old imagination running beyond the normal ones I seem to rely on: brainstorming and freewriting. Brainstorming is collecting a bunch of ideas without censorship regarding their ability to fit with what you want to write. Not quite how I’ve been doing, but close enough. In my journal entries, I tend to do Freewriting. I sit and write everything coming through my head for a set period of time or until I get past some arbitrary word count.

Both those methods are useful, but I wanted to dig a bit deeper for something to help me regain the sense of urgency – the need to get the story onto the page before the details evaporate.

Pretend and Play

Let your imagination run wild. No rolling around on the floor with the kids and constructing a castle out of couch cushions is necessary, but what would it hurt?

Look, Imagine, Think

Building upon the previous one, take some time to stop and smell the roses. Become more aware of the world and people around you and make up stories using your observations. What causes the mundane to be interesting? How about the person you pass every day but don’t know – what is their story?

Another way to accomplish these last two is by daydreaming. I think this is what those people who appear to be napping are doing when they claim they’re plotting. 😉

Add Sound and Music

Try different styles to match the mood you’re trying to capture. I find instrumental music with distinct rhythms much better to write to than popular songs. I discovered I distract myself by singing along to the lyrics, even though I used to do my homework with the most raucous music possible playing.

Doodle in the Margins

There’s something to be said for scribbling down notes with a pen on paper. For some reason, I always get a better grasp of what I’m trying to do when I write longhand. Somehow, I can sense how the pieces don’t fit together as neatly by writing the words out instead of assuming the neat, little lines of text are where they all belong.

I took a printed copy of this post with me when I went to pick the kids up from school and scribbled all over it. I also realized that block of time is one of my most productive for idea generating and distilling. Provided I don’t have a paperback in my hand. It’s only 15 minutes or so, but what an opportunity to focus while I’m a captive audience to my imagination.

Look at Lists

Lists can be fun to make and to peruse for ideas. After brainstorming and coming up with all those related things, then you can tackle the task of rejecting what doesn’t work for your story. Or, search through various lists for eye-catching entries.

As always, the real trick becomes knowing when to stop and just go write.

So, what do you do when you first get to know your characters and your story?

Frustrated

Ok, so I had this great aha! moment and now trying to work with it, I keep running into a brick wall.

I spent a good chunk of time today taking the writing exercises at end of Chapter Five on Conflict in Leigh Michael’s book On Writing Romance. I got a bit closer to figuring out how the conflict might work in Revealed. I think the one with the Duke and Duchess from that story actually works best and I was even able to do a little brainstorming on how to make the Food Critic one work better. However, the one that’s frustrating me is this Flower Queen’s Daughter story.

On one hand, it feels like I’m trying to start the story WAY too early for a romance. On the other hand, it’s just way too hero-centric for a romance. It’s possible I picked a horrible story to try to do this with, but I’m stubborn (if you haven’t figured that out by now). I will make this work.

Brainstorming conflicts that met the criteria Michaels sets forth for workable conflict (related short-term and long-term problems combined with a force that keeps them from walking away in frustration), I came up with the idea that he feels obligated to rescue her or afraid the gypsy will curse him, but perhaps the heroine wasn’t entirely upset by “being kidnapped” in the first place? Maybe she thinks she’s just been invited to stay at their country house for a while? The long-term problems are even fuzzier. Why would these two make the worst match possible on first impression?

It makes so much more sense when I’m looking at this from the outside.

Puzzle Pieces

I’m a sucker for puzzles. Nothing makes me happier than finding a solution. Must. Solve. Puzzle. Nearly any type of puzzle, as long as a bit of challenge exists, will keep me amused for quite a while. The sense of accomplishment is one of the reasons I like learning new things and coding (which involves figuring out how to turn what you want to do into terms the computer can understand and execute).

I was struck the other day by how similar writing is to a jigsaw puzzle. The only problem is instead of getting a box with a photo containing another copy mounted on cardboard cut into interesting little shapes, you construct your own box, draw your own pictures and cut out your own pieces, all while blindfolded and wearing gloves.

Or is that just me?

I may appear to be on a quest to find The Magic Formula<tm>. It’s not that cut and dried. Instead, I prefer to think I’m seeking a magic process. What if you simply made a slight twist and popped out a couple of pieces and switched ’em like when you got super-frustrated with a Rubik’s Cube? Although, that might suit if a scene is misplaced, but unless you started with 6 sides of colored squares you’ll have a big mess.Must. Solve. Puzzle.

First, I need to remember the rules of the game are to be learned. Practice on easier levels should come before trying to master the expert ones. (Yeah, I hated training wheels too.)

So, viewing a story as a puzzle requiring clues, set-ups and pay-offs to get the rewards helps me understand why I came back to writing and why, this time, I’m sticking with it much longer than before when I ignored the mechanics.

The other thing I’ve been ignoring my background of building stories in a radically different medium. I wrote, scripted and coded for a text-MUD for over a decade.

I think if I consider a story to be the equivalent of an area (i.e. a section of the game based on a single theme such as “Arabian Nights” or “Victorian London”). I need to block in the rooms (theme/premise), figure out all quests belong (plot), decide on the list of mobs (characters and their stories) and which kinds of props and window dressing are necessary objects (scenes and sequels).

The advantage building an area had over writing a story was the interactive and emergent aspects which covered a multitude of sins. I’m also unsure of my ability to work in a non-linear fashion. Thinking of the process in familiar terms might help, but I suspect the pieces aren’t lined up in quite the correct order yet.

Hmmm. Perhaps I should try writing a story set within one of the areas I designed. I could also take one of my characters and try to write their quest steps. Can’t hurt, right?

Must. Solve. Puzzle.

Cheese with my whine?

So, I began this writer’s journey in earnest a little over seven months ago. I’m not counting any previous false starts (they never lasted long before) or tangential experiences (we’re talking stringing sentences together, but more interactive and emergent stuff or related non-fiction). What I mean is a serious focus on craft and honest attempts to tell a story from beginning through the middle to the end and come up with something that appeals to others.

DH lends help and support, when I ask. The Divas are simply amazing. Their tolerance for dumb queries and unconditional backing is unbelievable. Jodi manages to ask all the right questions or drop little bombshells of wisdom to make me think about what I’m doing. MamaDivine certainly learned from her! Bria and CC are enthusiastic cheerleaders.

So, what’s my problem?

Why am I still spinning my wheels and going in circles? Is it a lack of “pre-writing” and not knowing my characters enough to deal with their reactions to situations? I suspect the issue remains in my actual plots and structure. The hardest thing for me to do is step back and puzzle out the big picture for my own writing. Gathering the characters I want to throw together and stockpiling rocks to chuck at them seems easier. Often, I can visualize the closing scene/image.

Now, I’m probably whining, but I’m frustrated. I may have made too few attempts to speak with any authority, but I find everything falls apart when I try to go from point A to B and then head for C. My conflicts and dilemmas never seem to be sufficient or the details refuse to come together so things float around in limbo.

Several different approaches caught my eye or were suggested: Snowflake method, Emotional Structure, Hero’s Journey, and even breaking individual scenes down into notes for Meeting, Purpose, Encounter, Final Action, and Sequel/Aftermath. Each one taught me something about this process, but I’m still not satisfied with the results.

Analytical and highly focused on theory are now attached to my name. I think people are using nicer words than “anal” and “perfectionist”. Complements (and thanks to those who have made them!) must compete with the voices in my head, which are louder and more critical. I realized this would be a problem when I started, but it’s just another thing I wanted to learn about and overcome.

The Romance Divas are doing a free read promotion for Valentine’s Day. I’ve tried not to think about it much, but I may try to come up with something in the next two weeks. That’s scary! What am I thinking? Maybe, I should try a new spin on a familiar story so the plot and framework are a given. I don’t know.

We’ll see.

——

Wow, I think I just realized what the problem is. I’ve been editing. Too much critical thinking and not enough brainstorming and/or just writing. I’ve been skimping on my journal entries lately too. Not a good thing. Need to keep the words flowing, despite my cranky, persnickety, internal editor.

UPDATE: MJ’s written an awesome post on the subject of internal editors. Go read it!

Jump Start or Just Insane?

nano.gifI don’t know if this NaNoWriMo thing was a good idea or not. I’ve managed to get 3855 words down on paper which is more than I wrote fiction-wise all last month. However, I’m not sure I can sustain that rate or if I’m prepared enough to carry this story for 50k words. I also feel like I’m behind already.

Stop psyching myself out, right? Think positive! I already write around 30k words every 30 days, right? What’s an extra 20k words? Hmmm. That doesn’t seem quite right. It’s more like an extra 50K if I want to keep up writing my daily journal entries. Even more if I want to do a blog entry every now and a again. I think I just have to leave those to the end of the day, after I’ve met my NaNoWriMo quota.

Maybe that’s what my blog posts can be. Something like Monday, Wednesday, Friday progress updates on my fledgling Romance novel — I’m expanding the story Revealed. I don’t think I’m going to do many Thursday Thirteens until December. I don’t know. I’m just going to play it by ear. I think I will do one for Thanksgiving regardless. Always good to remind yourself what you’re thankful for.

I spent a good chunk of Friday afternoon working on a spreadsheet that lays out Dunne’s page by page analysis of where in the story and plot you should be on what page of your script. This combined the diagrams on page 63 and 112 of Emotional Structure. I made it so I can adjust the total word count and be used for any number of pages. I extended to a second set of pages that I can use to write notes about what I should be writing about at that point. Boy, did I have a lot of filling in to do on the 2500 words I’d already done.

It’s scary to realize that I tried to tell the whole story in that space and managed to get the basic sequence down, but there’s so much more to flesh out. What the hell was I thinking? I must be insane, either that, or just very naïve. I think the latter is much more plausible.

Off to see how far I can get before DD’s new mattress is delivered!