writer’s block

Right now, nothing I write is any good.  In fact, it’s horrible.  Worse than drivel.  It is so hard to fight against the inner critic.  While it is destructive, it’s also subtle.  I don’t even realize I’m sinking, that I’m avoiding the few precious moments I have to write with excuses.  Then the excuses run out.  Here is the time.  Here is the place.  Here are all the resources I need to work on this project.  Silence.  Oh, all right then dear, how about this project?  Silence. No worry, let’s just try this one.  Rapidly going through all potential projects and dismissing them as not worthy.  Then I realize that it’s not time management that’s the problem.  It’s pre-judging.  In my mind, nothing is any good.  I should just give up, because I can’t write.  I’m just fooling myself that I could ever publish a novel.  No one would ever like such boring, trite, clunky prose, plots tangled up in cliche and melodrama.  No editor would waste her time on it.  My best friends would only read it to be polite.

 

Is it any wonder that it’s easier for me to start something than to finish it?  I’ve done lots of first drafts, segments of stories, bits and bites, but hardly anything is really polished. I get to a certain point where looking at the story gives me a heavy feeling in the pit of my stomach, as if I were reading an eviction notice or an obituary.  I have eight works in progress.

 

So I surf the net, do laundry, read, watch tv, stare off into space, instead of write.  Then, in the last few moments before falling asleep, I try to write something, finding my head nodding over my computer.

 

The only solutions I have are to not start anything new until I’ve completed something, and to find some other person to give me input, to tell me, in a way I can believe isn’t just being polite, that my work doesn’t suck.  That, in fact, I should keep going. It may not be award-winning, paradigm shifting stuff, but it’s good enough to publish.

 

Anybody?

6 Comments

  1. I know exactly what you mean. Exactly.
    This happens to me probably more than it should.
    I think writer’s block is like depression. You’re just moving along, living life and then it descends out of nowhere.

    I think you’ve just got to mind multiple ways to get through it. Try everything.
    I just busted mine by going on an excruciating walk/jog.
    Try that.

    July 29, 2011
    • Jane's Folly said:

      I think you’re right- writer’s block is a form of self deprecation, at least in my case. What usually works for me? Stop taking everything as a life or death situation, and “play”. The creative mind does not like drudgery.

      July 30, 2011
  2. Writing can’t be forced, nor can it be contained. Like any process there are hills and valleys – just remember the valleys are what help us find the hills. Almost every writer creates a large amount of unreadable stuff, but that’s what leads us to our masterpieces. Good luck and keep writing! 🙂

    July 29, 2011
  3. craig said:

    You write things I enjoy reading.

    August 1, 2011
  4. Wayne said:

    I have always enjoyed reading the things that you write (I missed the story this Christmas). But when I feel like I can’t write, I like to watch either a really bad movie or open a truely bad book. It may seem silly, but realizing that terrible things get filmed/published every day gives me hope. I mean, I know I can do better than that…. an now is my chance to prove it! 🙂

    February 21, 2012

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