Has there ever been a time where you just felt like saying "EXPLITIVE IT!!!!" and not writing again?
I've had those times as of late, but not knowing why. Maybe it's stress or something else, I don't know. Or just defeatism?
How do you deal with this feeling??
Just feeling bleah
-Monolith-
Posted by Silver3 (Member # 2174) on :
Yeah, I've had it too, generally after finishing something big (or small, but something that mattered very much to me). Mostly, my way of dealing with it is not to think about it. I read a lot, to compensate (good stuff, which makes me want to emulate it, and bad stuff, which makes me want to do better). I forget the computer and hope it will pass. If it does not, I sit down and tell myself, "All right, you've had enough relaxation. Now you start writing, even if it is utter trash." And I force myself to write stuff. Last time it took me a month to pull out of it.
Posted by Paul-girtbooks (Member # 2799) on :
In no particular order do the following:
a) Open up your room window - preferably one on the upper floor - and scream and curse at the absolute top of your voice, the most beautifully colorful swear words you can string together (if you find your flow of expletive invention running dry just start thinking about the people who live in your street and begin making up insults about them, even if you like them.)
Keep this up until your voice either gives out or you're arrested for breach of the peace. Then, once you're thrown in jail to cool off for the night - make sure you take pencil and paper - you can sit down and write, for you won't have anything else to do! Unless, of course, you get tossed into a cell with a 250lb guy called 'Bubba' who takes a real shine to you and wants to 'get to know you better.' Ah, but then, let's not even go there...
b) Avoid reading good books. They just make you depressed, 'cause you keep saying to yourself, 'Darn it, but I ain't never gonna be as good as that!'
Read something so bad that it'll make you go, 'Hey, I can do better than that!' Joan Collins's debut novel is good for this - oh, wait a minute, that was so bad the publishers never even released it! But you get the idea...
c) If it ain't too chilly out there in Oklahoma right now, then 'do a Harlan': take a simple desk and chair and set it up in your driveway. Write. After all, you're there, so you might as well do something!
If, however, your driveway isn't public enough then get a small folding table and chair and take it to a really busy public park. Set up. Start writing. Embarrass yourself into writing.
d) Invite your friends over for barbecue, crank up the music, crack open the beers and say, 'Screw the writing!'
e) Cuddle up to your girlfriend on the couch and watch a DVD.
[This message has been edited by Paul-girtbooks (edited November 10, 2005).]
Posted by Leigh (Member # 2901) on :
I know what your feeling Monolith, the drive to write, the love for it has gone, and nothing feels right, even as I'm writing this I don't really want to.
Posted by mikemunsil (Member # 2109) on :
I have a rhyme that I guarantee will help, a lot. You have to go where no one will hear you and say it three times: the first with feeling and rhthym, the second loudly, the third screaming it so hard you rick losing control of your bladder.
It works wonders.
I can't post it here; Kathleen would ban me for life, but I'll email it to you.
It was revealed to me by a grizzled old geologist, who swore by it. I also swear by it. But you must ONLY do it in private, where there are witneses to inhibt you.Otherwise it won't work.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
Actually, it's the opposite for me. From the time I took it up I never wanted to do anything else---except maybe to read, and that bounces back on it in a way. The rest of my life has been warped around this, education, jobs, everything.
I might be displeased with what I've written---I usually am---and I go through great periods where I'm *not* writing---but I've never actively wanted not-to-write.
Posted by dreadlord (Member # 2913) on :
when I feel like that, I just turn up the volume on my MP3, turn of word, and play a few real time strategy games. failing that I actually pay attention to my teachers the next day and, LEARN!!!!!
(Rome: total war RULES!!)
Posted by MG (Member # 2938) on :
Glad to know i'm not the only one.
One day (normal day, I mean, the sky wasn't yellow or anything, i hadn't sprouted a second head...) I wake up, make myself a cup of black magic and shuffle towards my PC.
I remember the scene I have to try and write again (I've been struggling with it for days) and I think: I don't want to write. Not now and *not ever again* by the look of things.
I recoiled from the screen and gasped. 'Jesus Christ on a freaking pony! What did you just say?'
'Yeah, to hell with writing. I'm sick of it'
I thought I was pulling my own leg and then start writing like nothing had ever happened in a couple of hours.
Wrong, didn't write for a whole month (not even a post-it, my communication abilities were severely impaired ). Day 31: I picked up paper and a pen and scribbled a short description of a door. I thought...well, maybe i want to write again and maybe, just maybe, I want Hell to retun me my writing.
In my case, I found out that pushing it really made matters worse, my stress levels would shot up and I'd wind up even more angry at the whole writing industry.
Sometimes, specially if you have a job and are studying, your brain just needs a breather.
Hope you recover sooner than me though.
MG
Posted by pixydust (Member # 2311) on :
Thanks for the laugh Paul, I needed that this morning.
Edited: God, See! I can't even spell! I think I'm having one of "those" days. Pardon me while I go shout out the window.
[This message has been edited by pixydust (edited November 10, 2005).]
Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :
Now lets not confuse love for enjoyment here. I know that everybody here still loves writing, otherwise you would be on other boards talking about rice harvests or funky nintendo controllers. Sure we're in a time when we aren't enjoying writing for a while, that's just a symptom of our bi-polar artist personalities. But we still love writing because we are here trying to learn how to reignite the spark.
The real issue is why are there so many of us right now having issues? I mean there are three threads about this. I am one of the discouraged at the moment too. Is there some writer disease being transmitted with our posts?
Posted by JmariC (Member # 2698) on :
Blame Nano! Lots of non-writers and writers alike are out there sucking up the fun and creativity.
Including me ;-)
Posted by Leigh (Member # 2901) on :
I've got my drive back and alone today done over 5000 words for my NaNo novel Posted by Monolith (Member # 2034) on :
Mike,
Go ahead and send the rhyme to me. I could use some cheering up.
Thanks
-Monolith-
Posted by 'Graff (Member # 2648) on :
Mike--
if the rhyme is good enough, I will make it into a Maori warcry...
And then chant softly to myself, in the utter privacy of my deepest, darkest abode.
----------- Wellington
Posted by franc li (Member # 3850) on :
I find the best way to avoid this predicament is to just never really finish anything.
Posted by Totty472 (Member # 2869) on :
you get over it by saying fine, that's it, and then your brain going, what if.... it's like anything, tiring, but instead of nine to five, it's crammed, so your brain does need a rest at times. I've finished thirty stories of different lengths in about seven years, some times with a six month gap between work. Once was as long as over a year, but obviously i sometimes have three on the go at the same time. Just quit as often as you want.
Posted by mikemunsil (Member # 2109) on :
my rhyme is on the way to several people and they will shortly be feeling better, although their neighbors may not.
Posted by samhaine3 (Member # 3023) on :
Cut off the head of a small mammal, and then eat it. Works wonders for me. cya, Sam Ps. Any Vegans out there, sorry. Replace small mammal with large broccoli. Thanks.
Posted by arcanist (Member # 3049) on :
when I feel like I don't want to write I get onto Hatrack and ask other people what they don't do when they don't feel like writing. Haha, no, I know the feeling. Typically I fester in it for about a week or two, then say f*** it, pour myself 'a cup of black magic' as someone so expertly put it, and force myself to type. It sucks because I don't feel like doing it, but then eventually I fall back into the mood and back out of my funk (can you fall two seperate ways at once? Well I guess there would have to be strong gravitational forces at work for that to-) and I'm good to go. So sayeth the decrees of Krelnor, god of writing, indyrock, and booze.
I recoiled from the screen and gasped. 'Jesus Christ on a freaking pony! What did you just say?' 
). 