I'm Pretty Sure I Haven't Got Writer's Block

But I've got something that's stopping me putting thoughts into cyberspace. That's a more hi-tech way of saying "pen to paper" as I don't write much except shopping lists in longhand these days because my handwriting is so bad I could be a Doctor.

It's not Writer's Block, or Literary Constipation I suffer from, it's a reluctance to come up with a finished product. Which is really weird as I want to get my work finished and off on the publishers' rounds. It's the same for writing reviews for this site - anything to avoid actually sitting down and getting something written. The bizarre thing is I can write. I can waffle on for hours about any subject you care blogging here or on the forums. I'm not short of ideas either, as I'm always planning my novels or doing odd bits of editing. I just can't dedicate myself to my writing.

I consider myself first and foremost a writer. This site (and DVDReviewer) has published me, so I don't consider myself a failed writer. I've written hundreds of reviews, a shedload of columns and more contributions to threads on the forums than I care to think of, but my first love is writing fiction. Comedy fiction, tending to the fantastic. I've been writing that kind of stuff for nearly thirty years, learning my craft, writing and rewriting, submitting here and there to publishers in the early days. But since I've been a carer, I've had other things on my mind and the writing's slipped in my daily priorities. It's getting on for eight years since I last completed a draft of one of my books, and that's not something to be proud of for someone who wants to make a living from the product of his imagination.

One way or another, this year I'm going to get my act together. I feel very positive about my plans, although I now have so many story ideas I need to prioritise the best. And if I can sort out my novel writing, maybe I can get back into the world of reviewing.

Your Opinions and Comments

My biggest problem is finishing articles. Unless I can complete it in one session, then I quickly move on to something else and find it very hard to go back and finish it. :/
posted by RJS on 15/2/2009 11:18
I seem to be great a shopping lists but as to constructing a review-its like wading through porridge and i don't want it to be the same for the reader.(I'm not sure there are any tho' so who cares!)
When it comes to stories i can manage about 500 words so as the average short story is at least 1500 this is also a bit of handicap. Still a year ago i hadnt written a story for 30 years so that is an improvemnt.

What I'm saying guys is I feel your pain :(

Sue
x
posted by Sue Davies on 18/2/2009 12:16
10 / 10
It's when you figure out your workload that the beads of sweat appear. I currently have five novels in various states of completeness. I'd like them to come in around "holiday read" length (around 150,000 words each). That's three-quarters-of-a-million words total, and I reckoned up last night that if I wrote 500 words per day, I'd be finished on 1st April 2013. :o :o
posted by Mark Oates on 19/2/2009 23:14
The secret is to use lots of short words Mark...:)
posted by Stuart McLean on 20/2/2009 20:16
10 / 10
I'm writing a novel, not an article for the Sun. :D

Some days all I can write is:
All work and no play makes Mark a DVD Reviewer
All work and no play makes Mark a DVD Reviewer
All work and no play makes Mark a DVD Reviewer
All work and no play makes Mark a DVD Reviewer
All work and no play makes Mark a DVD Reviewer
All work and no play makes Mark a DVD Reviewer
All work and no play makes Mark a DVD Reviewer
All work and no play makes Mark a DVD Reviewer
All work and no play makes Mark a DVD Reviewer
All work and no play makes Mark a DVD Reviewer
All work and no play makes Mark a DVD Reviewer

Nothing strange in that, is there?




Well, is there?
posted by Mark Oates on 22/2/2009 02:55
So what's happening and has everybody been cured? I think I've stalled at the 500 word limit and as Mark says I can think about writing all day but that doth not a writer make.
posted by Sue Davies on 25/2/2010 09:36
There was an interesting article in this Saturday's Guardian about writing and featuring Elmore Leonard's 10 rules of writing.

'Put one word in front of the other' seemed the best of tehse when it came to procrastnation. Talking about writing is uesless. It's the act of writing alone that gets results.

Other advice (form authors as diverse as Roddy Doyle, Diane Athill, Margaret atwood, etc) included gems like: 'Fill pages as quickly as possible'. 'Restrict browsing on the web, even for research to just one hour a day'. 'If you hit a block, go for a long walk'. 'Do it every day'.
posted by Stuart McLean on 25/2/2010 13:32
I'd agree with Mark as well, it's not block it's an outright avoidance of wanting to put something together.  I went through this around the same time last year if I recall correctly, and it just felt like it was too much of an effort.  Not sure what's causing it but it's not good when you just feel it's too much of an effort to write something.

On the plus side I've got a few out there over the last month or so and once I'd started, it seemed to flow reasonably well so there is hope there.  My long-term plan was to put together a book or screenplay and that doesn't seem any nearer at this point, but that was definately a long-term goal so at least I don't have the added pressure of unfinished works in the offing.
posted by Si Wooldridge on 25/2/2010 22:59
10 / 10
Twelve months on and I'm not that much further on.  I'm still full of ideas - I've come up with a whole bunch of new story ideas and the suchlike since last this way I came.  I've cut down on my web browsing, turned my daily routine around but I'm still not knuckling down to work like I used to in the day. 

I think the key is isolation.  When I was writing full time, as well as there being no internet, and the telly was crap, I was locking myself away in the front room, putting on some mood music and losing myself in a peculiar little world of my own.  For the past dozen or so years, if I've wound up in the front room I've been more likely to start looking around the internet for some distraction.  I give myself every opportunity to write, and if I could get my raw thoughts published, I'd be laughing.  It's still finished product that eludes me.

In the last twelve months, however, I've decided that getting stressed about not writing isn't worth it.  I may think of myself as primarily a writer, but for the past twelve years I've also been a carer - and that's been more important and more rewarding than any writing career.  I know my remaining time as a carer is finite - hopefully not too finite - and I wouldn't trade a second of it to be a professional writer.
posted by Mark Oates on 26/2/2010 00:53
No task precludes the other. Many prolific writers had very demanding full time jobs.  (agreed maybe not as all encompassing as a carer). Didn't Dickens? However, you may be right that the rewards may not be as great as for the things we already do. The older I get, the more philosophical I get too ... I used to think the 'great work' was really important. Now I'm not so sure.
posted by Stuart McLean on 26/2/2010 22:36
10 / 10
Don't get me wrong - I still drink, breathe and eat writing.  Even farting around the internet I'm thinking about my stories.  I'm always writing down ideas.  I think what makes me think I'm getting nowhere is that I'm not writing in a linear fashion.  I'm darting snipe-like from one idea to another, maybe writing only fifty to a hundred words at a time.  It stands to reason that must eventually add up to something, but as yet it doesn't appear to.

I've never really thought of a "great work".  I couldn't take myself seriously if I had pretensions of great literary achievement.  I'm like that Doctor called Who - I'm serious about what I do, but not how I do it.
posted by Mark Oates on 28/2/2010 04:25
It sounds like you have all the ingredients and skills in place. Time to take a cue from Elmore Leonard and start putting one word in front of the other. Jack Kerouac used to do it in the way you do only each 50-100 word riff would sit in the notebook after the previous one until it was full. Then it was a book. Well, it's one approach that could work for you. I'm glad you're still writing though. I miss your contributions to this site. Your reviews (in common with Jitendars) were always much more than just reviews...
posted by Stuart McLean on 28/2/2010 09:25
10 / 10
Cheers, Stuart. Always nice to be appreciated, and in the same spirit I may have a lower profile these days but I'm still an avid lurker.

As a matter of fact I'm trying a new strategy starting this week.  I'm converting my desk PC (that's beeen my internet gateway for years) into a writin' machine, and my laptop into my internet machine.  It means I can access the internet anywhere in short hit-and-run bursts, and the quiet corner with the desk and easy chair becomes the writing den.

Sorry to hear about your hand.  Hope you're a quick healer.  If I can help with reviews, I have to confess I am starting to miss having an opinion and being able to ramble in print. ;)
posted by Mark Oates on 1/3/2010 02:12