writing issues
Sep. 1st, 2004 12:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivendellroseI don't know why, but I'm having a hard time getting into the games today. Just kind of... scrolling through them and seeing nothing of interest.
Worse yet, I'm feeling the need to write. Like, really write, on something new. My one idea that was in development for a while seems to have crashed. It'll probably come back - I've had that thing in my head for long enough that I know it's not totally dead. It probably never will be - it'll just keep growing and changing until I finally make something of it.
I'm assuming that all of this is because the summer is almost over... and I have next to nothing to show for it. I wrote a few fics, which was fun, and I did some drawing and spent time with my family on that camping trip. And I've read some pretty good books, too. But work has been significantly less-than-fulfilling, and I'm sick of not having any creative inspiration. I'm not looking for the world's best novel. I'd be happy with a decent fic idea, just something - anything - to get me writing again.
Not bloody likely at the moment, though.
I'm hoping this funk passes soon, and I can go back to happily reading my book and whatever.
Worse yet, I'm feeling the need to write. Like, really write, on something new. My one idea that was in development for a while seems to have crashed. It'll probably come back - I've had that thing in my head for long enough that I know it's not totally dead. It probably never will be - it'll just keep growing and changing until I finally make something of it.
I'm assuming that all of this is because the summer is almost over... and I have next to nothing to show for it. I wrote a few fics, which was fun, and I did some drawing and spent time with my family on that camping trip. And I've read some pretty good books, too. But work has been significantly less-than-fulfilling, and I'm sick of not having any creative inspiration. I'm not looking for the world's best novel. I'd be happy with a decent fic idea, just something - anything - to get me writing again.
Not bloody likely at the moment, though.
I'm hoping this funk passes soon, and I can go back to happily reading my book and whatever.
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Date: 2004-09-01 12:34 pm (UTC)My drawing skills are on the low-down right now too...it's very disheartening when you're creativity abandons you, but I'm sure it'll find it's way back again soon. ^^ You always played such a good narcissa.
Oh hey, how'd that Lucious-might-go-to-prision thing end up?
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Date: 2004-09-01 02:09 pm (UTC)Psh, your drawing skills haven't abandoned you, they're probably just waiting to ambush you. And thanks - Cissa's tied for favorite, right now, with my new character... I started playing Remus at a new game, and he's just sooo fun.
He squirmed out of it, of course. He finally got it into his head that the best thing to do was give up and give some information, and beg off.
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Date: 2004-09-01 12:36 pm (UTC)Btw, I LOVE your icon! ^-^
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Date: 2004-09-01 02:10 pm (UTC)Thanks!! *grins*
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Date: 2004-09-01 12:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-01 02:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-01 12:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-01 02:13 pm (UTC)Mmm... soapboxing!
Date: 2004-09-01 01:28 pm (UTC)1) Write anyway. Oftentimes, we stop because we don't think our ideas are good enough. Write them anyway. You might be right--they aren't good--, or they might spur on your brain, or you might have something that later on will be recycled into another, better, story.
2) Develop. On my writer's community, someone recently asked about how people come up with story ideas. The general consensus (including my own answer) said that we don't get story ideas. We get ideas. We combine or develop those ideas to create a story.
To (comedic) illustration:
I get the following random ideas (among many) as years pass--
a) Floating air-breathing fish.
b) Illegally developed clones.
Are the fish just window-dressing? They are they something more? Are they a side-effect of building illegal clones? Are THEY the clones? Are they sentinent?
Okay, so now I have Nemo, the flying air-fish clone. What does he want? What's his background? What's blocking him?
And so on. Sometimes people start with characters, too. The idea is to make yourself sit down and start developing an idea. Having a full story from the beginning is a rare thing.
3) Don't write. In fact, don't allow yourself to write. Nope. Not allowed. Can't do it. Sometimes this'll make your inspiration, or muses, or whatever you want to call them, rebel and flood.
4) Tell your muse/inspiration to shove it. Personally, I don't believe in either. Sit down and write. Ignore creative inspiration. Buxom babes in a peplos aren't going to make you write or give you ideas. You are going to do that for yourself.
5) Figure out what else is going on in your life is sucking up your brain energy. Is it stress of varying kinds? Is it worry? Is it something else? I've found that while involved in RPGs, my other creativities dry up like a drop in the Sahara. I'm focusing too much energy on that/those stories, and not enough on my own. (*looks around at Jen's RPG communities in fear* Don't hurt me, but it's true in my case.)
And finally, the one people hate the most:
6) Ask yourself why you want to write. I've noticed, through the years, that people, for a variety of reasons, seem to feel they MUST write. That somewhere in the contract of living, you HAVE to write a novel/stories/whatever. That if you're creative in a general sense, perform, read fanatically, or game, or live even the most mundane of lives, you have to write.
It's not true. Write because you want to. Because developing and seeing that story* form on the page fills you with a joy nothing else in the world can. Not another hobby. Not love. Not money. Because your day is truly empty if you don't.
And oddly enough, you might find that once you release yourself from HAVING to write, you may be free to do it again.
*hops off her soapbox*
Re: Mmm... soapboxing!
Date: 2004-09-01 01:32 pm (UTC)There's also word-crafting, which really does it for some people. You know, like poetry--words for the sake of beautiful words and construction. I'm more into story-telling than word-crafting, but I figured I should include that because my view is not the universal one :D
Re: Mmm... soapboxing!
Date: 2004-09-01 02:22 pm (UTC)That said, I know all too well that it's the RP that eats my brain - I get the pleasure of losing myself in some other character's head for a while, without the effort of plotting and coming up with the world all on my own. Acting, writing, and role-playing have always taken up different aspects of the same part of my mind, and when I'm busy with one, I most often have increasingly less space in my mind for the others. Not to mention the tendency to become focused on the world of whatever character is fore-most in my mind at that moment, which tends to over-shadow whatever else I might be trying to write at the time. I'm not happy unless I'm living in someone else's head for part of my time, but who it is and how I'm doing it... doesn't seem to matter so much, in my mind.
In any case, hopefully I can at least squeeze a few short stories or vignettes or a bit more work on my most recent novel idea out, soon. I've had good luck in the past with just sitting down and telling myself "Write. No matter what. Just WRITE." It just takes a bit of nerve. ;)
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Date: 2004-09-02 12:19 pm (UTC)Just let her know I have her wand done. How long is she in town for?
Since you're skipping Crown (loserhead!) does that mean she is only in town for the weekend?
badg
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Date: 2004-09-02 02:02 pm (UTC)She's actually moving up here permanently, and just staying with me until she finds a job and a place of her own. So we've got time. :) I just didn't want to be a dead-beat hostess and disappear the whole first weekend she'll actually be here.
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Date: 2004-09-02 02:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-02 10:03 pm (UTC)