Tag: writer’s block

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the writer’s brain

You know, sometimes I wonder what it would be like to not have a writer’s brain. How quiet would my head be if it wasn’t filled with characters telling stories, with worlds built from a scrap of an idea, with words spilling in torrents of creativity?

I may not always be actively writing, and have just this year gone through a dry spell, but even then, my head is full of activity, it just isn’t translating well enough to put on the page.

I love world building and crafting characters. I have a whole cast of characters that I have built in my head and never used (there’s a whole subsection of just talking animals). Unsurprisingly, this is also my favorite part of playing SIMs, building houses/lots and creating characters.

I wish I could paint so I could show people the rich, vibrant worlds that my head contains. I know ridiculously minute facts about these places. I know their mythology and history. I know the places where mythology and history cross paths. I have drawn maps and created languages.

Now, if my fingers could just keep up so I could get it all down on paper/computer screen, that would be lovely.

Hoping you are safe and well, Readers!

Cover Photo by russn_fckr on Unsplash

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a return to “normal”

Here we are on the other side of Pride month.  My work on the anthology is complete and turned in, I have only a small amount of Pride paperwork to finish, the new job is starting to settle in.

That must mean it’s time to get my “normal” life back, right? For some value of normal anyway.  My current schedule is still a bit all over the place, in part due to the holiday this week and trying to sort out the best way to work my twenty hours at the job while also getting other stuff done.

I’m hoping this will also encourage my muse to return.  She’s been AWOL pretty much since I got laid off.  But, I got a glimmer of plot resolution the other day while I was crocheting and if I finish up my work early enough today, that should mean I could dust off that story file and make some words happen.

Exciting, I know!

For now though, I have a few hours to finish for the week and a project that needs doing, with a stiff deadline, so, I’m off to deal with that.

Hope y’all had a great week, Readers, and that this coming week is fabulous!

 

Photo by Dustin Lee on Unsplash

 

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stress is the muse killer

There is no denying that I am super stressed out about finding a job, and that stress has sent my muse packing on what I am hoping is just a quick get-away to someplace nice and warm.  Otherwise, she’s just running from the stress, and who knows when she’ll be back?

The truth is, everything I’ve written in the last two weeks has been forced and stilted and just straight up bad.  I even tried working on new short stories in the hopes that it would kick me out of the funk.

No luck.

I have an editing job to do, and the promise of a few more on the horizon, I have posted on fiverr.com to try to bring in some more work, and even on Craig’s List.  So far no bites.  I may have a one to two month contract job, which I should know about this coming week, and I have been requested to interview at a company in Oakland this coming week as well, though I don’t have a date and time yet.

In the meantime, I am working on keeping myself busy and with Pride just around the corner, that isn’t really too hard.  Maybe I need some inspiration.  I have tomorrow set aside as a day to write…maybe I’ll pull something out of the partially written ideas file and try something new…or maybe try something completely out of the norm for me.

At any rate, it’s Saturday, so whatever you’re up to today, Readers, I hope it’s a good one!

Photo by Jan Kahánek on Unsplash

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when the wall comes down

Have you ever sat yourself down to write something, but the words just don’t come?  I think most writers have done battle with the brick wall that is writer’s block, and we all have our own ways of trying to break through.

I’ve been pretty fortunate in my life to almost always have several diverse projects going that I can switch gears and write something different to allow the blockage to clear.  I also have other artistic endeavors that help me get the fires going again.

When I was younger, I didn’t realize that not everyone has endless voices in their head telling them stories, not everyone could spin a tale out of a handful of facts, not everyone could never be lonely because of the cast of thousands in their head.  The very notion of writer’s block made no sense to me.  The words never stopped.  They sometimes were telling stories that I wasn’t actually trying to write, but then those were usually the best ones in the end.

Where I hit the wall though is when I have a specific topic that I need to write for, and a deadline, particularly if I’m dragging myself out of an engaging fiction to do it.  I found writer’s block when it came to essays and school papers and the like.

Sometimes you just have to soldier through it, squeeze out the words, even if they’re crap.  I usually find when I do that, that the edit and clean up is actually easier than the writing.  Then I usually reward myself with writing something fun.

Sometimes I wonder about those people who don’t have a bunch of voices in their head telling them stories…it must be a lonely existence, all alone in that head.

I think I’d go mad.