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Help writers dam (much worse than a block!)

AmandaAmanda
edited May 2007 in - Writing Problems

Comments

  • AmandaAmanda
    please help. Anyone have any suggestions for me.... i am lost.  For about a month i havent even been able to write e-mail.  I haven't written a single sentence for that time.  i think i have mind beavers that snuck in whilst i wasnt looking and now i have a great big dam. but worse still i am not sure at all that behind it is a torrent of ideas.  Even things i am working on seem total rubbish... what if the river of ideas has suffered a terminal drought?  Any one know a good rain dance?
  • doodledoodle
    Hi Amanda, don't despair!  You just need a couple of hours worth of fun writing exercises to get you back in it.  Write limericks, shopping lists (in rhyme) invent new cliches,
    think up appropriate names for people with particular jobs - anything to stir 'that' part of the brain.  The other solution is: take yourself out somewhere with no access to pen or paper.  That usually guarantees little gems popping into your head!  Talkback threads usually offer plenty of inspiration too!  I bet you'll spring a leak any time soon!
  • WillyWilly
    If your work seems rubbish, then it's more a crisis of confidence I would think. The fear of writing rubbish. Try to remove that fear, try hard and try to write through it, anything, not caring about the quality. Something is better than nothing, and it can always be worked on later. It's all in the editing.
  • AmandaAmanda
    quick fetch a bucket! where did you get the shopping list idea from? that's really funny! cant think of a rhyme for compost though!
  • AmandaAmanda
    thanks willy, i just keep staring at the pages, i know i should do something...
  • dorothyddorothyd
    one trick I heard of is to write a series of unrelated sentences, anything that comes into your head. One of the sentences will stand out and ask you to take it further, to explore the idea you have just come up with.  Work like that should release the dam. Tell the mind beavers to go beaver away somewhere else and let you be!
    Also, visualisation. I'm big on visualisation.

    OK. You're thinking 'I'm blocked!' and the more you think it, the more the Law of Attraction will take it that you want to be blocked and block you even more. Do you see the thinking? What you think you are. So imagine yourself writing freely, without thought of quality or quantity, imagine the words flowing onto the screen. Then say thank you and feel the joy at being able to write again. This should make the Law of Attraction turn itself around and start bringing you the words you need.
    You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by trying it, and it won't cost a penny!

    For more information on the Law of Attraction, go to www.thesecret.tv.
  • CarolCarol
    I know what you mean Amanda, I've had a block on fiction this past year, and then this week suddenly fireworks started going off, and yesterday and today I have been writing.
    I've been doing other stuff in the meantime just so I didn't stop writing full stop.
    Sometimes your brain needs to recharge. As long as you're writing something, however small.
  • doodledoodle
    something to rhyme with compost
    - cereal with sugar frost
    - chocolate - at any cost!
    - half-price biscuits (fingers crossed)
    - writing paper, gold embossed

    is there no end to my rubbish rhymes (sadly, no)
    I have the notebooks to prove it.  Keep smiling
  • starpandastarpanda
    as someone who has suffered from writers block since before christmas, I can totally sympathise.  I've literally put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) only last night.  Prior to that I have tried it all, stored the old project in a drawer and tried new things.  I've written articles, poems, an autobiographical piece.  I dumped writing altogether and started decorating and revamping the garden.  I've played word games, judged writing competitions, designed magazine covers, tried writing through it...all the usuual advice to no avail.  It was horrendous!

    In the end, out of sheer desperation I sent a copy of the synopsis and the character bios to a couple of writing friends, who gave me the benefit of their truthful critical eye and a few ideas were bounced around and I'm writing again.  Like I said I only started again last night, but it does seem like the ideas a flowing again...at the moment just a small trickle but I'm hoping the drought is over.
  • josiehenleyjosiehenley
    glad you're writing again The Panda! Hurrah! Perfect time for writersbeat site to be down then. lol
  • AmandaAmanda
    great big thank you to all you lovely people for the advice.  its a warm feeling when your not alone.  what a terrific bunch of people you all are!
  • AliAli
    Just to say good luck, hope you get going again and feel more positive about it all! Have you tried keeping a journal? Knowing that I'm writing just for myself sometimes helps me get started.

    A good exercise I've tried is to write for 10 minutes (set a timer!) non-stop about a subject that's being a problem -- so maybe you could write about your "dam" and your emotions about that. It's tough to do for 10 minutes straight but some interesting stuff can come out of it.

    Good luck again!

    Ali
  • AmandaAmanda
    ali you must have read my mind.  i have gone back to keeping a journal again.  it stupid but it does seem to be working. after asking for help yesterday all this encoragement has at least made the dam slightly damp!  still got those pesky beavers!
  • AmandaAmanda
    dorothyd, thanks for the web address.  i will spend more time looking through today.  It seems very interesting.  echoing my own feelings.
  • AmandaAmanda
    doodleysquit, sorry. i sent a reply but its not appeared!  How did you come up with such cleaver ryhmes?  it just goes to show how set in my ways i am! i had never though like that! 
  • AmandaAmanda
    starpanda, i hope you are now fully beaver free! its just awful isnt it. This morning i woke up and actually felt like i could do something. Cant thank you enough for the encoragement.
  • doodledoodle
    You should think yourself lucky that you had never thought like that Amanda!  Once my brain goes into rhyming mode its hard to stop it and there's not much of a market for nonsense rhyme.  It is relaxing to do when I'm out of ideas though.  Keep the journal going - those gems are waiting to be mined!
  • AmandaAmanda
    talking of daft minds (sorry - dont mean it like that!) have you ever seen the animated film 'flushed away'?  that is pretty much what is going on in my mind 24/7.  those slugs! - what with slugs and beavers i best keep quiet or i'll have greenpeace round.
  • Island GirlIsland Girl
    Slugs and beavers
    Sharp meat cleavers
    Tangled weavers
    Tired wheat sheavers
    Pouting divas
    Sickly fevers
    New school leavers
  • AmandaAmanda
    island girl! once again you have freed the beaver!
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