Showing posts with label Chuck Wendig. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chuck Wendig. Show all posts

Monday, November 5, 2012

Writer's Block: The Myth



As Chuck Wendig, my very favorite unconventional, crass, irreverent  but still somehow motivational writing guy has said many times, Writer's Block Does NOT exist.  (Great NaNo blog post here).

You can be blocked. Everybody gets blocked. But it’s not special. It’s not unique to writers. It doesn’t deserve its name or the credit it receives. More importantly, it isn’t a physical thing — it isn’t a gorilla with a croquet mallet who smashes your hand every time you reach for the keyboard. You can get past it. You think past it. You write past it. You kick it in the teeth and step over its twitching body.

I have days when I don't want to work.  Work being the food court where I served up hot dogs, or worked in the coffee bar, or the service desk helping people return stuff.  Or writing.  It doesn't matter...  You don't want to work sometimes.  That's okay.

But it's not an excuse to hide behind.  If you are stuck, that's okay.  Do research, write your way out of it.  Or move to another part of your story and come back to it.  But don't use it as an excuse.

"I can't write, I have writer's block."  Um, no.  You're choosing to let your situation dictate your actions.

YOU are in control of yourself.  If you want to write, you will write.  You might still be stuck at the end of your writing, and that happens sometimes.  Research, ask questions to help figure out your problem, get help if you must.  But if you use being stuck as an excuse to give up?  I have no pity for you.

Sorry, but I don't.  You can do this.  You have the power.  You are allowed to change your mind or change the story and fix your problem so it isn't a problem anymore.

I'm not saying to delete.  No.  Strike through.  Keep that word count, you might need those words later (either for the almighty word count, or for your awesome way of putting the words in a certain order right there).  But work around it.  Find your way out.

Your story might be a maze...  but it's not a box with no exit.  Work for it, damn it!  Prove to yourself you CAN do it.  Because you can.  *nod*

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Standing there, looking back at what you've done...

You get this empty feeling because it's all over now.  You did so well!  Or maybe you don't feel like you did well, but you certainly did better than you thought you would...  NaNoWriMo is over now, and now what?  I keep seeing the question asked all over the place.

I won't pretend to be quite as awesome as Chuck Wendig in his post-NaNo blog posting..  but I cannot stress this enough:

You are allowed to write today.  You are allowed to write whenever you want.  You do not need the permission of November to accomplish something big.  Something real.

If you aren't done yet, press on!  Push yourself!  Still see if you can aim for that 1667 word goal every day.  Or maybe for you, it's 500.  Maybe for you, it's 1000.  Maybe it's 3000 or 5000.  However, I'll be the first to say 5000 every day may not be a reasonable goal to expect yourself to hold up forever.  I'd say set the bar to a reasonable but difficult level.  1000 is not so hard when you get in the habit of it.

My personal goal is 1000-3000 when I'm actively writing something.  I go in spurts of writing and editing, since I have kids and a job I have to work with/around.  If you can write full time, you should absolutely be writing and editing some, every day.

Not the same project, sorry if that was confusing.  Write one project in the morning, take a break, and edit another project in the afternoon.  Some people can't do this, can't work on multiple things at the same time, and if that's you, that's OK.  Do what you can, but do SOMETHING every day.

If you want to keep going with word sprints, you can roll with them by yourself by setting a timer or watching the clock just like you did in NaNo.  You can also see if you can find a community of people who are interested in doing the same thing.  I'm currently in all of these, because, let's face it, some of them are bound to fizzle out.  I can hang out and stick with them all, and whichever of them wins out, I'll be there.  So I share my links with you!  Use them wisely.
If my links don't work or something, you can always bug me for them again, here, or my FB page: bekajoi (this is the name I use most places if you're continuing this weird stalking thing of yours!  LOL)

Also, if you know of good places, please let us know!  I'll add them to my link list.  :)

Don't stand there staring behind you at what could have been.  Make it happen.  It's in your hands.  Do with it what you will.  You know you can.  I know you can.  So do it already!  :)