INFO POST/WRITERS BLOCK
Who: Canadino
What: original lit, fanfiction, misc writing-related thoughts, fangirling
When: relatively often
Where: right here
Why: "'A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction." - Virginia Woolf
How? This Journal is partially friends-only. Story/writing/fangirl posts are PUBLIC; personal posts are FRIENDS ONLY.
Now onto writer's block! Defined by Wikipedia as "when an author loses the ability to produce a new work...It can manifest as the affected writer viewing their work as inferior or unsuitable, when in fact it could be the opposite", it's a thing that has plagued a lot of us more than a couple times. I myself have experienced it due to a couple things. Earlier on, while I was feverishly chugging out Shaman King fics like I was paid for every fic (everyday I wish I was, besides profiting mentally and spiritually), sometimes I felt like I had written everything I could have written. There were fics I read that had the caliber much higher than mine. In fact, today I still feel slightly discouraged when I read people's writing and think "Whoa, what am I doing, this person's so much better than me!" I would be battered around mentally, although I've got my own style and my own way of improving. I had heard of this idea from this author that a person's got a set number of words to write in his/her lifetime and when you've written them all, you're done as a writer. I believed this and it terrified the shit out of me. Now I realize it's complete bogus, because you can never be really done with writing, if you love it a lot.
To heal, usually, I would force a weeklong ban from writing ANYTHING fan-related, and the juices would come back (you don't know what you've got til it's gone mentality really works; when you can't do something, you just want to). Writer's Block was a fic expressing just that; I had just gotten back on my feet from a dose of it and realized I could write about writing itself. It was a stupid little exercise but when you start writing again, suddenly you can't stop.
Recently, I've been SO busy because of school work and applying to college. I had no time to sit down and stir the ideas that may have briefly entered my mind. During the day, when little things happen, I think, that would make a great story because inspiration comes like that sometimes. But I never had the time to actually sit and write it - or I would prefer to do something else. It had gotten to the point that I looked on my page and went, 'God, I haven't posted anything really new for ages, I wonder if people think I've died?' People have accused me of writing for the general public instead of myself, which isn't true; I don't owe my readers anything. I write because I feel like it. But I do like having people read my stuff too. I think every author has this mindset. Anyway, I lamented my failure at producing anything and while brushing my teeth, had this vague notion of quitting fanfiction once I finished my LOTF AU. It was a terrible thought and I quickly tried to banish it from my mind. But it seemed very plausible and likeable - I would probably finish the AU just in time to start college, and I'm still not sure if I want to keep writing fanfiction into college. I want to start writing original and become noticed because of it. Maybe I'll get a book deal, ha!
I put this idea forth and had a couple of people talk back. The thing about fanfiction I didn't know before I started was the people you can totally meet. People who read and write know where you're coming from and they can bat around your ideas with you. I didn't want to retire just yet, but I still needed something to kick me to write again. Writer's block is especially rough for me since writing is what I LOVE. I LOVE LOVE LOVE writing (and should start writing more original, really). College essays were a blast if they weren't the why XYZ college ones. I decided I owed no one anything and pulled my attentions to the LOTF fandom, because I was getting the most out of it. I had ideas to write about. Everything else just flowed. There's just a moment when writer's block goes away that you don't notice until days afterwards that yes, you've just written a couple stories so yeah, the block is gone.
It's a mysterious thing.
I think I'll end with a little anecdote of mine. A couple years ago, Naomi Shihab Nye came to my school to talk about her poetry and had the privilege of visiting my English class. We were allowed to ask her a couple questions and so I, during a bit of a block at the time(incidentally, the one leading to Writer's Block), asked her how to deal with writer's block. She answered that writer's block is something you put upon yourself, because you start expecting something from your writing. Just stop setting expectations for yourself, she said. Stop setting a level you try to aim for. Write because you want to. Take a break and come back ready to do anything. I found this advice extremely helpful, because often times I had heard of people 'free writing' (my def: writing anything without stopping for a time and looking back to see if anything was worth writing about; but usually I would write over and over this is boring I have nothing to say dododododo) or making idea webs or whatever. I never stick to the traditional methods of writing (prewriting, writing, revising, editing, publishing or something along those lines) so her way of just taking a breath and shaking off fears of not being good enough was really good.
So I hope you all found this interesting. I was wondering, what do you guys do to get over your writer's block?