I ended up writing a bit last night about fighting writer's block--adapted in part from my response to a comment on the previous entry. So, you know, if it helps you, rock on
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When I get writer's block, I usually can't get started up again until I've talked with another writer. Even if nothing they say sparks things off, just talking craft with someone who gets it usually gets the brain cells popping.
Personally, I tend to get my best ideas mid-story and I make myself crazy thinking that I have to rewrite the whole thing IMMEDIATELY to match the new direction. I really need to work on finishing the rough draft and then polishing up the mess.
Sometimes when I'm struck on something in my writing, I try to write another scene first... So, let's say, when I decide that a story should concentrate on Some Kind of an Event, and I can't begin to write about it, I'll try to write about what happened before, what led the characters to That Event. It's a sort of thing that Doesn't Count - it's not going to be featured in the final draft, so I don't have to worry about things being incoherent or inconsistent with rest of the story, but it allows me to (for example) see the characters' motivations properly, and is a good exercise before writing the actual Event.
Oh, totally--I write things that *do* go in the story out of order, and I've written things that were never meant to be part of anything just to kind of hang out with the characters, if that makes any sense.
That's awesome! May I reprint it in readers_list? It would be credited to you, linked to this post, and would have comments turned off so that people would head over here if they had something to say.
I love the journal, too. It's the brainchild of alchemi, and all kinds of fascinating stuff appears there. I just wish that more people would post to it!
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L o L,
just saying
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Personally, I tend to get my best ideas mid-story and I make myself crazy thinking that I have to rewrite the whole thing IMMEDIATELY to match the new direction. I really need to work on finishing the rough draft and then polishing up the mess.
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Sometimes when I'm struck on something in my writing, I try to write another scene first... So, let's say, when I decide that a story should concentrate on Some Kind of an Event, and I can't begin to write about it, I'll try to write about what happened before, what led the characters to That Event. It's a sort of thing that Doesn't Count - it's not going to be featured in the final draft, so I don't have to worry about things being incoherent or inconsistent with rest of the story, but it allows me to (for example) see the characters' motivations properly, and is a good exercise before writing the actual Event.
(hope I made myself clear ;))
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I love the journal, too. It's the brainchild of alchemi, and all kinds of fascinating stuff appears there. I just wish that more people would post to it!
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