Writing and the Zombie Zone
It's been at least two weeks since my last real day off, and I'm hormonal, and I'm so tired I can't sleep. Do you know what that means, dear flist?
*cue ominous music*
BOM-BUM BOM-BUM BOM-BUM BU-UU-UU-UUUUM!
It means I have officially entered... The Zombie Zone.
Yes, it is true. My brain is no longer functioning in anything like a normal capacity. (Hey, no comments from the peanut gallery. I meant normal for me!) Oddly, this should actually be something I can use to my advantage, as the zombie zone is usually a pretty good mindset for writing fiction. It's easy to free-associate and tap into the dream part of my brain, so the words just flow out, dreamy and beautiful.
Not this time, though. See, I've had no time to write fiction in months, and that means my fic-writing muscles have atrophied. I really hate this feeling of having no words, of everything being all stopped up.
Does that happen to you? How long does it take? What do you do about it?
For me, it only takes about two weeks without writing fiction, and everything starts to seize. I can still write (especially non-fiction), but instead of being easy and a pleasure, it becomes this dogged process of one word and then another and then another, until I have something usable. And then it requires lots of re-writing and massaging or it reads like it was written by autistic monkeys. It takes a few thousand words to really warm up again. Most of my best stories have been written after a long, consistent pattern of writing fiction every single day.
Right now this not-being-able-to-write-fiction thing is a real problem, as I have my remix due in really not many hours at all. And the file is right there, started, chunks written, the story plan all laid out, and I just can't write the fucker.
Maybe I need to work on a finger exercise to get the creative juices flowing?
Or maybe I need to sleep. *looks at time dubiously* I don't think I've been to bed at 7:30 since I was a kid. I'd probably wake up at 4am, which is just wrong and bad. There must be sunshine in the morning!
What do you guys do when you hit the wall like this? Any handy tips?
*shambles off in search of brains inspiration brains*
*cue ominous music*
BOM-BUM BOM-BUM BOM-BUM BU-UU-UU-UUUUM!
It means I have officially entered... The Zombie Zone.
Yes, it is true. My brain is no longer functioning in anything like a normal capacity. (Hey, no comments from the peanut gallery. I meant normal for me!) Oddly, this should actually be something I can use to my advantage, as the zombie zone is usually a pretty good mindset for writing fiction. It's easy to free-associate and tap into the dream part of my brain, so the words just flow out, dreamy and beautiful.
Not this time, though. See, I've had no time to write fiction in months, and that means my fic-writing muscles have atrophied. I really hate this feeling of having no words, of everything being all stopped up.
Does that happen to you? How long does it take? What do you do about it?
For me, it only takes about two weeks without writing fiction, and everything starts to seize. I can still write (especially non-fiction), but instead of being easy and a pleasure, it becomes this dogged process of one word and then another and then another, until I have something usable. And then it requires lots of re-writing and massaging or it reads like it was written by autistic monkeys. It takes a few thousand words to really warm up again. Most of my best stories have been written after a long, consistent pattern of writing fiction every single day.
Right now this not-being-able-to-write-fiction thing is a real problem, as I have my remix due in really not many hours at all. And the file is right there, started, chunks written, the story plan all laid out, and I just can't write the fucker.
Maybe I need to work on a finger exercise to get the creative juices flowing?
Or maybe I need to sleep. *looks at time dubiously* I don't think I've been to bed at 7:30 since I was a kid. I'd probably wake up at 4am, which is just wrong and bad. There must be sunshine in the morning!
What do you guys do when you hit the wall like this? Any handy tips?
*shambles off in search of brains inspiration brains*