(no subject)
Both "City of Time" Swancon writing contest entries are finally done! And I still have ten days until the deadline. Jesus, that’s practically organised. Whatever is the world coming to? ^^;;
Anyway, that would put me at the "mad hunt for feedback" phase of the story life-cycle, so should there be any of you who haven’t already seen both/either and would like to, lemme know and I’ll send ‘em your way. Still not much past the working draft stage at the moment, any suggestions as to how I can improve them will be much appreciated.
So that brings my current total for finished projects this summer to one 40000 word story, two short stories written for the City of Time theme, one attempt at the "Five things that never happened" format, something called "All human actions" based on a challenge found somewhere in the madpash archives, three short few-hundred-word pieces, one drabble, various JK stuff, and a title which is now attached to a story which was finished three and a half years ago but left nameless ever since (yes, I count this as an achievement. Believe me when I say titles hate me). OK, given, my list of unfinished projects is at least as long, but that’s still my most productive summer ever.
Just have to hope I can keep it up until the to do list starts getting shorter.
A few things noticed over the past summer:
Disclaimer: The word ‘you’ appears frequently in the following text. Since the writer has based this entirely on her own experiences and has made very little attempt to compare notes with even a single other writer in hope of producing something universally accurate, ‘you’ for these purposes probably means ‘me’.
1. The computer is the single greatest source of writer’s block in existance. No matter how many weird and wonderful ideas you had when you were out earlier, in the car on the way home, during dinner etc, the moment that you sit yourself comfortably down in front of the keyboard with a blank word document open and ready is the moment all your ideas will choose to nick off for a coffee break. To steal a quote from Neil Gaiman’s weblog, "Being a writer is a very peculiar sort of a job: it's always you versus a blank sheet of paper (or a blank screen) and quite often the blank piece of paper wins." Trust me, that piece of paper is a pansy compared to the blank screen.
Conversely, the moment you turn the computer off will be the moment you realise exactly how that last troublesome sentence was supposed to go, and find yourself scrabbling for a pencil, or the On switch, whichever seems easier.
2. If there’s a source of writer’s block potentially worse than the presence of a computer it’s the knowledge that you have enough free time to actually get something done. The holidays are stretching out in front of you - hours of boredom with practically nothing to do - and you’ve been promising yourself you’ll get project X done as soon as you have time (probably projects Y, Z and % as well). This is the moment when inspiration will desert you entirely. Taken the other way around, the same principle also means that it’s always when you’re in the middle of something important; probably up to your neck in deadlines too, that you’ll find yourself suddenly assaulted by a dozen ideas just screaming to be written down this minute. The number of ideas you have which are utterly unrelated to anything you’re actually meant to be producing will only continue to increase with your actual workload until you hit the Effective Stress Limit of the human brain (usually located somewhere around the semester 2 exam period), at which point it fails to function altogether. While one may theorize ideas do continue to present themselves at this stage, you’re not going to be in any state to notice.
3. The period in which you are at your greatest creative productivity occurs in the hour immediately following your natural bedtime. While obviously a problem, this one only becomes real trouble when you try to make active use of it. A few days of this will mean your natural bedtime slips back an hour, and with it the hour in which you’re actually getting anything done, requiring you to stay up another hour in order to get anything done. Let me assure you, this is not going to lead anywhere pleasant.
Why one should be able to do ones best work when sleep deprived is a difficult question. Possibly this has something to do with the fact that at this stage of the day you’re too close to asleep to realise that you’re crazy and what your producing is effectively junk (with just enough of those occasional moments of genius thrown in to keep you going - either way this is why it’s always vitally important to reread everything first thing in the morning). Maybe the brain just provides a path of lower resistance to ideas when not functioning properly. Alternatively, this may be due to the fact that it is at this stage of the day that you realise you can’t feasibly put off writing any longer and still have any hope of making your daily word count target. More probably, this is simply Murphy’s Law having one final toss at making all productivity impossible by dutifully ensuring that the one time you’re most likely to get anything decent done is the one time you really shouldn’t be conscious at all.
Attempts to meet the problem halfway and leave a notepad and pen within reach of your bed will only be successful when you know it is vital that you get up around 6 tomorrow morning, and an uninterrupted night’s sleep is absolutely essential.
4. The most dangerous part of anything you’re writing is the part you know has to happen but have absolutely no plan for. Either you’re going to spend days hacking it out at the agonizing rate of maybe two or three words an hour, or something utterly unexpected is going to pop up out of nowhere, filling the hole and probably taking over the entire story in the process, and possibly large chunks of the remainder of your life. All up, it’s probably safer to hope for the later.
5. The one technological breakthrough the whole writing world is waiting for is the Thought Powered Notebook ™. Simply plug it into your brain, and every useful thought you have will be instantly recorded! No longer will we have to deal with having ideas only at moments when we can’t write them down; no more will we get half way through a sentence and realise we’ve forgotten how you we were going to end it. We’ll have a perfect, photographic record of our every thought, and without all that messy typing-it-up-afterwards to worry about! Just like sitting in front of a blank computer screen 24/7!
Either that, or this’ll be the day writers block takes over altogether.
Anyway, that would put me at the "mad hunt for feedback" phase of the story life-cycle, so should there be any of you who haven’t already seen both/either and would like to, lemme know and I’ll send ‘em your way. Still not much past the working draft stage at the moment, any suggestions as to how I can improve them will be much appreciated.
So that brings my current total for finished projects this summer to one 40000 word story, two short stories written for the City of Time theme, one attempt at the "Five things that never happened" format, something called "All human actions" based on a challenge found somewhere in the madpash archives, three short few-hundred-word pieces, one drabble, various JK stuff, and a title which is now attached to a story which was finished three and a half years ago but left nameless ever since (yes, I count this as an achievement. Believe me when I say titles hate me). OK, given, my list of unfinished projects is at least as long, but that’s still my most productive summer ever.
Just have to hope I can keep it up until the to do list starts getting shorter.
A few things noticed over the past summer:
Disclaimer: The word ‘you’ appears frequently in the following text. Since the writer has based this entirely on her own experiences and has made very little attempt to compare notes with even a single other writer in hope of producing something universally accurate, ‘you’ for these purposes probably means ‘me’.
1. The computer is the single greatest source of writer’s block in existance. No matter how many weird and wonderful ideas you had when you were out earlier, in the car on the way home, during dinner etc, the moment that you sit yourself comfortably down in front of the keyboard with a blank word document open and ready is the moment all your ideas will choose to nick off for a coffee break. To steal a quote from Neil Gaiman’s weblog, "Being a writer is a very peculiar sort of a job: it's always you versus a blank sheet of paper (or a blank screen) and quite often the blank piece of paper wins." Trust me, that piece of paper is a pansy compared to the blank screen.
Conversely, the moment you turn the computer off will be the moment you realise exactly how that last troublesome sentence was supposed to go, and find yourself scrabbling for a pencil, or the On switch, whichever seems easier.
2. If there’s a source of writer’s block potentially worse than the presence of a computer it’s the knowledge that you have enough free time to actually get something done. The holidays are stretching out in front of you - hours of boredom with practically nothing to do - and you’ve been promising yourself you’ll get project X done as soon as you have time (probably projects Y, Z and % as well). This is the moment when inspiration will desert you entirely. Taken the other way around, the same principle also means that it’s always when you’re in the middle of something important; probably up to your neck in deadlines too, that you’ll find yourself suddenly assaulted by a dozen ideas just screaming to be written down this minute. The number of ideas you have which are utterly unrelated to anything you’re actually meant to be producing will only continue to increase with your actual workload until you hit the Effective Stress Limit of the human brain (usually located somewhere around the semester 2 exam period), at which point it fails to function altogether. While one may theorize ideas do continue to present themselves at this stage, you’re not going to be in any state to notice.
3. The period in which you are at your greatest creative productivity occurs in the hour immediately following your natural bedtime. While obviously a problem, this one only becomes real trouble when you try to make active use of it. A few days of this will mean your natural bedtime slips back an hour, and with it the hour in which you’re actually getting anything done, requiring you to stay up another hour in order to get anything done. Let me assure you, this is not going to lead anywhere pleasant.
Why one should be able to do ones best work when sleep deprived is a difficult question. Possibly this has something to do with the fact that at this stage of the day you’re too close to asleep to realise that you’re crazy and what your producing is effectively junk (with just enough of those occasional moments of genius thrown in to keep you going - either way this is why it’s always vitally important to reread everything first thing in the morning). Maybe the brain just provides a path of lower resistance to ideas when not functioning properly. Alternatively, this may be due to the fact that it is at this stage of the day that you realise you can’t feasibly put off writing any longer and still have any hope of making your daily word count target. More probably, this is simply Murphy’s Law having one final toss at making all productivity impossible by dutifully ensuring that the one time you’re most likely to get anything decent done is the one time you really shouldn’t be conscious at all.
Attempts to meet the problem halfway and leave a notepad and pen within reach of your bed will only be successful when you know it is vital that you get up around 6 tomorrow morning, and an uninterrupted night’s sleep is absolutely essential.
4. The most dangerous part of anything you’re writing is the part you know has to happen but have absolutely no plan for. Either you’re going to spend days hacking it out at the agonizing rate of maybe two or three words an hour, or something utterly unexpected is going to pop up out of nowhere, filling the hole and probably taking over the entire story in the process, and possibly large chunks of the remainder of your life. All up, it’s probably safer to hope for the later.
5. The one technological breakthrough the whole writing world is waiting for is the Thought Powered Notebook ™. Simply plug it into your brain, and every useful thought you have will be instantly recorded! No longer will we have to deal with having ideas only at moments when we can’t write them down; no more will we get half way through a sentence and realise we’ve forgotten how you we were going to end it. We’ll have a perfect, photographic record of our every thought, and without all that messy typing-it-up-afterwards to worry about! Just like sitting in front of a blank computer screen 24/7!
Either that, or this’ll be the day writers block takes over altogether.