Keeping It Interesting...

[glennagirl]

I think the hardest thing that's been encountered this past year, here in our writing communities, has been to keep people writing.  The poor Muse has been blamed continually for the malaise, no inspiration to spark a great story is the common complaint.

Comments

[lee_the_t]

I wish it worked that way. For me, the "muse" isn't some intangible spirit that sometimes drops by. It's quite internal and quite real. It drove me to write every day (or be frustrated when I couldn't) for decades. It made my worlds and characters so real to me that I thought about them when I couldn't write about them. I didn't have to put any effort into writing. It was bursting to get out.

All of that is gone. It's all just words now. There's no excitement, no "realness" to any of it, and when I sit down to write, there is nothing.

It's an indescribable loss. It's certainly not anything as simple as wanting or not wanting to write. I miss it like the loss of a limb.

[hypatia_66]

You've encapsulated what a lot of writers are feeling, I suspect - even the ones who get paid for what they produce. The muse is, as you say, ourselves - that part of the brain which responds to stimulus, generates ideas, thinks itself into a situation and describes it, criticises the initial rubbish that we come up with, and collapses back into sullen discontent or gloomy reaction once a better result is achieved and posted.

[glennagirl]

That’s why we’re here, to talk about it, to compare our notes on what keeps us from being creative and what motivates us to go forward.
For me this past year has had everything but the kitchen sink thrown in, but has included the toilet, just to make the point of what kind of year it’s been.
Between this pandemic itself, the store closing where I worked for nearly 5 years, sickness and death in the family... And I know I’m not alone in similar experiences.
Your response here here makes me doubly appreciative that you’ve rallied to write for the Round Robin.
Now, what can we do to help? How about the Spring Round Robin 😎

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[hypatia_66]

I continue to write, but not fiction very often at the moment. But writing non-fiction remains a huge pleasure. I edit a journal for a small scientific society and do a lot of writing up of Zoom lectures and other online activities for it.
Fiction writing has become much harder - I think it's the effect of the political horrors of the last few years, and now the pandemic, which have affected everything. It reminds me of a terrible period after a family tragedy when I couldn't listen to or watch radio and TV drama - how could one take such stuff seriously when real life has become so bad?
I hope it comes back a bit better than sporadically, and soon! At least there are six months of better weather on the way, which might help.

[glennagirl]

Getting something on paper is, at times, the most positive thing we have going for us. Just something to indicate the ideas are still in there somewhere.
I'm an artist and pianist, so there are times when I have nothing from multiple directions. Just practicing isn't the same as feeling inspired by what you play. A blank canvas is, for too long, simply blank. For me it doesn't work to just put something down; the mess that ensues is not worth the effort to clean it up.
So, different perspectives for similar problems. And, yes indeed, the past year has been unkind to the muse.

[ssclassof56]

The words are definitely hard fought this past year. I’ve mostly posted chapters of my long Treasure Island Affair. The whole story is outlined, so the effort to create something from nothing is not as great. I put thought into the weekly challenges, but usually draw a blank. I’d be open to a Spring Round Robin. Committing to it forces me to get the words on paper.

[glennagirl]

I'm holding you to the Spring Round Robin ;)
I haven't written much, and the longest thing I've put out in a year (at least), was the PicFic I did a few weeks ago. Surprisingly, it went over the 5000 word mark by a bit.
So, Spring Round Robin... That actually gives me an idea.

[threecee]

I think the heightened anxiety of the recent past is causing me a lack of confidence and making me feel anything less than perfection is a disaster. I start to write, but two or three paragraphs in I decide I have to verify some inconsequential fact that I could just leave out and go off down that rabbit hole, or I decide the wording is all wrong and do multiple edits until I forget what the original idea was. I'm having the same trouble with embroidery; can't decide on stitches or colors, keep finding minor faults in placement and ripping everything out. Procrastinating on some computer fixes, taxes, and more complex household chores because I'm convinced I'll make mistakes that will take a major amount of time and money to repair