Switching creative gears (and grinding them all the way)

[rj_anderson]

I've been trying to work on Touching Indigo all day, but my brain refuses to connect with it. I thought that giving myself a week off after finishing my revisions on Knife would help me switch gears -- especially since I took part of that time to re-read the first seven chapters of Indigo and think about where I wanted to go next. But no...

I don't know what to do about this except to keep plugging away out of sheer bloodymindedness, and if that means sitting down every afternoon and evening for a week and typing random nonsense for an hour, so be it. Eventually, I know -- I hope -- I'll break through this fuzzy mental state and get excited about the book again. It will start haunting my dreams and pestering me with ideas at inconvenient times and places. I'll have a hard time getting to sleep because I'll be plotting out the next scene in my head. If it happened to me with Knife after mumbletyseven revisions, it can surely happen with this book that I haven't even finished yet.

It's frustrating, though, waiting for that to happen. Right now writing feels like staring at a plate full of my least favorite vegetables.

What do all of you do to kickstart yourselves when you're feeling creatively blank?

Comments

Re: Oh man...

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your comment! It's a pleasure to hear from you.

I tend to think I'm doing something wrong if I, the writer, can't get the juices going. I don't believe in writer's block. So I start shifting with the puzzle pieces a lot

Yeah, I'm wondering if there might be something that's wrong with this particular scene I'm working on -- I might need to start fresh and tackle it from a different angle. If only I could think of what that angle is...

*dredges up old icon just for you*

[fandoria.livejournal.com]

Man that sucks. I just spent about 3 weeks blocked. One week of that was a self-imposed break, the next week I was sick, and this past week was winter break. But every time I tried to sit down and write, nothing came. My mind was disturbingly blank. But I finally had a breakthrough over the weekend and I've got stuff in my head again and I was able to write today.

It stinks when stuff like this happens, but you will get a breakthrough. I hope you get yours soon.

[yahtzee63.livejournal.com]

In all honesty, the best thing you can do, sometimes, is take a little time off. You're not ready to write yet? I wouldn't worry about that for at least a couple of weeks. Watch TV. Read books. Do nada. Or, if you feel like writing but neither TI nor the next Knife book, write some fic.

There comes a time when you have to sit down and push it, but you're not nearly there. You just finished a marathon. This is not the time for a half-marathon. Take it easy.

[sabrinanymph.livejournal.com]

You know, you just finished a really big project. It might not be a bad thing to take a bit of time.

Sometimes I'll work on character stuff - like, if I'm totally stuck on writing actually narrative, I'll pick out some sort of drabble, or something that's not necessarily related to what will end up in the story itself, but will help me explore a character's background or flesh them out someway. Sometimes it's easier than the narrative and I feel like because it is fleshing out characters, it's not completely pointless.

[superwench83.livejournal.com]

Taking a break from writing sometimes makes a huge difference for me. I mean, I love to write (I wouldn't be doing it if I didn't), but there's nothing wrong with you if you need to take a vacation from it every now and then.

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

I find it useful to direct my creative energy into a totally different medium. I've been having trouble writing lately, but I've been drawing a lot and planning some vids.

Sometimes, when I'm having trouble getting into the frame for a longer fic, I turn around and write a couple of drabbles and ficlets involving totally different characters, situations etc. Again, redirection. I've learnt from experience that I don't like to be forced, and if I force myself to write something, I'll either produce something very inferior, or I'll end up hating the project and abandoning it. It's better, I've found, to look at something else in the short term, with the knowledge that I'll be getting back to the other project soon.

[kerravonsen]

What they said -- work on something else creative, some other project.

[olmue.livejournal.com]

I'll write random scenes and conversations that occur later in the book--or maybe even not at all. I think one problem may be that you've sewed up part I nicely, which means starting again is in some ways starting a new "book." It's not the same as picking up a scene in media res with tensions already in place. Maybe play around with some later scenes of tension, just to get yourself back into the feel of things?

Good luck!!

[snickelish.livejournal.com]

Yes, when I get stuck I often find it's because I don't really understand the motivations of some minor character. Often it helps to write a snippet - maybe a few paragraphs - from that character's POV in which they explain who they are, what they're doing, and maybe how they view the events thus far. Since I tend to think most clearly in first person anyway, I get a much clearer picture of them this way.

And sometimes these digressions actually make it into the dialogue later, which is always a bonus. :)

[megburden.livejournal.com]

I wish I knew a surefire way! I'm in the same place, at the moment.

Seriously, um... It has helped me in the past to do what you mentioned above, to plug away at it until it becomes fun again. And it always does...eventually.

Sometimes sitting down and closing my eyes and listening to music (for a mood, for a certain character or scene) can get me in that Writing Place. A change of location can help--you could try getting a baby-sitter for the day and treating yourself to a day of writing at a cafe or coffee shop or something. Exercising and listening to music while playing scenes of the novel like a movie in my head helps sometimes. So does taking a bath or shower--when I really can't be distracted by all the billion other things I want to do or should be doing.

Good luck! *hugs lots*

(Btw, I did finally get that email last night...hours after the other one. Did you get my email replying to the Ouch one? I sent it last night. I'm still going to send you a Real Reply, but tonight, much-overdue housecleaning got in the way and took much longer than I expected.)

[alawston.livejournal.com]

Regrettably I tend to go with the plugging away through sheer bloodymindedness. Often with a generous amount of beer, the best creative lubricant I know...

[thefish30.livejournal.com]

Though my original fiction is an on again, off again hobby at this point, I've noticed discovering a new fandom usually gives me plot bunnies, which kicks off another bout of writing. It has to be a lengthy series I can get immersed in for a while, not a single novel or trilogy. Examples being Cowboy Bebop, Miles Vorkosigan, and New Who.

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Curiously, I watched half of the first episode of Cowboy Bebop last night. It's so stylish and noir I don't understand half of what's going on, so I think I might do better going back and catching up on Avatar: The Last Airbender instead. (As of now I have seen maybe five very widely spaced episodes of the whole series, but still -- Zuko/Katara OTP!!!)

[meredith-wood.livejournal.com]

I don't do anything different than what everyone on here has suggested. I try them all and then try some more. Eventually, something happens and the book starts to flow again. But I certainly can't say what it is, because I never know. *G*

[sannalim.livejournal.com]

Interestingly, I was just thinking about Touching Indigo last night while I was driving home. I was thinking about names, and how sometimes the right name for something just comes to you, and that reminded me of how Thea demanded to have her name changed to Alison. I hope you get past your block soon!

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Yes, I really don't think I could have written this novel if I'd left her name as Thea. In my head, Thea is so much older and more centered and self-aware, and I would have been fighting that perception all the way through the book. Changing the characters' names from that original concept freed me to change their ages and their personalities as well, in a way which the story really needed.

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

Hi, I was just wandering by and read this. One thing I often do when I'm stuck is write an invocation to the Muse. I have a whole collection of invocations I've written over the years, in various poetic and prose forms, silly, serious, clever, straightforward. I usually find that writing one of these gets her attention when she's hanging out at the nectar bar with the other Muses, and she comes back to me.

That sounds like a joke, but it's true. I can write without the Muse, but it feels like slogging. When I can get her to come sing to me, it becomes fun. Whether she's real or not.

[shoebox2.livejournal.com]

I'd have to go with stepping away from the computer for awhile. Your brain has clearly decided this writing business is work, not play, and it wants a vacation. In my experience the only thing to do is give it one. As others have said, go do other stuff, get some fresh perspectives - maybe some literal fresh air! A long walk always works to clear my head.

One other thing I've always found helpful is to pick up a book by an author I really enjoy. In the course of being moved by their creativity my own desire to emulate them usually comes rushing back.