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How do you get past writers block?
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Cynthia
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Oct 30, 2012 06:37AM
I just wanted to ask the other writers out there how they get past writers block? I hate that word but will use it anyway. For example you are writing away and you know where the story is going but you get to a difficult part and go...ok how do I get from here to there?
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Sometimes I go for a drive. Or putter around the house. I always have the story in the back of my mind. It seems to sort of percolate back there and then, usually, an answer will pop in.
If I sit and try to keep writing I find it usually just gets worse.
I remember Alan Alda, talking about writing the screenplay for 'Same Time Next Year'. He sat in his cabin at his desk sweating over blank pages for six weeks, and driving his wife crazy, without getting much over ten pages out of it.
She told him to get out of the damn house. He went rowing on the lake in front of the cabin. He said as he rowed the story just started to unfold for him. I believe that. I believe creativity resides in the subconscious and to access it we have to let it go sometimes and stop trying so hard.
He rowed around the lake with a recorder and wrote the first draft of the script in three days. Of course he polished it later, but he had his core story.
I find, I don't know why, but water is a conduit of some kind. Things will pop into my head when I'm lane swimming - or even having a bath. I once dictated the story for an opera (I had to leave the project, long story) in the tub haha. I put some Puccinni on and the story just flowed out of my mouth.
So - I think you have to get away from the page and move around.
Long answer, eh.
Thanks for the question!
If I sit and try to keep writing I find it usually just gets worse.
I remember Alan Alda, talking about writing the screenplay for 'Same Time Next Year'. He sat in his cabin at his desk sweating over blank pages for six weeks, and driving his wife crazy, without getting much over ten pages out of it.
She told him to get out of the damn house. He went rowing on the lake in front of the cabin. He said as he rowed the story just started to unfold for him. I believe that. I believe creativity resides in the subconscious and to access it we have to let it go sometimes and stop trying so hard.
He rowed around the lake with a recorder and wrote the first draft of the script in three days. Of course he polished it later, but he had his core story.
I find, I don't know why, but water is a conduit of some kind. Things will pop into my head when I'm lane swimming - or even having a bath. I once dictated the story for an opera (I had to leave the project, long story) in the tub haha. I put some Puccinni on and the story just flowed out of my mouth.
So - I think you have to get away from the page and move around.
Long answer, eh.
Thanks for the question!
Thanks for the tip. I will try it and see if water works for me!
On such a cold and drizzly day with ice fog everywhere it sounds like a good idea for tonight LOL!
Thanks for that. I have worked through my most recent block so far but it seems to come up now and then and then I think about it all day and night and cant sleep. or if I do sleep I dream about it...lol which surprisingly sometimes works.
William wrote: "No problem! I think perhaps the key is not to get stressed. After all, if you have got so far then you plainly can write and you just need to be patient for the right idea...or dream! Man, I wish I..."
I just try to keep working, maybe revisit an older story and do some more editing, reminding yourself of the 'feel' of writing. Sometimes you just need to get out of your own way.
I just try to keep working, maybe revisit an older story and do some more editing, reminding yourself of the 'feel' of writing. Sometimes you just need to get out of your own way.
