I made a promise to myself that, as a writer, I should be writing every day. That's no great revelation-- that's standard operating procedure for every real writer out there. If you're not writing something every day (with an eye towards your REAL goal of getting published sometime) then you're not a writer. In fact, you're probably just some lazy-ass bastard who SAYS you're a writer so that you can avoid having to go out and get a job.
But I digress.
Writing falls into two categories for me: Really Really Easy or Really Really Hard. The reason for this is that usually, before I put my fingers on the keyboard or (god forbid) pen to paper, I already know what I'm going to write.
What I mean is that I've got the whole thing in my head, start to finish, BAM. Except for minor little details which need fleshing out--okay, let's say rather I've got the whole framework in my head.
I've always been a "popper" type of writer. Which means that my whole creative writing essays "pop" into my head fully-formed like Athena out of Zeus. All I have to do then is commit them to paper.
That's the Really Really Easy part.
However, there are times when I know that I HAVE to write something, that I have an assignment, or that a momentary inspiration strikes-- "I must write something along THESE lines" -- and the "popper" just isn't there. In fact, it's on vacation.
These are the times I have to slog through every single inch of the creative process to arrive at something which, to my mind, just doesn't have the juice my other stuff does.
At the moment, I'm stalled on my webcomic, Diaperman. I know pretty much what I want to have happen in the next episode but it just...won't...come. It's in there, in my head somewhere, sitting on a comfy couch having tea and chatting with the other unused concepts and they've all forgotten what time it is.
Also, I have a murder mystery script to write. It's a concept that I had flash into my brain (and I won't mention it here until it's finished being written) and now it won't give up the REST of the concept to me. I had the basic outline magically appear, but I've had to fight for each character to fully realize themselves, and now the actual ins and outs of the mystery, SCENE by bloody SCENE, elude me.
It's funny; I know from experience that the best way is not to force it, to just let it come in its own time-- but I also know that to avoid "lazy writing" that one should always sit oneself down and just start writing. Even if it sucks, you just might trip over a stream of consciousness that whisks you right down to the Ocean of Ideas.
I promised myself I'd write on this blog every day to pump that mental muscle, to oil the gears of the mind. And at first it was Really Really Easy. Roughly eight entries, one after the other, bam-bam-bam.
Today, however was in that OTHER category. I hit the wall-- and looked at my blank Movable Type screen as an intimidating expanse of nothing, rather than a canvas waiting to be filled.
So, I went away from it and did some other work-- and BAM, the Mind Gnome, Mentok, threw this whole entry at me.
I AM a writer. I've been published, I've been solicited for screenplays and MET those deadlines head-on, I write online and offline comics, fiction on demand and for my own personal pleasure. I'm no Johnny Famous but I'm no Poet in Starbucks either.
And even though I consider it a GIFT to have my little "popper" give me the whole story at once, I understand that on non-"popper" days I have to WORK. I have to work at it even if I don't WANT to. And trust me, I'm writing this to reinforce it (read: convince) myself as much as I am trying to get the point across to other would-be writers out there:
WRITE. Shut the hell up and WRITE. Even if you're procrastinating from your other projects by writing (which is exactly what I'm doing right now), at least you're writing something.
And if you can't write, then at the very least READ. Inspiration comes from like sources, folks-- read everything you can get your hands on.
Might I recommend Stephen King's "On Writing?" He may not go into his PROCESS a whole lot but it's sure a great read about a writer who just started doing it and KEPT doing it.
Also, Danny Fingeroth's "WRITE NOW!" magazine, available in your local comics shop. Writing for comics, animation, and film. Script work-- VERY handy.
I've written about writing about why I can't write today.
Now, I've got to go try and write something.
Cripes.
Posted by Agent M at September 10, 2003 02:27 PMI am not a writer. Oh, I dabble a bit, like a dabbler in the Dark Arts, but I don't write every bloody day. I write fiction for my own amusement, lots of gaming stuff and ideas, and some other things. I write because I enjoy it, but that doesn't mean it's easy. Seldom do I get a 'popper' like Agent M describes, but I can slip into the 'writing zone', where the flow of words just makes sense. It comes out like a hot oil massage, baby! Other times I can stare at the screen (Pen and paper? You use these things together?) for hours, with nothing happening at all. If I could be a writer, I would love it. But I'm a dabbler. I stick my toes in the current and exclaim that it's too damned cold in there for me to ever even think of diving in headlong.
Garething
Posted by: garething on September 10, 2003 05:17 PMI make sure to criticize people every day, that way I can achieve my dream of being a movie and music critic. Although to be a truely great music critic, like our own James Muretich, you have to completely ignore the music and simply compare the album to you last peyote trip while you were vacationing in Cheyenne, down New Mexico way, where the heat rolled off the tarmac like six-point waves off Ala Moana point, and the night was a physical, palpable weight that crushed your will mercilessly.
Err, anyway. This has nothing to do with the post, but I couldn't think of anything else to write.
"But betty..."
Posted by: Agent Brucie on September 10, 2003 05:22 PMAs frequent readers of my blog know, I am currently doing something not entirely unlike writing.
I call it not writing. It's like writing except that you don't actually do it.
I blame several things for this:
1) Agent M, for giving me so much to respond to.
2) Shadow Warrior, cause I play it too much.
3) Porn. See #2 above.
The real reason is that I just haven't had a lot to write about. My life has contracted to living in my cardboard box, going to work and trying to get my money back from evil condominium developers. These either make dull writing and reading, or (in the case of the condo) something I'm just emotionally exhausted with.
Oh yeah, I am writing some porn, but that will be posted anonymously to a newsgroup, rather than my page.
...or is that too much information?
Posted by: Quixote on September 10, 2003 07:21 PMAnd then there are times when Agent Brucie DOES write, and it scares the living horse-doody outta all his friends...
"But betty..."
*shudder*
Me, I'm kinda like Garething... I slip into the zone, and words just kinda flow out. Other times, they are more...spurty...than that.
Yes, I tend to write in spurts. So to speak.
No, I don't write porn. ;)
ACK!
Posted by: Agent ACK on September 11, 2003 09:24 AM"Writing is easy. All you need to do is stare at a blank piece of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead."
-Gene Wilder (i think)
Hey man. Glad to see you're doing well. Where the hell are the pictures of your little cutie?
I love writing. And if I ever get to do it again, I think it'd be awesome.
My best stuff starts out from no where usually. As in, I have no idea what I'm going to write before I start writing. Couldn't even tell you where it is coming from. From the same deep place that made me look at Sean and go 'wait, I've been hanging out with you for an hour and thinking about kissing you. I seem to like you.'
I guess you could have lots of mystical things to account for it (godly inspiration), or a Dr.Phil moment (it came from my authentic self), or even an occult epiphany (my higher self just knows.) Whatever. When I got something, it just spills out.
Now, planned writing. That I never seem to get to. I have an idea for a fantastic 2 novel sci-fi bit (not fantasy sci-fi either. Real sci-fi. I'm a snob, I know). The idea is there. The science is worked out, and researched. The ships, the characters, the planets involved. Hell, it even has a title.
And, while I've been published off and on, I've never put any real time and effort into it.
I got a beautiful 21 month old that I just can't stop playing with long enough to even but a synopsis down on paper.
But, I thought I'd give you (or someone reading) tricks I've used once in a while that seems to break the deadlock.
Switch characters.
Switch point-of-view (been writing omnipresent? Try first person. Or third party.
Switch time periods. Try the point of view that what you are writing happen to the character 50 years ago. Or their grandson is recounting it. I'm sure this is how the Princess Bride was written.
Write the end. Or the middle. Write out of sequence, and then fill in the gaps (or not). Write all the important "bits" and then put them together.
Or play with the order of events you have written. Maybe the point you've written to really is a dead-end. Go back to a previous point and take a different track. They talked with A instead of B. They went to the market instead of the house.
Go back to a previous point and add some seeminly inconsequential detail. On the way out of the room a character picks up a magazine/figurine, stares knowingly at a picture on the desk. Now go back to the spot you are stuck and flesh it out.
Well, I hope that your writing goes well today Michael!
Posted by: BrandiMommyGal on September 11, 2003 01:24 PMDo what I do: insist until people stop listening to you that you're not a writer, that you categorically refuse to write.
I therefore do it all the time.
Posted by: Mike on September 11, 2003 01:40 PMI have averaged more words of fiction per day over the last number of years than even stalwart Robert J. Sawyer.
It's called "Client Management"
CH
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