On Writer's Block and Real Life

I’ve not posted much in the past few weeks, I know that. The main reason for this is the complete lack of motivation I’ve felt recently. I’ve mentioned writer’s block before, in several posts in the past, saying that it’s just an excuse for being purely lazy. In the recent weeks though I’ve come to realise that there may be more to it than just laziness. 

Life has a way of getting to us all. We all have different coping mechanisms, some people find new relationships, others take up exercise and others still find a new hobby. My coping mechanism seems to be that I lose any motivation to write, or if I am writing I don’t want to talk about it. I’ve been jobless for the past three months. This may not seem too bad, particularly in light of the economic situation at the minute, but job searching has a way of getting to you. The constant applications and rejections slowly start to wear down at my self esteem, making me feel more and more like a failure. I lose the motivation not just to apply for jobs but for a lot of other things, including writing and drawing. I’ve felt myself slipping into that black hole of despair that many writers and artists teeter on the edge of and in the past week or so I’ve clawed my way back into the sunlight.

I managed to finish the Script Frenzy script, I’ve been writing random one-shots based in that universe for a group I’ve joined on LiveJournal and I’m starting to feel a whole lot better about myself. Part of this is due to simple comments on my writing that I’ve received through the group, little things like they like certain parts of the stories or random little nuggets of the text that I slipped in because my mind goes a little loopy after 8pm. I even got a call yesterday about a job. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get it as it would require me to have a driving license which I sadly lack but the fact that that was the only thing holding me back from it just served to reassure me.

But the fact of the matter is that I did get writer’s block and lost all motivation. But it wasn’t because I’m lazy and not because I believe that the creative muse is a fickle beast that flitters off like a butterfly at inappropriate times but because I’m human and I got sad. It’s something to think about and it has really made me realise how much life can affect us all in ways we didn’t even realise.

So, as I sit here on this rainy Thursday afternoon I ask that you remember this when decrying writer’s block. It’s a large generic term that too often gets used as an excuse but when it comes down to it writer’s block is a cover all term that simply says that the writer can’t write. Not because the ideas aren’t there but because there’s something else going on in their lives. Distractions are things that will and do happen to us all.

It’s life after all. Live it.

Bye Bye Writer's Block. Hello shiny new novel plan.

  Mere hours after I got those Terry Brooks novels down, yes the ones that I spent much of the last blog gushing about, I had the inspiration for a new novel/story. I'd barely read a few passages of 'The Sword of Shannara' and I was already being hit by various ideas. Thankfully the vagueness of them meant that I could shove them all together into one big story but I'm just so glad that I'm no longer writer's blocky.
I really do suggest to any writer or artist that is suggering from writer's block to find the thing or things that inspired them before and go back to it. Although it might not work for everyone it certainly worked for me, almost instantly. Unfortunately I'm still grouchy.. less so then I was but still.. pretty grouchy. I'm just putting that down to hormones and ignoring it though.
 I'm so happy that I've managed to get back on track with writing though. There's just so much coming out and I'm actually enjoying writing for the sake of writing again. For the last three years I've had to write for my degree, it took away much of the fun that I'd previously found in it. Now though, with my degree at an end, I'm finding that I can enjoy it again, now that there's not this horrible pressure to write something and to write something in a genre that I just don't like. Those three years stretched me as a writer though I will admit. The lecturers pushed me into writing in genres I'd normally ignore and stir clear of. They forced me to consider character voices, different levels of description. Basically I studied my writing style indepth and evolved it. Maybe it's made it better, maybe it's made it worse. I really won't know until I write something that I enjoy writing and get more then 10 pages done.
  Who knows, maybe this story will start off a series, all set in my world. For all the future knows I could be the next Terry Brooks... except female and British and younger. I'd like that though. I'm not bothered about the money, I just want people to read what I've written, to share it with the whole world. I know that's what the internet is for and to be far I do plan on putting it online somewhere but I have a great love and respect for the printed word and would love, dearly, to see my words printed and bound in a book with a beautifully illustrated cover.
 But that's enough philosophising for one day... I'll leave you now as I return to my writing and give you one message.... Write what you love and failing that, write what you know.