BOOKS4TOMORROW asked:
“ADVICE ON DEALING WITH WRITERS BLOCK” and author SHAUN
ALLAN
answered:
Writer’s block. Is that what
you rest your head on, waiting for that nice sharp blade to drop down and lop
it off? Or is it the particular piece of cliff you stand upon, looking
down into the abyss below, a void of wordlessness?
Do you sit there, pen, pencil or
keyboard in hand (whatever your poison), and feel a physical barrier, or are
you looking out onto an empty field, the expanse stretching away to the horizon
with no sign of life to break its monotony?
Then you see something. A
letter? A punctuation mark? A whole word or sentence? You
can’t be sure but you run towards it, hands outstretched, desperately
grasping. Then you take it in your arms and squeeze it to your bosom,
only to feel it drift away into dust.
Or it stays with you and
flourishes, growing into something that could actually be beautiful. A
blog post. A short story. Possibly a full length novel.
Granted you might, one day,
decide that it’s ugly and needs casting aside – consigned to the recycle bin or
the rubbish bin. Or screwed up and thrown on the floor to gather dust in
a dark corner. But it’s YOUR child so, sometimes, you have to be cruel to
be kind – cruel to your baby to be kind to the rest of us.
If you’re lucky, though, it might
blossom into a masterpiece that others stand in awe of. Or even a few
just think is pretty good. It all warms those cockles.
But what if you
stand on that precipice and can see no ledge to catch hold of, or you run
through the field and there really is nothing between you and the horizon except
simply somewhere else to place your foot? What do you do?
I’m lucky, at the moment at
least. Well, after a fashion. I don’t have a shortage of
words. I have more than one project on the go, for a start. I have
the sequel to my book, Sin. Then there’s a children’s book I’m 40,000
words into. Not forgetting Sin’s blog, his diary form within his
asylum. I’ve also recently finished a short story based on the Four
Horsemen of the Apocalypse and a children’s book called Rudolph Saves Christmas!
Considering I get VERY little time to actually write, I don’t think I do too
badly.
A few weeks ago I sat down to
write work on the sequel to Sin and ended up starting the Rudolph story.
I have no idea why.
A few years ago, I had
nothing. There was no urge, no inner voice. I would sit with a pad
or my computer, wanting to write – needing to – and I wouldn’t write a single
word. That lasted a good (or bad) twelve months. It was awful, but
I just couldn’t come up with anything. But I was trying to force
it. I was trying to make the words come and kick the voice into uttering
something. So it all rebelled, stuck two fingers up to me and turned its
back.
I’ve had periods since where the
same happens. So I leave them all to their own devices. I don’t sit
there, begging for inspiration, I carry on and let inspiration come. I
think it helps that I have so many projects on the go. I have my main one
– currently the children’s book – and I try to work on that, but if it doesn’t
want to play, I turn to something else. Usually that something else is
one of Sin’s blog entries. They’re fun, are only about 500 words or so,
and they take less than half an hour. I don’t plan them, I just write and
see what happens.
So maybe that’s why I don’t seem to have such a problem now. When I had one story, it sometimes didn’t want to play. Now, they’re all jealous and vie for my attention! Now, I get to choose. It all stimulates the little grey wotsits. If I was struggling, I’d probably write my shopping list, but as a story. The toilet rolls are on the hunt for the mysterious, legendary Granny Smith of Doom. On their quest they have to defeat the cat food and reach the snow capped Cucumber of Halfness!
Write something, write nonsense,
but write. If you write it, it will come.
SHAUN ALLAN is
the author of:
“Rudolph Saves Christmas”
Rudolph, that famous red-nosed reindeer, is
accused of blowing up Santa’s sleigh and attempting to sabotage
Christmas. He must escape from North Pole Prison and find the real
culprit before Christmas is cancelled!
Throw in a host of wacky poems such as Spider
on my Present, A Zombie Christmas and The Not-So Christmas Elf and you have a
collection perfect for children of all ages this Christmas!
PURCHASE LINKS:
3 comments:
Hi, Shaun! Great post. I'm glad you're so fired up and producing these days. Writer's block is something all of us will get to deal with at one point or another. I never thought it would happen to me, but it did a couple of years ago. After trying all the obvious remedies, I found out the real cause. Here's a post from my blog that might be useful for some: http://www.yourshelflife.com/?p=1035 Do You Have Writer's Block or Are You Depressed/
Great post, Shaun. For a long time I thought I had to write, HAD TO, but nothing came onto paper and I was frustrated. Until I decided if it's not meant to be it's not meant to be. Like you, I'm working on several projects now, but I also do different things in my life as well .... NOw I can't keep up with my little notes sticking everywhere - full of little ideas .... Good luck with all your ventures. Your Rudolph book looks like a great book!
Great post. I just wrote about this very topic. Thought you might be interested. Cheers.
http://www.indiesunlimited.com/2011/12/15/blocking-writer%E2%80%99s-block-by-jd-mader/
Post a Comment