Block and Procrastination Advice
Author: Pyre***I often forget to update this page when I offer new advice in my posts, so if none of this works, dig through my more recent posts, there will be quite a few pieces of advice that aren’t in here***
Welcome to the portion of the site where I, with the help of the community, post up all of my guru-like advice for getting around the pesky blocks and getting yourself to actually sit down AND WRITE!! Most of these are in the form of exerpts from posts, just FYI in case you get confused with some of my word choice. And nobody said that you had to use this advice for just your book, if you’re in school like me, feel free to apply it to big projects and essays! It works just as well, I promise!
And one last thing to remember: writing under pressure to finish your goal for the day and forcing your way through writer’s block results in shabby, rushed, and low-quality story telling and writing most of the time.
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WRITERS BLOCK PREVENTION METHODS
Well, on to business. Let’s talk writer’s block, shall we? Yes, we’ve all experienced it. Our fingers just refuse to touch that keyboard, and your brain refuses to come up with ideas, and the blinking cursor continues to mock you. Blink…blink…blink…
Well, I’m sure you want advice on getting around this horrendous condition. Lucky for you, I am one of the many people who has some. A good thing to do is to get AWAY from your computer, as staring at that cursor or surfing the internet is not going to help at all. Instead, do something productive and solitary to get ideas flowing, and inspiration can come in some of the strangest forms. For some people, a good activity to help get the brainjuices flowing is cooking, for some it’s drawing. Generally, playing video games, watching TV, or surfing the web does not work, as those are the activities that are “mind numbing,” and don’t require much thinking or daydreaming. Also, maybe just take a solitary walk, through town or in the woods, and look around and think. Don’t think about your book that much though, space it inbetween other thoughts. And when inspiration strikes, be prepared to write it down.
Another popular method is word wars. This is a little less natural, and a little more forceful, but, when you need to write, you need to write. To do a word war is simple. You find somebody else who is a writing, whether you know them or not, and somebody who you can communicate to on the spot, either via phone or messenger or email. You arange a period of time, say x o’clock to y o’clock, and during that time you record your starting word count and then do nothing but write, and record your ending word count at the end. Whoever wrote the most words wins. It is surprisingly easy to write when you have competition. And, if later on, you find that your forced words were stale, then you can just edit them to your liking.
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PACE YOURSELF
Lastly, some daily advice on getting around procrastination and writers block. Don’t try to finish your daily goal in one sitting if it’s not working out for you. That’s what I did today. Break it up into parts, take breaks, as long as you need. Just try and finish by about 8:00 PM or so, as you don’t want to be caught panicking at the last minute. It’s alot easier that way. I find it easiest to do some in the morning and some in the evening, and leave the afternoon to go out and have an refreshing, outside life.
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PROCRASTINATION PREVENTION IN THE FORM OF INTERNET SHUTDOWN
Today, for the first time in over two weeks, I sat at my computer and wrote. And I wrote alot. Nearly 1,000 words, if I do say so myself (still not my goal, but, hey, it’s a good start).
Now, you may be wondering, “Pyre, how did you achieve this amazing feat of procrastination-trumping literary progress?” It was a combination of simple factors: Early morning. Not much to do. And NO INTERNET. That’s right, no internet. Now I understand that when one decides to deprive himself from the internet after a long time of web surfing and doing non-novel-related activities, that the writing urge just doesn’t ping on. That’s why you wake up with no internet. Every night, before you go to sleep, turn off your internet router and stay as far away from it as humanly possible henceforth. When you wake up early in the morning, do nothing but write until your goals for the morning have been satisfied, at least mostly. Not to mention the fact that the human mind works the best in the morning, and inspiration comes the most at night, so you’ll be well equipped to aggresively tackle that novel like a snipe first thing. Before you know it, you’ve written a thousand or so words, and just in time to make breakfast!
But by far the most important thing when doing this to remember is DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT TOUCHING THAT ROUTER. That router staying off is your lifeline. Plant a C4 in front of it if you have to, just don’t touch it unless it’s absolutely vital to your progress. Now, of course, this isn’t the ONLY way to get things done, only it worked quite effectively for me this morning and hopefully it will work for you, too.
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THINK HAPPY THOUGHTS
And now, advice. Phew…what do I have today? Well, here’s something. Alot of people, including me, often times get discouraged and don’t want to write BECAUSE the aren’t writing. That may be the case, and you may not know it or you may. It is a problem that I frequently encounter. While there is no sure-fire way to get around this, other than put that aside and deal with your first layer of writers block using my ever-so-helpful advice page, there is a way to help bring it down. That way, good reader, is to sit down and tell yourself “Writers block is ok, [and it's easy to get around it using Pyre's ever-so-helpful advice page].” Ok, maybe not THAT specifically, but here, look, here are some very famous writers have to say on the subject and that may get you going: http://grammar.about.com/od/yourwriting/a/wblockquotes.htm
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DONT STRESS YOURSELF WITH TOO MUCH PUNISHMENT
<This post addresses the issue of punishing yourself for not finishing your daily word goal by adding to it the next day, and to not lose your mind over it and how it’s not the best or only option in all situations>
Here’s something: a prime cause for writers block, especially in this case, comes from stress. If you put too much stress on yourself, as I have done, then you WILL experience writers block. Have you ever noticed it’s hard to commit yourself to, say, a big assignment when there’s only one night ’till it’s due? This brings me to my advice for today: Feel free to punish yourself with extra words if you have to, but don’t put so much pressure on yourself to finish as much of it as possible in one sitting. Get a good chunk done in the morning or afternoon, and take a break, as long as you want, and come back later with a fresh mindset in the early evening. Break it up into as many sittings as you like.
And whatever you do, don’t push yourself do the brink of pressure when writing. If you haven’t gotten all of your work done by bedtime, then don’t stay up late. Staying up past your normal sleeping time halts the creative juices to a crawl, and makes it so in the morning, when they’re normally working their best, they are still recovering from the blow you took last night. As long as you have gotten half to most of your goal done, then just don’t worry about it or assigning more pressure, it will only make it worse. What matters is that you’ve written a good amount today, and kept your creative juices from halting to a stop for the next few weeks.
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CONFLICTS!
If you miss writing for one day, the chances of you writing the next begin to decrease exponentially with every missed day. But don’t worry, they will reset once you start writing again for two days in a row.
And now, advice! Earlier tips not helping you get through your writer’s block? Then here, start a new conflict or minor event to get your fingers typing and creative juices flowing. Like, say, have one of your characters bump into one of your more easily angered or moodswingy characters HARD. See where that takes you. Or die your character’s hair hot pink. Anything you can think of. By the time you’re done resolving said conflict, you will find it surprisingly easier to begin to get on with your story. And when you look back, if you don’t like what you did or how unrelated it is to the current major conflict, then write it out, its purpose has been served. Or keep it in if it was funny or charming, and you think your readers will like it.
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HOW’S THAT BIG NOVEL COMMING?
Now for my second piece of advice. (WARNING: Do not read this advice if my other tips have been working for you. There is a chance this may lower your writing self-esteem and consequently your word count. Just a heads’ up.) Is none of my other advice working for you? Then let’s get you stimulated BOOTCAMP STYLE. YEAAAA. Here, take a look at this videos:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJnU3Yi02fo&feature=related. This video and the other “novel” rants on the show that this was ripped from proves that writers like you are a subject of comedy and entertainment for the masses. Look at yourself. You’re pitiful. If you don’t want to be part of that group, then make that happen. Sit down and WRITE.
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Well, today’s advice is not necessarily on procrastination and writer’s block, but still usefull and on writing. I found this handydandy chart for ways to say “said” or “exclaimed” or “inquired” or whatever “said” variant you overuse. I love it, and I hope you will too! Credit for this handy-dandy picture goes to Chwa of Nanowrimo. Thanks, Chwa! http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/410070
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A HELPFUL QUOTE
Anna Quindlin wrote, “People have writer’s block not because they can’t write, but because they despair of writing eloquently.” Turn the critical brain off. There is a time and place for criticism: it’s called editing.
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MORE TO COME AS THIS BLOG GROWS!