If you're in a writing "funk", what helps inspire you to continue to write?
I had a great pace going with my novel, and then I just got stuck. I want to
scrap it and start all over again! (This is my usual M.O. --- It's like sabotaging myself...I dont know why I do it.)
Is it that Im so afraid of being told it's not good enough, or do I just not believe in myself enough?
Any thoughts? Advice?
thanks---Chrissy
INSPIRATION
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Doreen Peri
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Man this place is slow lately. Where'd everybody go? lol!
I told you it was a smaller site than AC but still is usually a bit more active than this so maybe everybody has the same writing funk you've got.
I know I've had one for quite a while now. I used to write every day! EVERYTHING inspired me! Every time I listened to someone open their mouth and say something, I heard metaphors in it. I couldn't read anything, without getting inspired. I couldn't go anywhere without getting inspired. I saw signs on the highway and it inspired me. Names of towns inspired me. A song on the radio would inspire me. I'd take notes on napkins and paper bags. I was cursed!
But now? I'm cursed the other way! I've gained 10 pounds in the past few months or so and I know what it is. It's all those words, all those thoughts, all those metaphors, all those poems, stuck inside of me making me fat! And it pisses me off!
OK so why am I answering this if I don't have an answer for you?
I used to always recommend the 10 minute exercise.... I posted the exercise in the writing challenges forum below thinking it would actually help ME, too! lol! It's just writing for 10 minutes without stopping... no editing.. just writing... to DO it sometimes helps! I thought I'd break outa the funk doing it but I only did it ONCE since I posted that a month ago so geez... who knows? But try it. It might help.
I donno about whether it will help you with getting back into your novel.
But I do think that writing slumps and funks and blocks are all usually caused by not doing it. If you stop the flow, you get stopped up. It's sorta like word constipation. lol!!! (sorry for the vivid analogy..
)...you HAVE to get it moving along to get it to flow again .
About the being afraid of being criticized, well ya just gotta cut that out!!! Nobody would write or publish anything if they worried about that! I assume you're writing a novel because you have a story to tell and you want to share it. But even if it's the greatest novel ever written, not everybody's gonna like it. *shrug*... Sooooo.... write it anyway because there will be those who will love it!
Just do it!
that's my 2¢... hopefully I'll listen to myself and do the same.
lol
I told you it was a smaller site than AC but still is usually a bit more active than this so maybe everybody has the same writing funk you've got.
I know I've had one for quite a while now. I used to write every day! EVERYTHING inspired me! Every time I listened to someone open their mouth and say something, I heard metaphors in it. I couldn't read anything, without getting inspired. I couldn't go anywhere without getting inspired. I saw signs on the highway and it inspired me. Names of towns inspired me. A song on the radio would inspire me. I'd take notes on napkins and paper bags. I was cursed!
But now? I'm cursed the other way! I've gained 10 pounds in the past few months or so and I know what it is. It's all those words, all those thoughts, all those metaphors, all those poems, stuck inside of me making me fat! And it pisses me off!
OK so why am I answering this if I don't have an answer for you?
I used to always recommend the 10 minute exercise.... I posted the exercise in the writing challenges forum below thinking it would actually help ME, too! lol! It's just writing for 10 minutes without stopping... no editing.. just writing... to DO it sometimes helps! I thought I'd break outa the funk doing it but I only did it ONCE since I posted that a month ago so geez... who knows? But try it. It might help.
I donno about whether it will help you with getting back into your novel.
But I do think that writing slumps and funks and blocks are all usually caused by not doing it. If you stop the flow, you get stopped up. It's sorta like word constipation. lol!!! (sorry for the vivid analogy..
)...you HAVE to get it moving along to get it to flow again .About the being afraid of being criticized, well ya just gotta cut that out!!! Nobody would write or publish anything if they worried about that! I assume you're writing a novel because you have a story to tell and you want to share it. But even if it's the greatest novel ever written, not everybody's gonna like it. *shrug*... Sooooo.... write it anyway because there will be those who will love it!
Just do it!
that's my 2¢... hopefully I'll listen to myself and do the same.
lol
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