It’s the scourge of professional and hobby writers alike. I know, you’re thinking, “Writer’s block on your THIRD post of this so-called blog?! Pathetic.” The truth is I have plenty of topics on which to write humorous bloggy snippets. Some initial topics that were up for examination: the poop I just wiped from my son’s forehead, my humiliating meeting with a literary agent and my gender-confused turtles that I am resigned to take with me to a nursing home sixty years from now.
The problem is that I want to write something of substance. You see, my writers group meets on Thursday and I don’t have anything for them yet. I just participated in a writer’s conference that should have stoked a fire in me hot enough to cremate a horse but I have NOTHING. My mind is full of cobwebs, cough medicine and the shrieks of my son who moonlights as a pterodactyl.
My submissions to this writers group have been sporadic at best. I have used Roper as an excuse in every way possible and I think he’s starting to resent that fact. He actually signed “I am not your scapegoat,” to me the other morning. That or he was trying to scratch his nose with his left shoulder blade. I don’t know, my sign language skills aren’t that great.
The point is that I would like to bring something fabulous to my next writers group meeting. An essay or short story that draws them in with edible words and tantalizing twists. Woah, I just thought of a chocolate covered pretzel when I wrote that. Mmmmm… CONCENTRATE WOMAN!! Anyway, tantalizing and edible — you can see why Forehead Poop won’t work in this situation, right? Hence, my case of writer’s block.
Thanks for the LOL read! I needed that and I think you could just submit that for tonight:-)
So, at the risk of suggesting the impossible, consider writing for National Novel Writing Month. Even if you don’t do that, get the guy’s book and read through it, and set yourself a similar, if more achievable challenge, like writing a 5000 word story in three hours.
First, it means you can honestly look everyone in the eye and say, “I need three hours entirely to myself,” and disappear for a bit, and second, you can do it. It might be a crap story, but it’s a 5000 word story, and you can rescue the good nuggets out of it and turn it into a *good* 5000 word story later on.
I did NaNoWriMo once on a whim, and managed to whip out 50k words in about 12 days. Granted, I didn’t have any time-consuming commitments like children to distract me, but 50k words in 30 days is a pretty achievable goal, at only 1666 words per day; my third year, I did it (just barely: 51k words in 25 days) while also running a show as a stage manager in addition to my day job.
My point is that if you concentrate on bringing your A-game work to the table every time, you’ll never get anything done. If you concentrate on bring a lot of work and being proud of the copious volume with an awareness that there may be rescuable gems hidden within, you’ll actually make progress.
I will definitely attempt the NaNoWriMo in November! I tried two years ago, but ended up having neck surgery about 1.5 weeks in and just bagged it. Are you doing it again this year? I remember you doing it at the same time (I think it was your third year) and I could tell by your facebook statuses that you were kicking my arse on a daily basis :) It was great motivation!
Thanks for reminding me of this challenge – I’m up for it!
I haven’t decided yet. I’ll probably do something, whether it’s a novel or a play. It depends a lot on whether I’ve got a show actively going or not — I think the fall show is up and running at that point, so I should most likely be free enough to pursue my writerly diversions.