In October I got someone else's mail on accident. It was a brochure from the ING NYC Marathon with detailed info on where to go and what to do when I arrived on race day. Pick up your bib here. Leave your bag there. Eat carbs the night before. It was clearly intended for someone who was running the marathon. In that moment, I wanted it to be for me. I want to run a marathon one day. But I'm kind of scared, too. I just started running a year ago and I wasn't in the best shape when I started so it's taken me a while to get to running 1-2 miles every day. Also, before I started running if someone had asked me if I could run a marathon, I'd have replied, "Yeah, sure, you know with the right shoes and training and motivation." Now I know it's much simpler and harder than that. To get to the marathon you have to have your head in the right space.
When I run, the first mile is hardest, I'm saying to myself "I'm tired. I'm going to stop. I'll run for one more song then turn around." I'm looking for the moment I can stop. Then when I get to a mile, it suddenly becomes much easier. I feel like I could go on and on, as if I'd run out of road before I ran out of will. Mile 3 is like smiling when you're not feeling happy. Ha ha. I'm still running, but I'd like to stop now. Ha ha. Can I stop now? I don't know what mile 4 is like because I haven't run that far yet.
That's what writing can feel like. I can feel swift and fleet as a fox for a large chunk of it, while other times I feel like I just want to stop and the only thing keeping me at my computer is will power and the promise that if I just get to the next chapter, I can stop. And there are times when the writing is clunky and not working but I'm doing it -just like the way you bike ride when you're first learning, all wobbles and near falls, but you move forward.
And the finish line? There isn't one, at least not yet. Maybe publishing is the finish line. I guess with a published book you don't feel the urge to go back and fix things (or do you? any opinions?) but until someone commits your book to paper, there's always something to tinker with.
In both writing and running it's a long-game. It's all about stamina and never giving up.
What keeps you going when you hit the second mile wall?
Here's the playlist I'm currently running to. (Spotify decided not to include two songs on my playlist - I have no idea why - Smart by Girl in a Coma and 212 by Azalea Banks.) (Also, I include the Taylor Swift song mostly to annoy my daughter.)
Showing posts with label writers block. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writers block. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Thursday, October 25, 2012
My Messy and My Neat
Right now, I'm invincible. Every day, it seems, I can write. The dread pirate writer's block has not reared it's nasty old head. I credit two things with my success: First, I only have a small window of time to write each day. This means the timer on my phone goes off and I have to hare off to pick up littlest from pre-school or hot foot it to a conference call before my writing can sputter to a stop. Nothing concentrates the mind like a deadline and having one or two hours a day to write makes me more productive than if I had oodles of time (at least I think it does, I haven't as yet, experienced oodles of time.)
The second thing that is helping me avoid writer's block is a two pronged approach I call Messy and Neat. When I feel the molasses creeping into my words, when I feel like the momentum is congealing and I might be in trouble I deploy the Messy button.
My Messy looks like this: I start writing something ridiculous. I let the stupid idea that popped into my head flourish like an ugly print on a button down shirt. Example: I had Mop looking through her dad's old journals and suddenly drug cartels, jaguars and mayan temples exploded into my head. These three ideas, you might be happy/sad to learn, did not make it into the book ultimately, but I didn't tamp them down. I went there. I let the stupid idea out into the light of day because I fear no stupid idea. It's not a waste of time (though it might feel like one while you're doing it - give over to the experience and don't worry about the stupid, is my suggestion.) For me, I was able to maintain momentum and exorcise some dumb ideas in the process. As a bonus, writing these scenes brought me to something else that I did use.
Now to my Neat. For me, Neat is about getting out of the tyrannical shadow of 50,000 other words. Words are shy things and sometimes, they need alone time. They don't always flow freely when they're attached to their many brethren. If I'm feeling the scene isn't flowing or is somehow soft in the middle (you want your scenes to have six pack abs, narratively speaking.) I open up a brand new document and paste my scene, warts and all in there. Maybe it's the clean, clear space of the new doc, or maybe it's just a psychological shift, but it works for me. Without the heavy weight of the rest of the story, the words flow more freely and the middle tightens up nicely.
So what methods do you employ to keep writer's block at bay?
The second thing that is helping me avoid writer's block is a two pronged approach I call Messy and Neat. When I feel the molasses creeping into my words, when I feel like the momentum is congealing and I might be in trouble I deploy the Messy button.
My Messy looks like this: I start writing something ridiculous. I let the stupid idea that popped into my head flourish like an ugly print on a button down shirt. Example: I had Mop looking through her dad's old journals and suddenly drug cartels, jaguars and mayan temples exploded into my head. These three ideas, you might be happy/sad to learn, did not make it into the book ultimately, but I didn't tamp them down. I went there. I let the stupid idea out into the light of day because I fear no stupid idea. It's not a waste of time (though it might feel like one while you're doing it - give over to the experience and don't worry about the stupid, is my suggestion.) For me, I was able to maintain momentum and exorcise some dumb ideas in the process. As a bonus, writing these scenes brought me to something else that I did use.
Now to my Neat. For me, Neat is about getting out of the tyrannical shadow of 50,000 other words. Words are shy things and sometimes, they need alone time. They don't always flow freely when they're attached to their many brethren. If I'm feeling the scene isn't flowing or is somehow soft in the middle (you want your scenes to have six pack abs, narratively speaking.) I open up a brand new document and paste my scene, warts and all in there. Maybe it's the clean, clear space of the new doc, or maybe it's just a psychological shift, but it works for me. Without the heavy weight of the rest of the story, the words flow more freely and the middle tightens up nicely.
So what methods do you employ to keep writer's block at bay?
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