Writer's block

g black, that comment is only a comment and has nothing to do with the above question. ha ha. points finger half-enthusiastically. youre not reading posts again.

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dear si,

i dont rightly know what you should do. it has been my experience that working on one project at a time is best, but you should also consider how strong the pull is. if youre lulled into another way of thinking, go to town and play with the idea. ultimately, you'll decide to keep it in the story or youll decide to branch it off later.

maybe it's a bout of brilliance and you should definitely pursue that line of writing, but for me, more often than not, when i come across something very demanding while im at work on a project, that tangent only SEEMS brilliant and it's really just a blanket to hide the hard part i'm working on in the rough draft. in other words, your mind may be hustling you. just some thinking, but i wouldnt stop what im doing because that's how nothing gets done. something better is always a better start than making the current project better.
-kabol

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He might have read it. She asked for advice, and he gave it. I'd be interested to hear how that helps though.

I've never had it bad, but I also don't write if I don't have an idea I'm afraid of losing, which is advice from The Palahniuk, the 'shit or get off the pot' idea.

I get ideas from hearing about the world, other stories, and thinking of how I could twist storylines I already have to make them more interesting. I don't think strictly for my story, but rather see what I can come up with in my head, and occasionally an idea crosses my mind which I realize must be written.

Oh yeah, and keep lots of notes. Carry a pen and paper with you. Don't use it if you don't need it, like if you run out of ideas on the mind, refer to the notes.

i think the answer is it just depends on what you've written in the meantime, whether you follow one book or the other. If you start getting a huge spark of inspirado going, stick with it. also, you may find what you've written fits into your first book somewhere else down the line and you'll already have it handy.

the important thing is that with writer's block on one front, you've managed to keep on plowing through and writing on another.

5 lines and 2 words...come on, Gorod, you can do better than that.

But props for being honest. I guess it was your way of saying you unintentionally answered the question.

I appreciate the input. I usually find inspiration from experience and meeting new people, learning perspectives of other individuals, etc. I think I'll keep the free writing handy in case I can find a place for it in my story. If not, I can always come back to it later.

An author told me once, "There is no such thing as writer's block." Thats all I have to say.

Writers block sucks. I've had it and know what its like.

In fact I've even so much as put a book on hold for another one like you suggested. I don't reccomend this.

Really it just takes a lot of thinking, and focusing. If your ADHD enough, meditation is not unnecessary. But, usually before I write I outline how my plot goes and usually I know where I'm going.

Try writing the last chapter to the book first then work up to it. That's my best advice. Otherwise Experiment; try what's best for your hand and mind.

writers block is why i am here instead of writing the short story i was supposed to have handed in yesterday.

i command this recant:

oddly enough this thread popped into my linear thinking this afternoon and it's odd that it's here again..

assessing, i relived in gander my current collection of half done stories. so many rewrites. retarded. the point is, most of those started as one story and morphed into something else midstream, and some of those midstreamers have been grafted into stories all their own. kind of how chuck was writing project mayhem for survivor and put in another book later instead.

so, in retrospect..
i'm thinking it may be a form of writer's block, but if you have another idea that is strong, i think it can be healthy to confer with that side subject for a while and get back to it later after you've exhausted the side venture.

the point is, i dont think most writers start with a story in mind and write that story. i know that i fumble a lot. i'm a beginning writer after all and have to make it through this stage and that's all there is to it. if while working on a book you decide to go somewhere else separately, i dont see the downfall at all.

my global thoughts
-kabol

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If your 'writer's block' is only relative to a single project, I wouldn't be looking at writer's block itself as what you have to overcome. If you're writing, you don't have writer's block, the way I see it. If you're writing and you're coming to a block and can't continue on with a story and can't write anything else, you're blocked. If you can write something else then you're doing fine, you just need to get better at writing to be able to finish something. You need to know your style, understand your characters. Take a look at all of the characters you've created and see if they line up, what similarities do they have? Is there something you've been trying to say, over and over again, in a lot of different voices and stories?

Take Chuck's advice: Shit or get off the pot. Don't try to force something, especially if something else is coming to you naturally. If you have something to write, write it.

writers block, as most people see it (an inability to write) doesnt exist. you can write, frustration with yourself isnt inability.

heres some cool things i do.
1 - if you're stuck, describe the scene. whats it smell like, sound like? whats unusual about this place? why does your narrator love it? hate it? that last one, is a little counter to what we learn here on the cult, but anything you dont like can be removed later, or rewritten. do it anyway.

2 - fuck the internal editor. i happen to know he likes to be tied up and thrown in the closet for long periods of time. this little fucker is responsible for most of the writers "block" in the world.

3 - remember, there is no bad writing until you look at it against the whole of your story. if you dont have a whole story, how the fuck do you know your writing is bad? hell, published authors sometimes need to know this, and do not. anne rice doesnt edit, and seems to be assured shes doing it right the first time. lies. dont be anne rice.

4 - read something that gives you a boner to write, better yet, read something that pisses you off (nick walker does it for me) you will write out of anger and the belief you can do it better.