The last couple of weeks I’ve generally written something about writing or publishing on Fridays. It wasn’t intentional, just happened that way. But I’m thinking maybe I’ll make it a regular feature. When I first started up the original Cheeseburger at Journalspace I did quite a bit of writing about writing… before I was distracted.
Today I thought I’d ponder writers block. Just briefly, because I don’t have it, never get it, and I have four columns due by the end of the day. Oh, and a manuscript to rewrite.
I’m not being a dickhead about never getting writers block; I just don’t. That doesn’t mean however that I don’t occasionally stare at the screen with a big dollop of spittle oozing out of my mouth, motionless hands lying on the keyboard like a couple of dead skinless rats. It doesn’t mean I don’t get distracted by YouTube, or Fail Blog, or this joint, or your blogs, or whatever fine piece of televisual entertainment I’ve recorded on the Foxtel box upstairs.
But that’s not writers block, that’s weakness and laziness.
Some writers do get it, of course. Some poor bastards get it something terrible, sometimes for the simplest of reasons. Jim Minz the US editor/publisher on Final Impact was visiting my place recently with his family and told me a story about a very famous US sci-fi author who suffered crippling writers block for two or three years after he gave up smoking. Having a lit cigarette beside his keyboard or typewriter was such an important part of his productive ritual that taking it away meant taking away his ability to tell stories.
For me writers block is less an issue than “going tharn”, a phrase from the old Watership Down novel to explain what happens to a rabbit when it stops in the middle of the road transfixed by the onrushing headlights of a car. Deadlines can be like that. Sometimes they can come at you so quickly with such thunderous world ending clamor that you feel as though you are paralyzed, when really all you have to do is put one little rabbit’s paw in front of the other and get your furry little arse on the move.
That’s why I write in two hour blocks. There’s nothing remotely romantic in a literary sense about dividing your day up the way lawyers spoon their’s out in six minute increments. But it means that when I place arse to Aeron I’m not thinking in terms of some life crushing tsunami of words that’s about to plow me under, I’m only thinking about the next two hours. In fact not even that, since I have a little break at 55 minutes to get up, stretch around and maybe give the dog a bit of a scratch behind the ear.
Unless she’s been farting under my workbench of course. In that case there is no ear scratching, just harsh words and recriminations.
So, for those of you with looming deadlines, be they manuscripts or assignments or just a bit of fan fiction you wanted to get done, don’t think about the deadline or the impossible amount of work you have to get through to meet it. Just think about the very small amount of work you have directly in front of you. One screen, one page. That’s all you’re thinking about. There is an apt phrase from Weapons of Choice, something Karen Halabi’s mum used to say.
“Don’t try to eat the elephant in one bite.”
If anyone has any writing or editing questions they’d like me to look at over the next couple of Fridays feel free to pop them in below. I’ll try to answer them one at a time.
As a measure of how busy it gets around here occasionally, someone reminded me the other day that I was now writing for SBS. Indeed I am, but I had forgotten. The same way I sometimes forget that I still write for Penthouse. It’s a pretty sweet gig. They send me DVDs of upcoming shows and I write about them, or rather not so much about the shows as about the ideas behind them. The first DVD was a documentary about the Vatican, which I found more interesting than you might imagine because Jane and I visited there while we were in Rome on our honeymoon. Instead of reviewing the show I used it as an opportunity for riffing on the future of cities.
The link is here for anyone who cares.
There’s a story like that concerning Cambridge Uni (Trinity College I think – Henry VIII’s time). One of the halls was suffering rotting beams – great big irreplacable oak support beams, not the kind of thing you can just nip down to Melco and buy by the ute load.
Anyhoo, the architects and builders are scratching their heads, talking RSJs when an old burser pipes up, ‘I think I remember seeing something about this in the records, hang on a tick.”
He takes down a dusty old ledger, opens it and runs his finger down the column headed ‘future fund’ and there, entered way back when they first dug the foundation stone, was the assignment of a parcel of land that had been put aside to grow the oaks that would mature just in time for the repairs, a few hundred years later – today.
Wonder if Peter Costello’s future fund will have anything in it when the future arrives.
And, I forgot to add, the oak were still standing. That would NEVER happen here.
I am amused by Barnesm’s comment on the article.
It’s funny. I came here ages ago thinking “Birmo’s a writer. He’s an interesting writer. I haven’t read anything of his (AFAIK) and I’ve seen the play to Felafel that Arian did the other month, and that was a very interesting play too.
I had a little bit of hope that something about writing would crop up and frankly I couldn’t be arsed going through the archives to see if there were any. I casually followed the antics that cropped up and, of course, made my own introduction in an arrogant yet, playful way.
With a personal desire to actually write a novel, and having a half-decent piece at a standstill after 3 years, I’m certainly going to keep an eye on this.
And why not, I’ll not completely waste your time with compliments: Please explain to me what writers block is, or at least your definition thereof. I used to tell some of my friends that I had writers block simply because I hadn’t written anything out of lack of inspiration.
I’ve kicked out of that quite a while ago, but I want to understand “Was that really writers block? Or was I just being a slackarse?”
Yeah..what a trip. I just thought about this some as recently we have achieved what I consider for me some mile stones, but before I get there, ref writers block,..not that I am a WRITER as such, but my scribbles not taking place is due so far to the effin XBOX or OTHER distractions, so thats laziness and poor time management.
BUT, once i start, I get going and it seems to feed on itself. BUT there are also other issues.
A writer is like a CUSTOM made car, every writer is on a different track, different country, weather, time of day and so on, because we are all different, live in different places and at various levels of SKILL.
So what does thi mean, in my view.
WELL it means I cant copy JB’s Vehicle ( writing) set up, or Dirks, or JP’s and apply it to my vehicle for my track.
What I can do is take snippets from eaches set up and hard one knowledge and see how they apply for my car and track conditions..if that makes any sense at all.
Then like all novices, there is the NOT LISTEENING BIT or I TOLD YOU SO. I was asked had you planned out what you will do and your ending once. I had a plan and sort of an ending. The PLAN was VERY VERY loose,in hind site, it was shite and lacked detail. And thats ok for a starter, but I found as time progressed and things became bigger and slightly more complicated I needed a plan. thats just my take.
I wish though, I had planned out what I wanted some time ago, made up character lists because it would have saved so much time.
Best thing In my opinion you can do is ASK QUESTIONS and seek advice wherever you can and the rest is trail and error for what suits YOUR STYLE.
On the (more accurately described as lazy/distracted/whatever) writers block topic, I had an interesting suggestion from my girlfriend, which was to stop writing things in order. I gave it a go and leapt into a chunk from the middle of the story type thing I’m working on. Was like a revelation – a whole bunch of unexpected stuff poured out. Mind you, I’m a loooong way away from editing anything or trying to mash it together, so I don’t know if I’m tackling the issue or just postponing some pain til later on.
So on the questions front, its kind of an obvious one, but – do you ever write out of sequence? Or is it a purely linear start to finish sort of thing?
re hughsey’s oak beams – Did they have the sense to do it again? They would kill you for poaching the kings deer, they would prob burn down your village for pinching his oaks :)
Cool story Hughesy.
The opposite is true with some energy arguments. “The future of fuel is Hydrogen, despite the fact we can’t yet extract or process it very well yet, and storing it poorly will likely kill you. But we will invent this stuff soon, despite not paying for the research.”
Hughesy, that is a great story! JB, if I was a writer I’d be blaming a shit load of slack arseing on writers’ block. Bugger it, I might use that excuse anyway. I like the approach of setting out blocks of time, reminds me of how I used to approach uni assignments back in the day.
Re. Hughesy’s story. French Minister Colbert to LOUIS XIV – planted a forest for ships masts. Due date was sometime after the French Revolution – 80 years or so. The forest existed at least until the 50′s – seen photo’s. Industrial revolution plus colonial imports amongst other things rendered the idea obsolete.
I love this idea. You’re the second writer who has recommended writing in 2hour blocks. I love it.
Also, maybe you could write a post in the future about self-editing? In an ideal world we’d get our fabulous writer mentors to help, but some of us don’t have this luxury.
Or a post about writing realistic dialogue? Frick. I need help with that.
This is really, really interesting. Thank you.
I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts on ideas and inspiration. I find when I have an idea, I’m OK, I can write and edit for ages. If someone gives me a topic or an idea, I’m also fine (if not better). But other times I will sit around completely bereft of any ideas. Or I dismiss whatever comes into my brain as crap.
It’s that germinating of ideas that really frustrates me – and I don’t know if it’s a self-confidence thing or a very real lack of ability.
Excellent news. I could use a few tips.
I wrote a story a few years ago when I suffered a few months of horror insomnia and I’ve been putting off editing it/tidying it up ever since.
It was really easy. Kind of like the story wrote itself and I just took dictation, all I had to do was shut up and listen.
I don’t get writers block so much as writers phobia. I HATE the idea of being published and being in the public eye. I hate the way that writers these days have to do the whole traveling circus thing and do book tours and promotions and be nice to people. I’d probably thump someone.
I have always loved writing, I just don’t like the idea of what it means to be a writer.
So yes, I started coming here as a kind of field trip to the zoo because you seem so comfortable with that.
I’ve been thinking about pulling out my MS and trying to find a few hours a day where instead of fluffing about, I actually do some work on it. So its funny you should mention it today because Time Management has been my big issue.
I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on how you manage that. You’ve clearly got it down to a fine art, given your level of commitments.
If you hit your deadlines, you get paid and also get future work. Miss deadlines constantly and the projects dry up.
Ha! love how more people are talking about Hughseys comment than your blog!!!!!!!!!!
You rock girl.
JB lots of good points there, and yes the lure of playing soemthing silly (or not) on the computer rather than creating a litery masterpiece (or not) is a sweet siren call i am very familiar with.
wait a minute..you visited the vatican? didn’t you feel any pain?
I’d second Elenas Q. Particulary when to stop, get the feeling that lean can become scrawney very quickly. My Q would be “how much really needs to happen in the first chapter or two?” (in an unpublished author seeking agents scenario). General consensus seems to be alot but when I think of my favourite authors if they have interesting characters its just nice to see them potter about. Quite a few Stepehn Kings begin with the writer protagonist just potteringa round town. If we are in the company of a main charater for most of the book -is character development more important than plot sometimes?
Maybe if Birmos writers block was a bit stronger he wouldnt have a broken arm!
Tish-boom.. TY, try the veal
But did you read the link that led me to that story? About the tiles stashed away for the future in the Vatican?
On writers’ block – I don’t get that, I get severe approch avoidance which can affect one’s entire life. Women suffer greatly from this affliction – there is always a curtain to iron, cutlery to polish, not to mention those hard to get out stains that lurk at the bottom of the toilet bowl. Sigh.
Still, I’m really liking the dictation software – it adds a level of magic and poetry to transcription of writing to electronic text. I could procrastinate for ages on transcribing – I’m no typist and write first draft longhand. I’m currently working through piles of notebooks, scraps of paper, system cards and getting it into the computer.
Lovin it.
Oh, and I forgot – @ Elena.
Get in touch with me at my writing blog (http://annettehughesbooksandwriting.blogspot.com) – I’m doing a workshop on the self editng thing in a couple of weeks – I’ll email the materials to you if you want.
I have the notebook thing going on too. For some reason my best ideas come to me when I’m either asleep, in the shower, or tending to the dreaded chores. I think its what you’re saying, Hughesy. Whatever I’m doing I’m always up for an excuse to do something else.
Fluff, fluff fluff.
Gotta learn to focus.
@ Elena again. This is gold: http://www.holtuncensored.com/hu/the-ten-mistakes/
Oh and don’t forget the mess those FKN zombie bastards made. FKN Dust.
Great bit of advice Michael Williams from UQ ATSIS unit once gave me, re: procrastination and perfectionism – ‘It doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be DONE.’
John-
“A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for anyone else”
I for one hope you do write a “writers’ on writing” piece in your blog, even if you can only manage it occasionally, because it would be interesting, I’m sure.I have a lot of time for your writing style and I always find it engaging, so I’d listen to what you think.
This one is no exception. I don’t agree with every point you made, but still, very good to read and learn from.
The one thing I don’t quite see eye-to-eye with you about is “laziness” That’s the pejorative moral term we use ( a *lot*, in Australia) for something that runs deeper.
Where writing is concerned,what is laziness, really? I wonder if it’s actually lack of confidence; giving in to a feeling one is a hopeless writer? Sure, some people aren’t going to do that and they’ll get their stuff out there and get recognition. But there are people who are good writers but they give up on themselves daily. Laziness is a cover.
Also, I am careful nowadays about admiring some people just because they push on with a blogs/ essays/ articles /whatever and they are not (your definiton of) lazy; they seem very ,very productive if flow is a measure, when actually, what they write is all quantity, little quality; Now that’s laziness.
Whereas someone else has a head brimming with good ideas; they’re good writers, but they lack any confidence/ self belief- so they don’t put out screeds of content and they find it hard- I know which I prefer. In fact a lot of people who put lots of stuff out there are absolute crap at writing because they end up replicating one idea or one mode of expression; but they think they’re pretty fantastic and people tell them “Oh I so admire your output, here’s a pat on the back”.
I think it’s easy to confuse productivity and mania.
Writers block gets you when you feel the fear, the sense that others don’t care what you write, or that what you are writing is crap. You have to face the fear and do it anyway, to quote someone else who didn’t have writer’s block – someone tell us their name please.
No probs with focus quokka – I can focus for days, weeks, months – on the worng fuckin thing!
In light of the oak beams and the future fund scenario – I reckon it’s time to reinstitute the monarchy, with beheading etc for poaching of the future fund.
I reckon Charles could be up for it, but you would probably have to rely on Duke Harry of a NAZI to do the raping, killiing and villiage pillaging.
Rerule bloody Brittania.
Where are you HAVOCK, my trusty game keeper? And where are my bloody ducks, man?
Gone to the mainland to go A-viking but I never understood why he needed the ducks.
My liege.
:)
Oh this is seriously a great a post. Thank you for writing this!
I think the two hour increments of time is an absolutely fantastic idea.
I think Abigail and Hughesy raise some very valid and good points.
In my personal experience, I have loads of ideas. I also have my purse, laptop case and desk stuffed with detailed notes and even outlines for these ideas.
Which all adds up to several stories that are all but written. When the time comes to just put everythng together a voice inside beats me down and berates me to the point I crawl away with not much onfidence intact.
And that’s my current problem with writing.
But anyway I suppose my question would be how do you juggle multiple projects–being able to switch gears in one day from novel writing to column writing? For example how do you work on a serious, heady topic for The Monthly and then write a lighter, funnier column for Blunty all in one day? How do you slip so easily from one voice to another?
That’s more of a loaded question, I suppose.
I thought of a question. I’m really curious about this actually.
I was wondering if you used to write things down in the Felafel days . Sorry, I’m sure they were more than felafel days ! but it was your first work (as I understand it). Did you start to write in primary school and teachers noticed your talent , or did it come directly out of experience?
It’s probably not the kind of question you are anticipating because it’s about your writing background, but I’m just trying to figure out if it all just switched on in your head one day because of a set of experiences, or were you the funny guy telling all the jokes in the group houses and soembody suggested you write it all down, or ..?
See, when the other week you asked peeps what they got from the BT Blog, I should really have said I like the freedom in it; you’re one of the *freest* writers around (with regard to your approach to social issues and yuor writing style) and I later wondered, is that because you never thought about it- as an ingenue you simply chronicled your experiences w/o concern for the “supposed to’s ” – or did you slowly develop a voice.
Is that 12 million questions? I’m only asking one except not successfuly!
“Rabbit in the headlights”, yes I know that feeling. To be honest it generally stems from not me getting started early enough and leaving it to the last moment; “cat crossing the road” syndrome?
Indeed Hughesy, the Cambridge colleges are still big landowners round these parts. In fact the house I’m sitting in right now used to be owned by one; Downing college, as in Downing street.
Now with less FKN.
When I say ‘lazy’, of course I’m talking about myself. There’s some good questions here, which I’ll largely address in stand alone posts. But I’ll have a think about some of the others and probably reply at length on Sunday arvo. Right now I have to pack for travel to Canberra. Demons to fight and all. I may not get a chance to put a link to the Geek up tomorrow morning, since I have a relatively early flight. But it will be there.
Be careful, the dullness rubs off after a while.
“Unless she’s been farting under my workbench of course. In that case there is no ear scratching, just harsh words and recriminations.”
I also have a Labrador under the desk, the farting tends to mean I’ve made a mistake in feeding her.
Nevertheless she makes a fine footstool and she thinks my desk makes a fine indoor kennel.
“write a lighter, funnier column for Blunty ”
Jennicki – there is nothing light nor funny about the oncoming Zombieapoclypse…….
“there is nothing light nor funny about the oncoming Zombieapoclypse”
There is if you’re a zombie – it’s like the Benny Hill show for them.
Jennicki, that is so right…I am the same except I tend to outline verbal onto my MP3 player buy when it comes time to take those ideas and flesh them out, it’s like Welcome to Blankville. Of course, it would probably help if I pushed myself to work on them while they are fresh and new and not after I have done everything else that might need doing… Steven Pressfield (http://blog.stevenpressfield.com/) had a great (either that or I’m just easily impressed) item on his Blog yesterday on ‘self-talking’ ourselves into doing things to overcome that resistance/block…
JB, top idea to have some writing on writing posts – please make it so…
This ‘Managing Multiple projects’ thing.
CAUTION: analogy strained to breaking point.
I enjoy & appreciate the wave after wave of heavily laden trays of tasty nibbles being all the disparate blogs, colums, articles and foody pieces. For me the horses-doovers, tasty as they are, are no substitute for an 2 inch thick bronto-steak of a novel with crispy fat, lots of salt & slathered in Birmo explodey goodness (like a good green peppercorn sauce.)
Do you ever worry that preparing all these canapes are distracting you from your Mains, or is the diversity important to keep you from getting bored?
Or perhaps it’s a personal income-stream thing that you’d rather not discuss, if so please forgive the impertinance.
Ooops, Hughesy I ate’em!. But as soon as our Imperial overlords let me back onto the NOW FLOWING swamps up HOME, Yes folks, the wimmera has water and maybe the odd swamp now, I figure a DUCK SEASON might be the go.
BUT, thinking like the future fund, I been cultivating me own little stash of feathered friends, awaiting the day, normally around the 23rd of March ( we got married on duck opening & Yes i still went), then I’ll let rip and send ya a couple of nice wood ducks, if we are lucky, some black ducks as well. ………gimme more water please…..
Hughesy you’re a champ ;) Thanks!
Hughesy, thanks for that link.
Jen sounds like you’re dealing with a particularly vicious inner critic.
At the risk of being howled at by the menfolk for producing something uncharacteristically (nhah hah I got one in Hughesy) girly, have you seen a book called ‘The Artist’s Way’ by Julia Cameron? Its kind of a 12 step program towards freeing up your creativity and working your way out of self sabotage.
I did it with a bunch of friends online years ago and we all discussed our progress and it was surprisingly (snigger, there’s another one) liberating.
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Yeah I think you’re right quokka. Pretty sure there isn’t really isn’t anything anyone can do about that besides me.
Sparty I do take my Zombieapocolypse very seriously and am sort of wondering why JB hasn’t made it a serious, heady topic at The Monthly. Are Zombies not priority for thinky readers over there?
Oh and quokka thank you for that book suggestion–I will check it out when I go to the library this week!
My problem with writing of late is very simple.
Every time I sit down to try to write something, someone or something interupts me. I have been a bit more productive lately but that is due to heading off to a study room at the campus library and shutting the door.
Otherwise, I can’t seem to get any time to write anymore. It is always commandeered by a need to drive someone somewhere, work on lecture notes, deal with students, put out fires, solve the latest crisis, etc.
Sometimes . . . I despair for my writing future. It always feels like there is something in the way. Worse yet, when I do write, it feels like my skills have gotten rusty.
Perhaps that is something worth talking about. Writing is much akin to singing, playing music and the like. It is a very perishable skill that can atrophy with disuse.
Respects,
Murph
On the Outer Marches