This is a static copy of In the Rose Garden, which existed as the center of the western Utena fandom for years. Enjoy. :)
We've got a lot of writers... I thought it might be good to have a general writing thread for tips/questions/suggestions/etc.
So here's mine to start:
How do you get over writer's block?
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How do you get over writer's block?
Free-writing...theoretically. Though I haven't been able to get over my writer's block in a loooooong time, really. Maybe I should put my knowledge to practice.
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I second the free-writing. I've been in a state of on/off writer's block for years, and have only just crawled out of it. It was mostly thanks to a writer named Owen Marshall, a local short-story bloke who did a two day workshop in my city just before I went on holiday. He was just a good guy in general, but his little exercises helped me to silence the inner editor long enough to get shit down on paper, and I've found since then that I'm doing a lot better. I actually finished a twenty-thousand word "short" story on the weekend, and am so happy I could just dance all day.
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Free-writing is good, I think of a random idea and just start to just write.
I used to copy words that interested me out of the dictionary, so maybe that'll give you some help.
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I ask for a homework assignment from another writer friend. This kind of thing makes me start thinking. Also maybe look into writing communities that do prompt challanges with a deadline. Dealines sometimes really help me get writing.
Here is an example of a homework assignment.
Prompt: Blessings in the darkness
Include two or three of the following:
Candle
olive oil
pink ribbon tied around someone's neck
undone braids
fedora
green tea
"Everyone thinks they know me."
empty bottle of pills
a bizzare modern art piece
Take some musical inspriation from: Neko Case
People Got a lot of Nerve: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXl870NoF4E
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^ That got me thinking. Maybe we should do like a weekly prompt assignment on IRG where people can participate and after so many days, we close the prompt and critique. It's an idea.
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^
That's a good idea. I like a prompts for getting started, as long as they're short, under 1000 words.
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Well, someone or I can make a thread for it if anybody wants it.
edit: If someone has a prompt and wants to make it, go ahead. Otherwise I'm going to wait for Alithea to respond to my PM for permission to use her prompt, but I don't know how often she signs on, so feel free to make the first move.
Last edited by spoon-san (10-06-2009 08:36:16 PM)
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spoon-san wrote:
Well, someone or I can make a thread for it if anybody wants it.
That sounds like a very good idea to me. Might even get rid of this goddamn writer's block.
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Cool. I'm not going to do it unless I get a PM from Alithea to use her prompt, but as in my edit, anyone who has a prompt can go right ahead because I don't know how long it will be until I get that response.
But taking my Narrative and Description course a year ago, the thing that angered me was how little actual writing we did. I thought we needed prompts every week, but our professor was too busy rambling about wholly unrelated nonsense to where I derived little of any benefit from the course.
I think having something like this going would be highly beneficial.
I haven't worked with fiction-oriented prompts as much as I have with non-fiction. Like I remember a neat idea was taking a quote and writing a paper where the thesis is somehow connected or inspired by that quote. I might put an example in Only Light's misc writing thread in IFD of what I did for that assignment.
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Oh nice, good idea for a thread, hollow.
lex: Free-writing is good, I think of a random idea and just start to just write.
Forgive my ignorance, I don't really know what Free-writing is - is it what you described, lex? Just writing something about a random topic?
How do you get over writer's block?
For me a couple ways, none of them successful 100% of the time.
a) turn on a song that has the 'feeling' in it I'm trying to create in the piece
b) make an amv instead that is the same 'feeling theme'. This can put me in the mood. Maybe for other people (like artists or cooks) it could be doing something else creative to stir your juices (so to speak) in a different way
c) read old reviews for ideas and incentive
d) work on a different fanfic
e) give up and read other people's fanfiction. Which often puts me back in the mood
As you can see I find writing really mood-oriented and motivated by emotion (which I deliberately try to stir up in order to stir up my writing). It sounds so weird when I analyze it - is anyone else the same? I remember that someone here once wrote (I think it might have been Coco) that watching angsty AMVs actually blocked them from writing. So interesting.
Having said that I get so stuck on some pieces that they never get written and live on my computer permanently. Usually that's because I made the mistake of:
a) not forcing myself to write them in one sitting, or several consecutive sittings (which is my only way to get shorts done)
b) re-reading it too many times; compulsive editing has taken over
c) not being able to do the ending soon enough (I struggle with endings)
d) not finishing it within a certain timeframe. With that particular error 101 I then absolutely loathe the story the next time I read it - I see how crap my writing was before I made some increment improvement in it (which I will then see as crap a month later)
I reckon writers can be their own worse enemies. It was up to some of us we'd delete all our work and set our computer on fire in a fit of Tokiko-induced rage. Put your hands up if you feel me.
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Thanks for all the responses!
But writer's block was just the example -- feel free to post other writing concerns here as well.
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sharnii wrote:
Oh nice, good idea for a thread, hollow.
lex: Free-writing is good, I think of a random idea and just start to just write.
Forgive my ignorance, I don't really know what Free-writing is - is it what you described, lex? Just writing something about a random topic?
How do you get over writer's block?
For me a couple ways, none of them successful 100% of the time.
a) turn on a song that has the 'feeling' in it I'm trying to create in the piece
b) make an amv instead that is the same 'feeling theme'. This can put me in the mood. Maybe for other people (like artists or cooks) it could be doing something else creative to stir your juices (so to speak) in a different way
c) read old reviews for ideas and incentive
d) work on a different fanfic
e) give up and read other people's fanfiction. Which often puts me back in the mood
As you can see I find writing really mood-oriented and motivated by emotion (which I deliberately try to stir up in order to stir up my writing). It sounds so weird when I analyze it - is anyone else the same? I remember that someone here once wrote (I think it might have been Coco) that watching angsty AMVs actually blocked them from writing. So interesting.
Having said that I get so stuck on some pieces that they never get written and live on my computer permanently. Usually that's because I made the mistake of:
a) not forcing myself to write them in one sitting, or several consecutive sittings (which is my only way to get shorts done)
b) re-reading it too many times; compulsive editing has taken over
c) not being able to do the ending soon enough (I struggle with endings)
d) not finishing it within a certain timeframe. With that particular error 101 I then absolutely loathe the story the next time I read it - I see how crap my writing was before I made some increment improvement in it (which I will then see as crap a month later)
I reckon writers can be their own worse enemies. It was up to some of us we'd delete all our work and set our computer on fire in a fit of Tokiko-induced rage. Put your hands up if you feel me.
Yeah, exactly like that. You just go on a random tangent to get your brain like going. Sort of like how you warm up before you do exercises.
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Hehe lex, who knew I was doing it just then. Well in that case I do it all the time - and perhaps that means this forum is actually good for writer's block.
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Yes, sometimes it's a great spring board for ideas and dialogue between people.
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Detail matters. If some guy was walking on the street, name the street, maybe include an address, describe the guy in question. Be specific. It's better to give exact numbers than to say there was a lot of something. How many and how much? Be specific. If there are flowers, tell me what kind they are. Stars in the sky? If you can give me a constellation, that would be nice. The wind was blowing? Okay, what direction? He was tall? Okay, what measurements? Same goes with time. Give me an hour and minute, about. You don't need to go insane, but it really, really helps your writing. Being vague makes you come off as an amateur right away.
Also, don't be wordy. Don't use words that are complex and confusing just because they are complex and confusing. It's good to have a good vocabulary, but don't be a show off. It's annoying.
Check your facts. If you are making a reference of some kind, make sure you know what it is you are talking about. Please?
Be concise. Less is more. The less words you need to get your point across, the better. People tend not to have good attention spans, either.
Though there are exceptions to everything.
Oh, and check grammar. A lot. I will not lie and say that I can proof read something fifteen or twenty times and I will still miss a grammatical error that I might only notice a month or so later. Yeah...
Last edited by spoon-san (10-13-2009 03:25:19 PM)
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Sorry if this posts twice.
A note on grammar:
For a funny read on grammar -- yes you read that right -- I recommend Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss. She's British so if you're American all the rules won't line up exactly, but she is hilarious.
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hollow: For a funny read on grammar -- yes you read that right -- I recommend Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss.
Got a link? Sounds like a good read.
spoon: Detail matters.
I agree and disagree at the same time (fun fun! ). As a reader I find I do like detail in what I read - but only just enough. And that 'just enough' is a very tricky balance. I want enough info for my imagination to start heading in the right direction but too much detail, and there's nothing left for me to imagine. Plus I start getting bored and skimming.
Maybe that's a preference of mine...I've found I can't bear the long descriptive passages in LOTR, and although I'm an Anne Rice fan, I'll only read the first paragraph of her glowing descriptions of how insanely beautiful the vampire is and then I'll skip the next five paragrahs of description. But some people love it I know. So it's a bit of a balance as a writer I guess, and it depends on your audience.
In my own writing I think I still describe a bit too much, god-mod to the readers if you will. It's a fault. But it's hard to stop.
Also, don't be wordy. Don't use words that are complex and confusing just because they are complex and confusing. It's good to have a good vocabulary, but don't be a show off. It's annoying.
That's so true, spoon. And if the words don't flow you really notice them, which is often the case with really big words. So I'd add to this tip be careful with your synonyms. A really good synonym still might be sucky where you're inserting it in, as opposed to your original word.
Be concise. Less is more.
Hell yeah! And hard to do. Writers are sort of in love with the sound of their own writing and as my brother (a fellow writer) and I were discussing the other day, apparently a big fault of beginning authors is using a bizarre amount of adverbs.
Though there are exceptions to everything.
Amen!
Oh, and check grammar. A lot. I will not lie and say that I can proof read something fifteen or twenty times and I will still miss a grammatical error that I might only notice a month or so later. Yeah...
This is where betas and/or editors shine. And in a pinch reviewers.
It doesn't matter how long I sit on something and re-edit it I will always always miss something. In my old job (promotional writing) we had a rule that you had to have a letter/brochure/whatever edited by at least two other people before you could send it. That's because we all have these blind spots we just skip over without even knowing we're doing it.
Actually something fun we could do here is tell our own blind spots - start lists. Maybe then we'll notice them more.
Blind spot 1) I use 'could of' instead of 'could have', forgetting that 'could've' is really 'could have'. I think it's cos of how I talk...
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Yeah, I agree about not getting too nitty gritty with details, but it's a good thing to keep in mind. But that's more or less what I meant about not going overboard with it.
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sharnii wrote:
hollow: For a funny read on grammar -- yes you read that right -- I recommend Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss.
Got a link? Sounds like a good read.
Yup, here's the Wiki site:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eats,_Shoots_&_Leaves
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hollow_rose wrote:
For a funny read on grammar -- yes you read that right -- I recommend Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss. She's British so if you're American all the rules won't line up exactly, but she is hilarious.
This book is awesome and I love it. Being obsessive about grammar and punctuation myself, I can easily relate to the things she goes on about.
I have her book on manners, too (Talk to the Hand!), but I haven't read it yet.
I'm going through a bout of writer's block myself, so maybe some of the ideas in this thread can help me out, too...
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Imaginary Bad Bug wrote:
hollow_rose wrote:
For a funny read on grammar -- yes you read that right -- I recommend Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss. She's British so if you're American all the rules won't line up exactly, but she is hilarious.
This book is awesome and I love it. Being obsessive about grammar and punctuation myself, I can easily relate to the things she goes on about.
I have her book on manners, too (Talk to the Hand!), but I haven't read it yet.
I'm going through a bout of writer's block myself, so maybe some of the ideas in this thread can help me out, too...
...I didn't realize she had a book on manners, I'll have to read that one next.
Yeah mainly my problem with writing at the moment is revisions....I can't ever motivate myself to do them, because they feel so much like work. You don't even get the fun of creating something for the first time its just....slogging through.
Anyone have any suggestions for working on revisions/writing a second draft?
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hollow: Yeah mainly my problem with writing at the moment is revisions....I can't ever motivate myself to do them, because they feel so much like work.
Damn right. I concur 150%.
Ummmm suggestions? *looks blank*
I guess I remember that back in the swirling mists of the distant past...I used to have a beta.
And when I did, their comments and suggestions made revisions a HELL of a lot easier, and were a motivation in and of themselves. So there's an idea. Kinda.
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I can go back for technical related things, but content revisions makes me want to pull my hair out.
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sharnii wrote:
Ummmm suggestions? *looks blank*
I guess I remember that back in the swirling mists of the distant past...I used to have a beta.
And when I did, their comments and suggestions made revisions a HELL of a lot easier, and were a motivation in and of themselves. So there's an idea. Kinda.
I think that's a good idea, sharnii -- half the purpose of a beta is to check for continuity and sense, and they also tend to be a hell of lot more objective about extraneous content than the author themselves. Personally I enjoy revising with a beta in tow, because I've been lucky enough to have betas who are enthusiastic about the content of the story in the first place, and I love seeing how people respond to what I've written. It makes going back and changing things far more interesting and rewarding if you can see the reason why you're doing it, and have someone to guide you along the way.
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