Corey
asked
Jeff VanderMeer:
Jef, you've written plenty on the craft of writing, and also go out of your way to teach and spread your knowledge of the craft. How would you advise a person suffering from writer's block? I'm asking for a friend.
Jeff VanderMeer
This is a complicated question, and one where a diagnosis is hazardous to give from afar, so to speak. One answer is to forget the writing for a while and do something else entirely and do not try to write for a few weeks. Sometimes then it comes back to you. Another answer is to do automatic writing or some writing exercise where you're not trying to create a full story but just do some limited task. A third possibility is to take a classic folktale and re-tell it, or to take some favorite chapter from a favorite book, re-read it, then try to rewrite it yourself from memory, which creates variation that's interesting and may spark something. But there's a whole essay on writer's block in my Wonderbook that is probably better as something to read. And also other parts of the book.
More Answered Questions
Christopher Walborn
asked
Jeff VanderMeer:
As a reader, one of the best things about discovering a new author is the opportunity to discover additional writers through following the author's influences, peers, and the new writers championed by the author. What authors or specific works would you like to introduce to someone who's mostly familiar with "literary" classics? (I don't like the literary/genre dichotomy, but what easier way to describe it?)
Drew
asked
Jeff VanderMeer:
Jeff, you've created several awesome settings for your novels (Veniss, Area X, Ambergris) - but then you leave them, headed off to even more inventive places. Do you ever miss them, those old haunts? Slash do you ever think about going back? I was inspired to ask because I had a dream the other night where I was back in Ambergris during the festival... and it was a pleasant, if dangerous, pseudo-memory.
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