Cintia
asked
Victoria Lamb:
Hi, my name is Cintia and I'm from Argentina. Being a writer is what I want the most in this world, nothing makes me happier than writing, but I'm more and more frustrated with each passing day, because I've been blocked for 3 years. And it is not that I have an unfinished story. I have NOTHING AT ALL. A blank page in front of me, that only makes me sadder... Is there a way to overcome this? How do you handle it?
Victoria Lamb
Hi Cintia! So sorry I missed your previous question! (I get hundreds of emails a day, the notification must have slipped past me.)
This sounds like a question of confidence. I was blocked as a poet for about three or four years once, and what released me was having my fifth child. I'm not suggesting you should have a baby! But there was something about that 'creative' event that freed the poet in me.
Maybe try a different kind of creativity for a while, see if it suggests things for your writing? I'm thinking painting, drawing, photography, sculpture ... Anything that will engage the artist in you but in a different medium. That might help you reach the blocked words in your head.
I am rarely blocked as a novelist, except when I'm being too lazy to write. But I see prose-writing as more of a job, not an art, and I think that helps me not to be blocked. (You just turn up and do your job, don't you? You don't agonize about it.) So if the above 'creative' suggestion does not work, maybe a more prosaic, technical approach might work instead. For instance, you could use writing exercises to ease you back. Write 100 words from the point of view of a particular character or object (the life story or view point of a coin in someone's pocket is a popular one). Or simply write any old words for ten minutes, not worrying what comes out, and keep doing this every day until you feel easier in yourself about the act of writing. A lack of belief in yourself as a writer tends to be what blocks you, so remove the necessity for what you write to be brilliant and polished, and you should be able to start writing again.
I did some poetry-writing exercises for a magazine called Mslexia once, under my real name of Jane Holland. They're for poets but contain some useful exercises for combating block. Some of them are available for free download. Here's the link to one: https://mslexia.co.uk/pdfs/workshops/...
Good luck!
This sounds like a question of confidence. I was blocked as a poet for about three or four years once, and what released me was having my fifth child. I'm not suggesting you should have a baby! But there was something about that 'creative' event that freed the poet in me.
Maybe try a different kind of creativity for a while, see if it suggests things for your writing? I'm thinking painting, drawing, photography, sculpture ... Anything that will engage the artist in you but in a different medium. That might help you reach the blocked words in your head.
I am rarely blocked as a novelist, except when I'm being too lazy to write. But I see prose-writing as more of a job, not an art, and I think that helps me not to be blocked. (You just turn up and do your job, don't you? You don't agonize about it.) So if the above 'creative' suggestion does not work, maybe a more prosaic, technical approach might work instead. For instance, you could use writing exercises to ease you back. Write 100 words from the point of view of a particular character or object (the life story or view point of a coin in someone's pocket is a popular one). Or simply write any old words for ten minutes, not worrying what comes out, and keep doing this every day until you feel easier in yourself about the act of writing. A lack of belief in yourself as a writer tends to be what blocks you, so remove the necessity for what you write to be brilliant and polished, and you should be able to start writing again.
I did some poetry-writing exercises for a magazine called Mslexia once, under my real name of Jane Holland. They're for poets but contain some useful exercises for combating block. Some of them are available for free download. Here's the link to one: https://mslexia.co.uk/pdfs/workshops/...
Good luck!
More Answered Questions
Patricia O'Reilly
asked
Victoria Lamb:
Addicted to social Media, Victoria? I am envious - it suggests a great facility with it - whereas I battle. I'm delighted to read others, but am a reluctant poster - my publisher insisted, so I have a dithering, unsure presence on SM. Do you write as well as howl!!??? Good wishes from the sunny suburbs of Dublin Patricia www.patriciaoreily.net
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