Being Stuck Redux
I got a couple of great comments on yesterday’s post about Being Stuck. And can I just point out how very international this blog is, what with commenters from Wales and Canada? (Wait, does Canada count as a different country? Just kidding.) I would also like to mention the different belief systems of those who read this blog. We’ve got your rednecks and we’ve got your Zen masters. (Don’t tell Derek I called him a master, he’ll get mad at me.)
And then, in the synchronistic way that the universe seems to work, today I got an email from Anne Wayman. No, not a personal one, I’m on her mailing list. But the point is I seem to get these emails sporadically and I’ve not gotten one in a long time. Today’s topic was quite timely, however, as it was about “The Ebb and Flow of Creativity: Sometimes You’ve Got to Slog Through.”
Anne talks about a technique she calls “bookending” in which you call or email a friend, tell them your plans (ie, I’m going to write for an hour), follow through on your actual plans, and then call or email to report it finished.
She also talks about slogging. I call this “the only way out is through.” You’re not going to like this, but sometimes when you are stuck the only thing to do is write your way out of it. This is especially true for me when I am writing on deadline, and it is through having crazy deadlines for copywriting that I have learned to slog along until the project is finished. The funny thing is, if you read work produced during a slog or work produced during a fit of inspiration, odds are good you won’t be able to tell the difference.
If there is not a looming deadline, then I am far more apt to subscribe to the “it is what it is” theory, as mentioned in the Zen master’s comments on yesterday’s post.
Sometimes when you are stuck, you are just stuck. Resistance is futile so don’t even try. Go take a walk outside, or take a bath or go climb a mountain or sit and knit or whatever. Anything to just get away from it and give your mind something else to do. Try pretending you are not a writer and you really don’t care if you ever write another word again.
And then be sure to let me know how that works out for you.
Oh, by the way–all this being stuck and talking about it seems to have done the trick–because I started writing this morning. And now I am in love with the world, the way I always am when I am actually writing.
And, by the way by the way stay tuned because tomorrow I am going to post Part One of my series of writing and publishing erotic romance.
robert bourne
I find two shots of Jack Daniels and try again tomorrow works well..but I don’t have any deadlines…:)
Charlotte
That is my favorite cure for being stuck so far! Whiskey is a fine cure for just about anything.