Un-stick Yourself!
I’ve talked about how it’s easier to keep going if you are already writing...but how do you restart if you’re stuck?
Here are eight tricks that work for me (your mileage will vary).
1. I get up at 4 or 5 AM to write. The higher functioning parts of my brain are off when I plop down at the keyboard at this insane hour. Sometimes I start to write before procrastination kicks in.
2. Coffee, in small bursts can overcome inertia. Too much is bad. Trust me; I was at once drinking 16 cups a day. Not good. I’m down to 4-6 cups.
3. Chocolate. Sugar rush and endorphin-like chemicals. Pimples and sugar crash to contend with.
4. Exercise. Blood to brain = a good thing.
5. Music. Eight out of ten times music will get me going. I’ll even construct play lists for certain projects or characters which I’ll then listen to whenever I write on that project or in that character’s voice. Hearing key songs will instantly snap me into writing mode. Of course after listening to these same songs a million times, you may never be able to hear them again without screaming.
6. Watch a DVD. When I really can’t write I’ll pop on a movie and watch it in the corner of my monitor as I write. More often than not, I’ll just end up watching the thing. But if its one I have seen many times, sometimes I can write. The entire point of this is to keep my posterior in the chair at the computer. More time at the keyboard = a greater chance to write. I remember watching CRIMSON TIDE over and over while I wrote some of the space combat scenes with Captain Keyes. The influence is glaringly obvious.
7. Three sentences. A trick from Roger Zelazny. Just write three lousy sentences. You can quit after that. You’ll be surprised how often this frees you up and you keep writing. The trick is to really give yourself permission to stop after three sentences. With the pressure off sometimes magic happens.
8. A deadline. This is the ultimate motivator! When an editor is paying you to deliver on a specific date, the fear of missing that deadline is like hot coals to the feet.
If you have any tricks, feel free to share.
Here are eight tricks that work for me (your mileage will vary).
1. I get up at 4 or 5 AM to write. The higher functioning parts of my brain are off when I plop down at the keyboard at this insane hour. Sometimes I start to write before procrastination kicks in.
2. Coffee, in small bursts can overcome inertia. Too much is bad. Trust me; I was at once drinking 16 cups a day. Not good. I’m down to 4-6 cups.
3. Chocolate. Sugar rush and endorphin-like chemicals. Pimples and sugar crash to contend with.
4. Exercise. Blood to brain = a good thing.
5. Music. Eight out of ten times music will get me going. I’ll even construct play lists for certain projects or characters which I’ll then listen to whenever I write on that project or in that character’s voice. Hearing key songs will instantly snap me into writing mode. Of course after listening to these same songs a million times, you may never be able to hear them again without screaming.
6. Watch a DVD. When I really can’t write I’ll pop on a movie and watch it in the corner of my monitor as I write. More often than not, I’ll just end up watching the thing. But if its one I have seen many times, sometimes I can write. The entire point of this is to keep my posterior in the chair at the computer. More time at the keyboard = a greater chance to write. I remember watching CRIMSON TIDE over and over while I wrote some of the space combat scenes with Captain Keyes. The influence is glaringly obvious.
7. Three sentences. A trick from Roger Zelazny. Just write three lousy sentences. You can quit after that. You’ll be surprised how often this frees you up and you keep writing. The trick is to really give yourself permission to stop after three sentences. With the pressure off sometimes magic happens.
8. A deadline. This is the ultimate motivator! When an editor is paying you to deliver on a specific date, the fear of missing that deadline is like hot coals to the feet.
If you have any tricks, feel free to share.
posted by Eric Nylund at 8:57 PM
20 Comments:
I'll definitely have to give some of those a try.
I don't have any that you didn't mention already (I do the music thing and the DVD thing), but I actually do the DVD one for a different reason.
I absolutely cannot remember where I heard it, but apparently if you do or watch something that requires very little brain power (As in, you wouldn't watch a mystery movie, but an action movie would be perfect.), sometimes your subconscious works things out for itself, basically planning it out without you knowing it. And then, when you go back to writing, you have some ideas in the back of your mind.
One thing that I try to do is to end in the middle of a sentence. (I forget what I was reading when I came upon this, but I have a feeling it's something rather big.) I find it a little hard to do, though, because the obsessive compulsive in me must tie up the loose ends, but when I can get myself to do it, it really helps to get me going.
I did try listening to those Sonicaid scientifically designed to help you concentrate/be more creative cds, but those just bored me to death/put me to sleep. It was worth a shot, though.
Wow, thanks for the advice, Mr. Nylund! I'll have to go watch Crimson Tide the next chance I get...
For me, pressure is a vile, rancid thing. It makes me want to spite people. If I feel pressured to write, in a way that makes me feel like the act of writing is being more highly valued than what is actually written, I am far too tempted to just shut down the computer and walk away in spite. If pressure comes in the form of "Oh no, I've procrastinated for too long! How am I going to pull out of this one!? Crap! Crap! Crap on a crap cracker.... crap!" then I get dismayed and alow myself to go on a guilt trip - an expensive thing, temporally speaking, and something that you should never allow yourself to do. So, what I find gets me out of this situation is that I disconnect myself from the consequences. I remove the source of the worry. I make myself remember that God is in control, that 'not writing this' is not the end of the world, and that no matter how much I've screwed things up for myself, He saw it coming way before I ever did it and had planned a way for me to deal with it providing that I turned to Him for help and forgiveness for my being so stupid. Once my head is cleared, and I have a more accurate grasp of reality, I am able to sit down, worry-free, and just write. Soon, it begins to flow, and I am able to resume enjoying the process of writing again, which usually causes me to speed ahead and finish it in plenty of time to do some editing, before the deadline comes.
However, what I do to get myself out of the rut of "but I don't feel like writing right now..." is to get emotions flowing. Watch something that makes me want to write. Usually, I can watch something inspiring. That tends to be sufficient, take the original Terminator or The Matrix and just let my brain go to work. Then, afterwards, I transfer myself to the white space, so that I might fill it up. It's when I'm in such a rut where none of these things work that I resort to the nuclear bomb of inspiration: watching something that makes me angry. Whether it be a movie chronicling Klan activity in the south, with a family being made to watch their father hang, a scene from some film where a woman is beaten by her husband, or any number of other things that make me absolutely furious, they never fail to get me wanting to vent. And vent I do, through writing. This works best when it's a film that you haven't seen before, because it's more difficult to become enraged by something that you have already gotten mad about, you know? I can recommend one movie that will most definitely get you at least a little angry, and that's a spanish film called "Te Doy Mis Ojos." After watching that film, I was so mad that I could've exploded at any moment. I won't give away plot details, but, let's just say that if you hate seeing the innocent suffer, that this movie will get your blood boiling in a way that it has probably never been before.
Anywho. That's what I do.
In responding to Angel's comment, a movie that got me rather irritated lately was the new Pirates Of The Carribean movie. If you care about the main characters, watch that and you'll be just about as agitated as you can be. (The movie itself is good, but the end is a bit of a cliffhanger and is annoying.)
It's funny you mention the music thing. That one is the one thing that can usually get me out of a case of writer's block. Sugar sometimes helps, but yeah... there's the crash involved later.
Aside from that, I've never tried any of the others. I should, though, seeing as I've got a bit of block right this minute...
I'm not much of a writer myself but I do a good deal of media work. Indeed a Movie playing in the background gets me into full force work mode. I've often found it better to be a comedy so that I can listen to the audio and laugh without having to watch the movie itself... it helps to keep my eyes on my compsiting.
Taking a walk and not being around my computer often enough has me running back to my house to start on ideas I couldn't work on outside.
Since the middle sequel usually has the meatiest plot and they need to keep the story rolling and set up the conclusion intro (in trilogies), I feel like it's necessary to focus on character development/evolution and action. People always want closure and usually when they get it, they are disillusioned. When they dont get it and have to use their imaginations or problem-solving skills to figure it out they seem to think things are brilliant (memento, 12 monkeys, fightclub, ect). They left a cliffhanger open in both of these movies as well as easter egg final scenes after the credits. o_0
Anyways that trick about a movie playing on in the background seems to work really well. Especially if its a movie you've practically memorized so you don't get sidetracked or mesmorised by it while its playing but you can sort of follow along just by hearing the characters and knowing what's going to happen next. For me it's usually something really long like a Star Wars or Lord of the Rings. And if its a big project I'll just hit play again once it ends x_x.
So I checked out bungie.net today and under "weekly update" they have a link out for a bulk deal of Ghosts of Coral + the Halo graphic novel for only 25 bucks! Hopefully the graphic novel will be here within two days but I was just wondering if your novel is still scheduled for october or if you cant even talk about when "it" (whatever the title) is to be released?
I have to agree with 70% of what you've written Eric. In fact, i've done most of it myself, with exception to the chocolate and coffee consumption. Caffeine and endorphins will only give me a sugar and caffeine high...and that will make me write things that seem wonderful at the time, but they'll make no sense afterwards.
One thing that helps me tremendously is simply writing and talking to people at the same time. I don't mean having someone in the same room, but online. That way, you'll see when they say something and you can finish your sentence, talk to them, and return fresh. Works wonders. But since i find myself writing late into the night, the only people around are those from the UK.
And the deadline...that's the best of all. I work best under pressure (usually), but when i know that people are relying on me, it makes me determined to write. And determination is the greatest advocate of hard work.
Waking up early, though, generally doesn't cut it for me. I'm simply not a morning person...i can stay up all night, literally till after the sun has risen and been up for a few hours, and keep writing, but no way in hell can i get up simply to write.
The DVD and Music thing immediately comes to mind as well. Music is generally essential to my writing, although my limited amount makes it, well, very action oriented. But what i do find with working while listening to music is that if i'm focused enough, the music goes away and i don't hear anything except what i'm thinking and writing. For whatever reasoning, having something to lose focus is so much easier than nothing.
The DVD does work for unsticking yourself as well, excellently. I bought a collection of DVD's from a tv show, babylon 5, and wrote during the commercial breaks. Worked wonders, once again.
Good thoughts everyone.
Nikoda – I believe the ending in the middle of a sentence trick is a subset of the “stop working when your writing is red-hot.” That way you’re eager to start the next day. That’s never worked for me, because when it’s going well I don’t want to stop. I also rarely have the luxury of being able to stop like that. I write every morning until I run out of time.
Fred – Can’t answer any questions about novel release date. That’s between Bungie and TOR. Honestly I don’t know.
Sir Brilliant – My wife is an evening writer, too. Great thing about staying up insanely later (or getting up early) is no one bothers you.
That's my problem as well. I want to write what's in my head before I forget it. Sometimes I wonder how well technique developed for early literary writing styles translates into the seemingly more fast paced speculative fictions. Then again, Strunk and White still works, so I may have just answered my own speculation.
Thanks for the tips, it's always good to read about this kind of stuff from established writers.
I'm no writer, and I'll never be one professionally, but I do write for my own fun and it's always good to get a good idea or concept written out.
I'm an evening writer, as I work a 9-5 and play halo well until the evening... the late night is all I have left.
Its funny...I woke up extra early today (for other reasons) and ended up remembering several key points to a story i'm currently working on. I mean, they were the meat of the story, and I forgot them! But, it was morning, and I'm not sure how but I remembered them. Kudos to the morning...
I'm an article writer, not a novelist, so my approach is a little different.
I make a huge production out of writing an article/column (I usually do two/three at once). I announce it "Can't come over for a beer next wednesday night, I'm writing..." or "hey you'll never guess what I'm up to next wednesday night- writing. Yup. All. Damn. Night"
Then I'm cornered. I prep the firdge with a beer, coke, water. The coffee machine ON, the popcorn done, I take no notice of what's on TV. Remove all distractions. Then i sit down and start off with a stream of consciouness that never ends up in the finished product. And just like that, it's 4:00am and 3 thousand subbed words are done.
I've alwasy liked this poem by Australian poet/cartoonist Michael Leunig:
Go to the end of the path until you get to the gate.
Go through the gate and head straight out towards the horizon.
Keep going towards the horizon.
Sit down and have a rest every now and again, But keep on going, just keep on with it.
Keep on going as far as you can.
That's how you get there.
Cheers
Tom
Hi Eric. Thanks for the blog. Good stuff. I am a big fan of your treatments of the Halo universe. FoR was awesome and First Strike was great! The wife also liked them. :)
I'm 26 and just moved to Bellevue to take a level design job. I was previously a Video Games Editor for a small pub back in Kansas City - so I'm very much a journalist-minded writer.
This is problematic when I sit down to write my story. It's so hard to break through the journalist disciplines of short sentences and to-the-point paragraphs. My novel would be a pamphlet.
But, I seem to think of my most compelling passages (especially dialogue) when I am out for a run and listening to music that would be an appropriate backdrop for the scene. Endorphins + music is definitely my key.
But although I have this detailed outline of the story's events, sitting down to write a feature-length novel is still a tough thing to do.
At any rate, I appreciate the tips! I'm looking forward to your future work.
Well, this made my day.
Not only is it sound writing advice, but it comes from an author I really like! Thanks so much for putting these up, Mr Nylund: I'm going to have to use some of them.
A couple things I find necessary before I write are sleep and food. If I'm half-asleep and starving at my desk, I generally can't concentrate. Unless, of course, that's what I'm writing about. But then, that's all common sense.
When I was working on the Crimson Skies novella for the fic. anthology, I got a huge block -- I found that by completely altering my work routine, I broke through.
Normally, I do everything with a computer -- outlining, drafting, revising, etc. To get through the block, I sat outside and wrote the first 4,000 words longhand.
Not the best piece I've ever written, but the alteration of the work routine worked like a charm.
This post has been removed by the author.
Longhand never works for me as my handwriting is so terrible I sometimes can't interpet it when I go back. The 3 lousy sentences doesn't work for the same reason I don't use a rough draft since I don't like to go back to make changes... So I just let loose the first time around going all out and correcting things as I go so I don't have to go back. In terms of stopping in the middle of an idea and going back... I think it's better to keep going until I get stuck and then sleep on it so I'm not wasting time. That might be just me though.
This trick is closly related to the "listen to music" tip. I play my guitar for about half and hour before I even think about writing. What I'm looking to write about determines what kind of music I play. If it's an action scene, I'll play some Pantera or Metallica. If it's a more solomn scene, some Bright Eyes or Eagles.
Even if you can't play any instuments, you can do this. Before I learned to play the guitar, I'd drum my fingers on my kitchen table. Either way, it worked for me. And this gets you more actively involved in the music, instead of just passively litening.
Post a Comment
<< Home