for any writers out there...

izzyhere

howdy,

im a beginning writer developing a short story for a competition and im just having trouble with some of the research, for my topic is quite abstract. Anyway, to any writers out there how would you feel to give another fellow writer a helping hand? i require who ever is willing to answer a short questionnarie about your creative process and also about struggles within that process as well as some other questions about censorship.

if any are interested please send me a personal message and we will continue from there.

thanks. and here are some smiley faces, because i can: :):):):)

pickarooney

Can you tell us a little bit more about how exactly this questionnaire relates to the story you're writing?

izzyhere

im fascinated with where exactly blank space or having a writers block fits in with the whole writing process. Really the idea came to me when someone said they were drawing a blank and i thought how does one draw a blank? i know it seems pretty abstract at the moment but right now i would really just like to know how other people deal with instances of writers blocks and the questionnaire goes into this and also other areas that may or may not be connected like censorship.

hope that helps.

pickarooney

It all sounds very tenuous and more like a college assignment than a short story, to be honest.

izzyhere

haha yeh i understand how it does come off as college assignment but this goes towards developing the concepts which my story is supposed to explore. this whole questionnaire thing was something my writing mentor suggested i do back in high school and i found it helped me back then so i reckon it might help me now

EileenG

I write my synopsis before I write the novel, so I don't have writer's block. Some scenes are harder to write than others (I've got a sucky cyber-sex scene to write this evening) but I always know what I have to write.

EileenG

And just as an aside, if you are writing a short story for a competition, I would write it about people, not abstract concepts, and especially not concepts like writer's block.

One of my favourite quotes is Dermot Bolger's "Writer's block is a luxury that only rich writers can afford."

coffee_cake

EileenG wrote: »

Some scenes are harder to write than others (I've got a sucky cyber-sex scene to write this evening).

Between the hardness and the sucking, you'll be grand :pac:

EileenG

bluewolf wrote: »

Between the hardness and the sucking, you'll be grand :pac:

They are three time zones apart and he's making her do kinky things with ice cubes.

El Guapo!

EileenG wrote: »

They are three time zones apart and he's making her do kinky things with ice cubes.

Going into competition with 50 shades of grey??!

izzyhere

EileenG wrote: »

And just as an aside, if you are writing a short story for a competition, I would write it about people, not abstract concepts, and especially not concepts like writer's block.

thanks for the advice. i think my intentions have been misinterpreted, im not only writing about an abstract concept, as if it were a college assignment, but of course i will be writing about people especially about writers and how they deal with this concept or interact with it. i know it sounds odd and i understand why people would advise me not to submit it for a competition, im not even sure if i want to hand it in for a competition, but for now its a topic that interests me and i have a good feeling of where i want to take it as a short story.

EileenG

Do they do ice cubes in 50?

EileenG

izzyhere wrote: »

thanks for the advice. i think my intentions have been misinterpreted, im not only writing about an abstract concept, as if it were a college assignment, but of course i will be writing about people especially about writers and how they deal with this concept or interact with it. i know it sounds odd and i understand why people would advise me not to submit it for a competition, im not even sure if i want to hand it in for a competition, but for now its a topic that interests me and i have a good feeling of where i want to take it as a short story.

For what it's worth, I believe in Writer's block about as much as I believe in Gym block. Sure there are lots of days when you don't want to do it, but there's nothing actually stopping you. Notice how there is no such thing as Journalist's block.

izzyhere

EileenG wrote: »

For what it's worth, I believe in Writer's block about as much as I believe in Gym block. Sure there are lots of days when you don't want to do it, but there's nothing actually stopping you. Notice how there is no such thing as Journalist's block.

Cool. this is the kind of responses im looking for in my questionnaire and i agree with you that there is so much anyone can write about and that writer's block is probably more telling of the writer than actually suffering from a block. makes me wonder if writer's block and procrastination are interchangeable terms.

pickarooney

Not just procrastination, the fear of failure or not being good enough. There are some parallels with the 'yips' in golf.

EileenG

pickarooney wrote: »

Not just procrastination, the fear of failure or not being good enough. There are some parallels with the 'yips' in golf.

I don't golf (two years working in Milltown golf club was enough to put me off for life) but I honestly don't believe you ever have a day when you can't play at all. Some days when the swing is forced and you're better off practising putting, perhaps, but you can still get out there and play.

pickarooney

http://thesandtrap.com/t/60644/robert-karlsson-withdraws-from-open-championship-due-to-set-up-yips

Toasterspark

As was said previously, I think you should focus on your characters for the short story. If you get too fancy or go into an abstract topic, you won't produce a readable short story.

Writer's block, in my mind, is just an excuse for when you're too demotivated or preoccupied with other things. If you can write you can write. Sure, sometimes the output might not be the best standard you've ever written, but I don't believe a writer suddenly sits down one day and cannot come up with words to put on paper.

indough

i don't think that writers block was ever supposed to mean that you cant physically write, because that would be beyond ridiculous. to my knowledge it has always meant not being able to write anything worth writing, which obviously happens to a lot of people and quite often.

EileenG

That's what editing is for. You write the scene, even if it's depressingly boring, and then you fix it up on the edits.

PurpleBee

Perhaps not believing in it is the best way to overcome it given that it is a psychological affliction but there is definitely such a thing as writer's block, whether it has ever affected you or not is irrelevant.

EileenG

I have days when I really, really don't want to write. But I have a contract and another 30k words to write before the 13th of August, so I have to sit down and write. Simple as that.

Right now, I'm at the stage where I think the whole novel is ****e and I can't believe anyone will want to read it, and the publisher will want their money back. But I'm still going to write the damn thing.

izzyhere

Toasterspark wrote: »

As was said previously, I think you should focus on your characters for the short story. If you get too fancy or go into an abstract topic, you won't produce a readable short story.

i always had my characters in mind, if anything, this 'topic' or 'concept' or whatever we call it was the thing that i would have my character explore and would be the thing that tested him. i understand it is an abstract concept and what im trying to do is to get some conversation going about what various writers think about writer's block. a lot of great ideas on writer's block are being discussed and i appreciate it heaps, giving me a lot to think about. but again i am not writing about a topic or a concept it is part of the story but not its main focus, at least i dont think it is.

however thank you for the advice Toasterspark and EileenG you have made me very aware of the fact that character is important and therefore i may have to play down the importance i am putting on this concept. Toasterspark, i dont think i quite understand what you mean by a 'readable story'...do you mean it won't make sense? or it wont be interesting?

iguana

EileenG wrote: »

That's what editing is for. You write the scene, even if it's depressingly boring, and then you fix it up on the edits.

It can mean hitting a point where you just don't have a clue what should happen next in the story. Not everyone writes an outline first or has the basic plot worked out before starting so sometimes people just reach a point where they can't find a way to continue. It can also apply to someone who needs/wants to write something new but can't come up with an original idea for a new project.

EileenG

iguana wrote: »

It can mean hitting a point where you just don't have a clue what should happen next in the story. Not everyone writes an outline first or has the basic plot worked out before starting so sometimes people just reach a point where they can't find a way to continue. It can also apply to someone who needs/wants to write something new but can't come up with an original idea for a new project.

Ever since the time I wasted 40,000 words on a story that fizzled out in the middle of nowhere, I have never written a novel without doing an outline first.

We're having some problems with the current novel, because the publisher is editing and changing things as we write, so the story we have now is not the one in our original outline.