How Do You Avoid WRITER'S BLOCK? (Rick Bragg Should Learn This)

Self | May 28, 2003 | PJ-Comix

[PJ-Comix]

That said, your 'free the mind' technique has worked for me (what do you mean we're going for a boat ride!?

"Free the Mind" is nothing more than RELAXING and allowing your subconcious mind do your writing. And anyone who thinks all this talk about the "subconcious mind" is a bunch of mumbo jumbo---we all use our subconcious mind everytime we drive. Notice how often you automatically drive your car when your mind is on something else? This is a form of self-hypnosis (Actually the very act of walking is a form of self-hypnosis). The only difference between me and a lot of people is that I know how to use the auto-pilot of my brain in writing....in addition to driving and walking and a host of other activities that we take for granted.

[2ndMostConservativeBrdMember]

I take blinking my eyes for granted until I think about it and then I can't stop noticing that I'm blinking my eyes. Is it like that? Sometimes I'm writing and I don't even notice that I'm writing and then all of sudden it dawns on me that I'm writing and then I can't stop thinking about the fact that I'm writing. Is the trick to just not notice that you're writing? Should I just write and not pay any attention to it? I guess if I sit here and think about what I'm going to do tomorrow I could write on and on and before I know it I'll have a whole page written without even thinking about it. Like, for instance, when I eat. I'm not really thinking about eating but before I know it my plate is empty and I am full. Sometimes I don't even taste the food. Unless I have dessert, of course.

[PJ-Comix]

Best way I've found is simply to read what the Clintons get away with and did while in office.

I wonder if Hillary wrote her college thesis about Saul Alinsky on her own or did she have ghost writers for that project. In any event, she is NOT letting anybody read that paper. WEIRD. Almost everybody enjoys having people read their writings. Not Hillary...unless it is that dopey $8 million book of hers which will reveal NOTHING.

[PJ-Comix]

I take blinking my eyes for granted until I think about it and then I can't stop noticing that I'm blinking my eyes. Is it like that? Sometimes I'm writing and I don't even notice that I'm writing and then all of sudden it dawns on me that I'm writing and then I can't stop thinking about the fact that I'm writing. Is the trick to just not notice that you're writing? Should I just write and not pay any attention to it?

BINGO!!!

You've hit on it EXACTLY. The reason I prescribed writing to friends and relatives is to get your mind into the HABIT of writing automatically. You shouldn't even be thinking about the physical act of writing. And I can do the reverse. I can actually get someone so self-concious about walking that he can barely walk. That happens to me when I starting thinking about all the muscle movements and commands sent from the brain to the leg muscles via the nerve system. Oh, and have you noticed how tough it is all of a sudden to breath? Just think if you don't CONTINUALLY breath you suffocate. Think about that air going in and out of your nose and down to your lungs. Yes, what was once a simple act that you took for granted is now becoming very difficult to you. But not to worry. You have been breathing automatically for so long that you will revert to that process soon. Well, the same holds for writing. You should write AUTOMATICALLY with NO self-conciousness. That is all I do when teaching folks how to avoid writer's block.

[PJ-Comix]

Is there some sort of consultancy service for business people on how to overcome writer's block? I can see from some of the posts here what a HUGE problem it is. One person couldn't even make it through college because of writer's block.

It's been a long time since I suffered severely from this problem that I have almost forgotten how DESPERATE I used to be when I had Writer's Block for MONTHS at a time. I even thrashed around on the floor and prayed for the Writer's Block to go away. No answer to my prayers at that time...until months later I heard something on the radio that taught me the first of my techniques. Then I started to write one article per week without letup (and my first story was read on the radio!).

So for those of you out there really suffering from Writer's Block, I know where you all are coming from. After I learned the initial first step on overcoming Writer's Block I undertook vast research and mental experimentation to learn the techniques of overcoming Writer's Block. I sort of looked at myself as a Thomas Edison using my mind for experiments in this area. It took about 3 more years before I discovered almost all the techniques I now use.

[2ndMostConservativeBrdMember]

Have you ever noticed when you're writing that if you use a white sheet of paper and a black pen the page is white and black and that if you use a white paper and a blue pen the page is white and blue. Also, if you use yellow paper and different colored pens you can get some really great color combinations on the page. Sometimes I think about that when I'm writing. The more I think about the different color combinations that I can use, the more I seam to write. I bought some colored paper and some gel pens and I wrote about a thousand pages before I got tired of thinking about different color combinations.

[PJ-Comix]

Hmm... I just realized. When I was writing for "Write For Cash," I should have written an article about "Avoiding Writer's Block." BTW, that was a nice gig. You got to pick your own topics and they would pay you for the stories. It was kind of fun because I got to research things I was sort of curious about such as those rugged Longhorn Cattle.

[PJ-Comix]

Have you ever noticed when you're writing that if you use a white sheet of paper and a black pen the page is white and black and that if you use a white paper and a blue pen the page is white and blue. Also, if you use yellow paper and different colored pens you can get some really great color combinations on the page.

The strange thing is that I can ONLY write on yellow legal paper with black ink. I absolutely can't write a word on white paper or if I use blue ink. My mind just freezes up. And I know the reason for this. When I was a kid I used to write funny letters to my Cousin Jerry on yellow legal paper and black ink that my dad gave me. They were really funny wild letters. BTW, that is what I discovered while listening to the radio that helped me initially overcome my writer's block. I didn't write for the vast public but only pretended to write to Cousin Jerry. So I got yellow legal pad and black pen just like when I was a kid and even started out all the stories with "Dear Cousin Jerry," and pretended that I was just writing a funny letter to him. I don't have to write "Dear Cousin Jerry," any more but sometimes I still do so if I need to work my way around some Writer's Block.

So that is my other suggestion. DON'T write for posterity. Just write a letter to your "Cousin Jerry" (or whoever the equivalent is for you).

[2ndMostConservativeBrdMember]

I had a cousin Gary but I never wrote to him. I used to talk to his sister on the phone a lot. Writing can be a lot like talking on the phone. I have a sister-in-law that can talk on the phone for many hours. My ear hurts a lot when she calls me. Sometimes I have to switch to the other ear for a while just to give the first one a break. I've learned over the years not to answer her or even make a sound because when I do she talks for another hour. The worst mistake I've ever made was asking her a question.

[bootyist-monk]

The best solution I have found to overcoming writer's block is to use the outline function in Word.

I write hundreds of pages of month, and even though most of it eventually ends up in Final Draft, I still start in Word.

Use the outline view to just jam down ideas. Free associate, if need be. Don't worry about formatting, or categorizing your ideas. Just get out what you have in your head as best you can. If you can't get to the core of your story, write about the tangible. Just describe details. For instance, the time of day. The way the trees look. The color of someone's shirt. The act of writing down even the mundane will fire the ideas that you really want to explore.

Outlining works great for this, because you can create a punch list of ideas. You'll be surprised how many pages you will fill up just using this technique.

Once you've got something to work with, then it's time to organize the outline. This is called Idea Mining. Find the gems and fill in the details. Use the outline features to quickly move things around, and put them into a logical order.

At this point, I then re-save the document as a new name and toss out any of the stuff I know I don't need or obviously just put in the document to keep my fingers moving on the keyboard. The reason I use a different file for editing is that I often find that something I thought didn't have any significance to my story today may be just what I need next week. So I like to keep everything somewhere I can go back and get it. I have hundreds of outline documents like this, and they are a great source of inspiration and unused ideas that can be re-purposed for the task at hand.

This process works for well for me, and allows me to hit my deadlines every week.

[John Robertson]

interesting, outline function in Word. will try it. my eye caught on Final Draft...so you must be in the biz. confession: me, too. just completed a script for TNT, hoping for production order. tell me more.

[John Robertson]

I am so glad you launched this thread--it's been interesting, it's been useful. and it seems to have flushed a few professional and near-pro freeper writers out of the closet.

now, and i'm not being snarky, just going for some clarification. You have referred MANY (you like those all-caps, don't you?) times to the MANY methods you've devised to AVOID writers block. yet i see about three: always be rested...don't think about it too much...try some "auto-writing": do some no-burden words, writing to an old buddy, a pal--no-risk writing, in other words.

i call the latter, "writing without writing." in other words (pun intended), the onus is off.

still, even though i understand the fundamentals, i still suffer, and, as a working professional, basically get down to my most important projects only when the pain of not writing becomes greater than the pain of writing. needless to say, this is a career-hurter, and not great for one's health. an all-nighter when you're 20 means you yawn a lot in mid-afternoon; when you're in your 50s (as i am), it means you can take days and days to get back your physical and psychic equilibrium.

as i said, i'm grateful that you launched this discussion. if you can set me straight on the methods--clarifying what i've gleaned from your suggestions, or adding methods i may have missed--i will be in your debt.

two more things: you mentioned business writing...i would think this market would be huge, from what i've seen. part of my work is in the corporate sector, and from what i've seen, they need HELP. i am regarded as something of a god with my clients, and all i really do is write simple, declarative sentences that can be read conversationally.

the bulk of my professional work is in screenplays, even though i live in Pittsburgh. I've had several television movies produced, and have some in the pipeline right now.

thanks, thanks, thanks.

[bootyist-monk]

Guilty as charged. I have projects at Dimension, Disney, Universal and Warner Bros. My partner and I also write stories and high-level designs for videogames, and have a number of those in production as well.

Break a leg with TNT. I've never done any projects for them, but we do a lot of work with Viacom (Nickelodeon, MTV and the New Spike network, which is what TNN will be changing into in mid-June).

Best,
Bootyist

[Bush2000]

Rick Bragg ...

If I had to guess, I'd say that Bragg probably used interns/ghostwriters because he's too busy picking up honorariums and has forgotten what real reporting is all about...

[twigs]

WB used to plague me. When I went back to school, while working full time, I had to deal with it. I find that if I can write that first paragraph, I will usually avoid WB. So many times, before I get in front of the screen, I have at least my intro sentence, if not my thesis, planned in advance. Many times I develop this in my mind while I'm driving. It helps not to have a black screen staring at you, at least me. So when I sit down to write, I already have in mind what I want to write. That gets the creative juices flowing from the get-go.

[twigs]

I really like Anthony Trollope too. I find that knowing I can revise has helped me tremendously to write. I learned as a professional that I am a much better editor than writer. So if I can get anything down, even if it is written poorly, I can rewrite it later--and it will be better than anything I could have written the first time around. People who teach writing are now beginning to emphasize the revision function. That is good.

[twigs]

Business writing, eh? If I knew how to break into that market as a free-lancer, I would love to do that. I was a marketing/PR professional for years. Back in school now to get certified to teach.

[John Robertson]

not to appear ungrateful, but i hope you find the time to address the main part of my response to you--which is, am i on the right track re your approach to avoiding writer's block? please advise and clarify, if you can.

re business writing...it's cold out there. UNLESS you have a personal contact at a company. i've snagged freelance work out of the ether, but it hasn't come close to what i've gotten through personal contact. for starters, calling yourself a "corporate communications" specialist is a great start. if it's been a while, work at smaller companies, to get some recent credits, then go up from there. i get $100 an hour from my current best big client, and they're happy to pay it and never watch the hours racking up. for a small company, a few million dollars in sales, i'd create marketing, pr, articles, speeches for half or even less than half of that, hoping that it would graduate in time to bigger companies, better rates. the hard part of corp. writing is getting the gigs, not doing it. bye.

[Old Professer]

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[twigs]

Thanks for your reply. You said what I pretty much thought. I know how important personal contacts are. Did you see my post #35? That's how I start.

I find that if I have given a lot of thought time to what I want to say in a non-threatening setting (ie not in front of a blank screen) then I do much, much better. I try to think of an intro in the car, or, I know this is bad, in church. Something about church always keeps me more focused, maybe its the peace I find there, not sure. But I mentally compose a lot of intros and outlines when I should be listening to other people, or ANY place other than sitting before a computer screen. It's just a quirky thing with me that works.

I also write down anything that I can, even if it's terrible. I find that if I can get something down in writing, at least get the idea, the train of thought, in some form of writing, even if it's not particularly good, I do. I personally find editing a lot less intimating. So I ALWAYS budget a lot of time to edit. I can then take what I have written--even the bad stuff--and rewrite it. Then I find many times that I want to reorganize it. That's the beauty of word processing software. I write much better now than in the old typewriter days, simply because of the ease of re-writing. I have found if I know what I write does not have to be the final product, I am much more at ease and not nearly as likely to get writer's block.

I just read a helpful article by Nancy Sommers, a woman who writes about teaching writing--I think the article was called "Revision Strategies." I don't know whether or not it is on the internet, but I found her research and suggestions very useful.

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