Finding time to write? - Writers Forum

Soccah · 11-28-2005, 12:49 AM

What can I say? betInween (I like to mangle words) work and class, I'm hardly given any "free" (if free is the right term to use) time to express the depths of my monotonous creativity or explore my innovative conformity, with respect to writing that is.

I'm always too tired when I get back to truly engage myself in writing anything worth reading. I've tried countless drinks, be it energy or otherwise

, and nothing has quite worked. Maybe I just lack motivation or inspiration, I just can't quite place it.

In any sense, I was wondering what has worked for you? What gets you up and about to do what it is you love to do? (Maybe that's just it, maybe it becomes more of a chore than a pleasure for me... meh.)

In essence, how do you start? What gives you that boost to actually begin? I find myself perscribing, too often, to Bloom's gloom, which tends to stop me from the onset.

I get as far as the idea allows me, but I'm never able to materialize it into the reality of the written.

If you consider my age, I'm generally of the "new school," but I'm tempted to go out and buy a classic type-writer. Why? I'd say nostalgia, but I have nothing to be nostalgic about. I just like the mechanics and the history of the thing, call it notions of written romanticism.

Anyways, any suggestions as to how one overcomes the drearyness of it all, and finally get up and write? I'm afraid I've lost the passion I've once held. The fire diminshed, and the torch burning out. And to think I'm only 21 while, in earnest, I feel 91. (Not to perscribe to the stereotypical notions of old age, but, well, yes, I guess I am doing just that. I've lost the youthful spark, so to speak, that once drove my pen [or fingers] across pages [or keys])

So, uhm, yeah.

Anything? hehe.

richie · 11-28-2005, 01:24 AM

Well, at first, I have insomnia, so I write at night... (It may seem cool but it's a curse actually).

What you could do is take 10mins before you go to sleep or in the middle of your day and write, doesn't need at this point to have a 'meaning'. Write what's in your head, and that might help the ideas flow more easily.
Also, take an idea you have and describe the scene, doodle it, etc. Try to inspire yourself and get the ideas flowing.
And know what? I always wanted to have a typewriter. I feel just like thee, the unreasonable nostalgic romanticism. Think I'll get one too.

And above all, I think what you need is inspiration to life. Try doing something new, take a trip, or go to a place you've never been.
Hope I helped.

Breaker · 11-28-2005, 04:08 AM

It's kind of like getting fit. Nobody is going to do it for you, you just have to get off your backside (or in this case, sit down on it) and write. The more you write, the more you find yourself inspired. Nothing ever got written by...errr...not writing. If you know what you mean.

And while the idea of a type-writer is a wonderful one, and I'm sure one that many writers have aspired to at one point or another, it almost seems equivilant to buying the latest trim-o-matic or fat-master and then hiding it away in the cupboard because it makes you feel guilty that you're not doing the things you planned to.

Go for a jog, go on holiday, dig a hole and hide in it until you can't stand it anymore and have to write. Whatever works. If it's become tedium incarnate, then don't do it. Try thinking about a story instead of putting it down. Find characters you love (or hate) and flesh them out in your head. Create a world, a place, a story that you love so much you have to put it down on paper...then go for it.

Good luck though....watch out, 21's around that mid-mid-life crises point, where you're wondering what you're supposed to be doing, where you're supposed to be going, and why everything's not as shiny and exciting as you once thought it was going to be. Kind of kills enthusiasm if you're not looking out for it.

ross · 11-28-2005, 06:59 AM

Yeah I have problems with this too. We converted a room of our house into an office but my wife has now filled it with any amount of junk.

My little girl is also very interested everytime I still down at the keyboard and wants me to open paintbox as soon as I power it on! Lol! What can you do?
So I have a lot of incomplete writing and a lot of finished paintbox pictures!

richie · 11-28-2005, 07:11 AM

Oy, one more thing.
About that half-middle-age crisis, I had it too! Actually a couple months ago. When I realised I am 20 and I am still making plans for like "when life begins". I know how awful it can be. It destroyed me and I was really down for about two weeks.
But then you survive; and you start caring more to what you wanna do and less to how many things you should have done at this age.
Again, hope I helped.

Mike C · 11-28-2005, 07:30 AM

Don't beat yourself up about it. It's easy to go the self imposed guilt-trip route when you don't write, but it's not the end of the world. Nobody dies if you don't write.

When the muse grabs you by whichever set of genitalia you're equipped with, you'll find the time.

Ralizah · 11-28-2005, 09:03 AM

Typewriters are a godsend to writers in the modern age who can correct any last thing at their whim with a word processor (although electric ones also can allow you to edit somewhat, which is why I use an old, old typewriter.) Why, you might ask? Because in this day and age, so many people (like myself) are goddamned perfectionists about their writing and will stop working on a story just to correct some stupid errors... and that usually ends up ruining your flow. Luckily, if you make some damned stupid mistake on a typewriter, you just have to live with it while you're typing up the page. Of course, once it comes out you have to restrain yourself from manually scouring the page, but it's still easier. And beside that, I cannot seem to trust sufficiently in memory on a computer. Like someone else noted before, it's tragic when you think (or in my case, know) that all of your hard work and tears are gone because some damned machine decides to start acting pissy.

PS: When the typewriter is unavailable, however, I use wordpad. Just a blank space to write out my thoughts on. It's better than something like Word for three reasons:
1. It doesn't automatically correct something you intentionally spell a certain way but it decides should be spelled a different way (it also does this with capitalization).
2. It doesn't highlight fragments or typos in bright, obnoxious pastel colors.
3. It doesn't have that annoying paperclip on there. That thing is evil!

Sand · 11-28-2005, 10:43 AM

I have suffered from guilt-laden writer's block off and on for years. And for many of those years I felt that meant I wasn't "a writer". Then I started noticing articles and interviews about and with writers where they repeatedly said the writing was very difficult, they had to push themselves to write, the words not only didn't flow, but were like getting a scared cat out of a long, narrow box - they absolutely don't want to come to you!

I think the first trick is to not feel guilty. That will stifle creativity more completely than anything else, in my opinion.

The second, most important, trick has already been mentioned here. That's to write every day, another something I gleaned from the media, but also from Julia Cameron's books, The Artist's Way and Walking in this World. It doesn't matter what you write, but write something, no matter how incoherrent or random it seems. Gradually, your creativity gets unstuck and things start flowing again.

I highly recommend Walking in this World. It helped me through a particularly rough spot in my life and I still go back to it regularly. Every so often, I need to be reminded that it's writing that keeps me sane so I need to take the time to do it.

Which brings me to your main point, when to write. I also have a family and a husband who likes company and interaction when he's home. If I were living alone, my favourite time to write would be at night, but because that's when my family is around, I don't usually get the quiet time I need then. I'm home alone during the day, however, so I at least have that time available to me, even though it's not my best time for writing, at least it's quiet. If you work outside the home, you could try taking public transit to work and writing then, you could write during lunch hour, or you could carve out a certain time every day at home when you enforce the "do not disturb" sign. If they can leave you alone in the shower, they can leave you alone in your writing room, too (maybe the shower should be your writing room, running water and all!). You just have to emphasize that it's far better to have your happy attention afterward, than your impatient, grumpy attention before or during.

I don't know if any of this made sense; I hope so.

Soccah · 11-28-2005, 10:58 AM