Thread: I think I've lost it.

Lately it seems like I can't write anything good. At least, nothing as good as the things I used to be able to write. I thought you were supposed to get better at this as you get older, but it seems like my writing ability is just withering away. What the hell! It's pissing me off.

I'm able to tell a story. I can write just fine, but it feels like I've lost that "creative flare". I really need some advice. Please help, before it's too late.

I've never had a 'creative flair' to lose. I just write

Just as I've always said that insomnia is nothing to lose sleep over, 'writer's block' is no reason to stop writing.

In your case it dosen't sound like a block because you say you have no trouble continuing to write and tell a story, so it all sounds like you just need to relax.

Maybe your word-sense is becoming more refined and as a result you find it harder to please yourself.

Just keep writing.

No, no, garza. I'm definitely losing it. Just look at my original post. I used the wrong "flare" and don't get me started on that whole "of" thing a while back.

It happens. You've had the purple patch, where writing came easy for so long and your creativity was at its peak. Now, you've gone to a place that most writers go to. It's nothing to do with age. It's more to do with knowing that you can produce great work but wanting more. The stuff you're writing is probably okay. Hell, if you'd written it five years ago you would have jumped for joy. Now, you've set the bar so high for yourself that anything you write can't compare with what you've set as the benchmark.

I went through something similar a year or two ago. I just kept writing and it eventually worked itself out. Don't sweat it, Dream.

I never have an easy time of it, DW. Sometimes it could be that you're being overly critical. Sometimes you just need to push through the rusty bits. Sometimes you need to take a break and read something different, or try writing something different to what you usually do, get inspired.

It becomes harder for me (and the consensus reads, a lot of my classmates) as I/we understand more and more exactly what it is we're trying to do. Thinking too much maybe?

Whatever it is, I hope you find it gets better.

Originally Posted by Like a Fox

Thinking too much maybe?

If Malone was still here, about now he'd be handing out 'shrooms.

And how much longer must we endure that dykeish avatar?

Happy?

I've been thinking of writing a short piece about a guy who goes after someone living in Ontario who done him wrong. Maybe I could include you on my hit team.

Oops. His hit team.

@Dreamworx95:

Have you considered taking a break? Sometimes I get off track and nothing I write seems good enough. If I take a break for a few days or a week or so, sometimes I do better.

Well, we all have rough patches. It's interesting for me to think about it, though. My job requires that I be creative and have ideas. Sometimes it just doesn't come to me. However, I don't get paid if I don't produce. So somehow, I always get it done. In fact, I do most of my best work when I'm under pressure.

I wonder if my livelihood depended on me writing fiction and meeting deadlines if the same sort of thing would happen. I think it just goes to show that's it's all mental -- the ideas and good work are there, it just takes a certain kind of motivation to make it happen. I wish I knew what that could be other than having the electricity shut off or having nothing to put on the table.

Anyway, keep at it. I'm sure you'll make it happen. Sometimes simply commiserating and seeing that others go through the same thing helps.

Thanks for your advice, guys.

Sam, you're probably right about the benchmark thing. I'm probably just overthinking it. Killer, I don't really want to take a break though. That would feel like quitting and I'm scared that distancing myself from writing for too long would actually make it worse. I probably just need to relax and write.

I think I know what the real problem is. I've just lost my system. I'm not going to stop writing but I need to get my system back.

It was helpful hearing that you've all gone through it. Now I know it's not just me. Thanks guys.

Dreamworx, it may be no help to you but, when I have trouble finding the 'groove', the 'mood', the whatever, I have at times found it beneficial to change my writing environment. I get away from the keyboard and get back to basics - grab a notepad and a pen/pencil or three and go to the park or a nearby graveyard to visit an old ... ooooold friend (an early Irish immigrant to my area who was buried there in 1883). I curl up against her rather large grave marker or on the ground under a tree in the park, whip out my notebook and go old school. Sometimes, simply the change of pace, so to speak, helps me to lock in on my writing more effectively. I also tend to think it has something with being in the great outdoors, away from all the day-to-day distractions.

In any case, I know it's easier said than done but, try not to stress about it. That will only make you focus on the negative even more, subsequently making it even more difficult to get past it. And, as I facetiously like to tell people, "Just keep reminding yourself, 'gall stones - gall stones' ... 'This, too, shall pass'."

Good luck.

Like Sam said "It happens". I am not sure your purple patch was your peak, but it was a peak. Real world systems do not go on gradually changing on the whole, kids shoot up in a summer after looking the same for years (or so it seems), learning progresses by steep rises followed by plateaus. Sometimes it seems like things are standing still, they are not, the chrysalis is only hanging around to become ... no, too corny, but you get the picture, persistence will pay off.

You're probably right, both of you. I should try new things if my regular system doesn't work for me. Usually I write in my journal only when writing a rough draft or an idea, then try to get it polished on the computer. Olly, I do get the picture, thanks. I should probably stop calling my peaks. Maybe I'm jinxing them.