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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 24
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What do you do to get over the hurdle? Right now I'm sort of at a "stand-still." I'm not sure what's causing it...but people have been saying it's lack of motivation or inspiration or...something.
Dunno. But I'm just wondering what others do during their stand-still. I've been catching up on reading and actually - gah - looking for a real job. haha. So there you are.
What do you do? 
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Joined: 8/9/2011
Posts: 2
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Hi Natalie,
I've been suffering lack of motivation a lot lately. I think it's the heat. But I was also sick with a sinus infection and just didn't feel like doing anything but watching reruns of Glee. I got myself up and revising today because I made myself enter a writing contest and then I joined this site. A few months ago I wrote 100 pages in a couple of weeks on a new book and then became totally blocked so I took out an old book which was all done except for the last chapter which I just hadn't been able to figure out a year ago when I stopped working on it. I wrote that last chapter pretty much non stop and then added the real last chapter and finished that book in two weeks flat and now I'm 'stuck' on revising it.
Other things I've done is go to writer's meetings/conferences/workshops, read writing articles, do writing exercises.
Good luck on your writing, hope you get unstuck!
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 244
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There's a book. It's called "The Artist's Way" (I think). It's pretty popular among creative types. She's got an exercise in there called morning pages. The whole point of them is to get rid of the negativity and the excess that's weighing down your creativity. (Or something like that. It's been a while and I never actually got through the whole series of lessons in her book.) Basically you write three pages of whatever drivel is in your head in the morning when you wake up. Three pages. (I recommend those spiffy marbled-cover composition books because their pages are smaller and so your morning pages will take less time in your morning.) After a year or so I got tired of writing the same old dreck in there so I stopped. I may start up again but I may not. But it's an option and you might try it, see if it works for you.
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Joined: 8/9/2011
Posts: 2
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You know I had that book back when I first started writing ten years ago. Now that I've picked it up again I'll have to find it again.
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Joined: 3/16/2011
Posts: 279
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The first thing I usually do when I hit a rut like that is I read the current manuscript, cover to cover. Take notes, get back into the story line by line. Sometimes I look it over and ask myself WHY I'm in a rut with this particular MS. In some cases it's because there is something wrong with the story, I know that something is wrong with the story and that it will take a massive amount of rewriting to get it to work.
Sometimes all I need to get a reboot is to write a small scene that doesn't have anything to do with the current story. An amusing anecdote or scene that I can toss into the Darling graveyard, but that's all I need to get moving again.
Go over your MS and let it pull you back into that world, you've been incredibly busy lately and you're probably feeling a bit out of touch.
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 24
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Thank you to all of you.
Especially to Danielle. <3 I have been out of touch. I needed to hear -erm, READ - that.
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Joined: 5/7/2011
Posts: 42
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Natalie,
As I generally work in short form (short stories, novellas, etc.), I am constantly working on projects. If I find myself stuck on one, I generally write a few notes at the end of the bit I was working on, and then move on to another project. Generally I'm stuck because I'm either a) not in the mindset to be working on that particular project, b) holding myself back from writing what either should be written or perhaps might not necessarily fit but ought to be written (in other words you have to let yourself make mistakes sometimes), or c) I'm just not pushing myself to work through it.
Also, I am run a writers group. Every two weeks we get together and critique others' works. That, almost single-handedly, always gets me motivated to write, even if it's not on the particular project I was working on. Something in the group always gets my brain going, and I have to start back at my craft. So that can really be a good motivator. Plus they expect work out of my every so often that isn't a repeat or a revision, so that's extra motivation.
Best of luck in your writing.
Cheers,
J Boone Dryden
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Joined: 8/9/2011
Posts: 12
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I'm in the same place myself. I'm not really writing anything either but I am reading and getting into the community thing here.
As far as why I'm not actively writing - I know but knowing doesn't help me much. I struggled to keep writing though an emotionally abusive marriage but after 10 years it had ultimately shredded my creativity and confidence. Now that I'm free of it I want to write again but I feel like an utterly blank slate. All the old ideas I had written down don't appeal to me anymore. I feel so rusty that my daily prompts come off looking like I did them just to fill a spot in my blog for PostADay2011@ Wordpress.
Over the past week or so I started to feel like this situation isn't all negative though. I realized I don't feel particularly frustrated that I'm not working on a book yet. Stagnation used to really eat at me but this time I feel like my Muse is content to meditate and listen to what's going on before she gets to work. I'm spending this "free-time" reading up on the current market, re-reading my old stuff to see where I need the most improvement in technique, and getting into socializing/networking with other writers. My hope is that I'm going to come out of this resting phase better prepared to smash out a real novel!
Perhaps you can see this "stand-still" in a positive light too? Letting go of the feeling that you're not supposed to be slacking off might unshackle the creative juices!
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Joined: 8/22/2011
Posts: 14
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Hi Natalie,
I can completely understand where you are coming from! Sometimes for me I will lose motivation when I get too busy/distracted/etc. Recently I made a promise to myself that I would wake up before my day job every day and knock out 1000 words. If I don't get them done in the morning I use my lunch break or after work. Even if what I am writing isn't great (and a lot of time it isn't) at least I have something to go back and edit and work on. Sitting there- forcing myself to think and revise - and having the deadline of knowing I have to get to the office really helps me. Sometimes I think back to when I took a creative writing class in college and we HAD to turn in our pages the next day.
Try putting deadlines on yourself and see if that helps. Before I started working at my current job I had all the time in the world but didn't seem to get anything done- as soon as I started working it forced me to be on more of a schedule.
I also agree with Danielle- try writing a different scene just to get the creative juices flowing.
Good luck!!
Cheers,
Katherine
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You need to say more. Where are you stuck, and what doesn’t seem to be working?
But that aside, since you’re interested in writing, but can’t seem to get moving at the moment, why not expand your options by adding to your toolkit? As they say, if the only tool you own is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. If you add more in the way of knowledge and technique, your creativity, with more options to work with, may just take flight again.
My personal recommendation is either Dwight Swain's, Techniques of the Selling Writer, or Debra Dixon's GMC: Goal Motivation and Conflict. Both are by far,something I'd suggest be on any writer's bookshelf.
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