Archive for the ‘Writer's Block’ Category

Blogging Too Much

Friday, February 12th, 2010

I was cruising around the internet the other day (yes, the other day – despite the date you see on the post I’m going to link) and I found this post from Get Paid to Write Online. Although brief, I identified with what Sharon said about overwhelming yourself with blogs and how it’s sometimes hard to say when it’s too much.

I started writing here in 2006 (that long ago?) after having a love/hate relationship with blogging for two years. Excited about having work to do while I couldn’t actually work in Australia, I dove in head first and didn’t look back. Not too long after that, I began looking at other blogs and planning taking them over.

I honestly can’t remember the order and dates of when I took over other blogs, but my list grew to two, three, four, and so on. I expanded out from the 451 network and took on work elsewhere as well.

Then I reached my limit.

With seven blogs requiring regular (if not daily) updates, one requiring daily updates, and others still requiring a slightly looser updating schedule and other freelancing work on top of that, I almost completely burned out. Overwhelmed, I had taken on a workload I couldn’t maintain.

I wasn’t writing creatively, I wasn’t working on my novel and I certainly wasn’t happy about any of it. My stress levels skyrocketed and I felt overworked more often than not. Add on feeling depressed about having no energy and nearly no time to work on my novel, and I wasn’t a great person to be around. (My poor husband.)

So I began to step back. Small steps at first, which was about all I could do with commitments I’d made. Then came the bigger steps: ‘retiring’ from a blog or two, not making any new commitments, learning to tell people ‘no’.

I began writing creatively again.

Don’t let your eagerness to pay off bills or become a social networking guru take you away from your true passions. Don’t forget the writer, the author, in you in favor of spending yet more time on the internet. Learn when to step back and how to balance the various areas of your life.

Always make time for the things that make you happy – even if it involves taking a bit of a pay cut.

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Posted in General, Writer's Block |

Finding Time To Write

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

While we would all love to write a bestseller and have it pay for all the bills plus a summer home in Italy, it’s just plain not possible for the majority of authors. Even becoming a published author doesn’t mean you can quit your day job – especially these days. No longer do artists, writers, etc have patrons who are willing to pay the way for that next great piece of literary genius. (I suppose you could call my husband my patron, but that’s getting beyond the point.)

So we do what we must to pay the bills. If we’re lucky, it’s within the realm of what we love to do: write.

However, as appealing as writing for a living (and not in the novel writing way), you have to be even more careful with scheduling and making time to write creatively, or you run the risk of never finishing your book.

I write a lot. I work at home as a freelancer and writing is what has paid my bills since I have moved to Australia. I have since taken on other non-writing work, but writing is a big source of my income. I write (type) thousands of words every day.

So why is it that my novel isn’t progressing?

Because by the time I am doing getting all my work done, I want to go relax. I don’t want to sit on the computer for another hour on another project, no matter how much I love my novel.

So if you are (non-creative) writing for a living or thinking about a career in freelance writing, make sure it is what you truly want to do and that you’ll have the time and energy for the other things you want to accomplish. Don’t go so far that you’ll find yourself in the situation that I’m currently in – seemingly no time for creative writing and trying to figure out where to step back in order to make life, and fiction writing, more than just a to-do list item.

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Posted in General, Time Management, Writer's Block |

Writer Retreats

Monday, January 25th, 2010

Almost every writer I know would like a little more time, a little less chaos and a lot less noise when it comes to writing. They imply that they’d like nothing more than to be stuck in the middle of nowhere to write to their hearts’ content.

But would you? Truly?

If you were offered a week with no internet, questionable phone service, no friends or family, no shops/theatres/etc to distract you, would you take up the offer?

Would it be a dream? Or would it actually be something that made you nervous?

I’m curious to know if writers would truly want what they claim to want, or if it is their current environments that make them the writers they are.

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Posted in General, Inspiration, Writer's Block |

One Step at a Time

Friday, December 4th, 2009

tired

While some people may argue over whether or not writer’s block actually exists, I’ll be the first one to say that it does. If nothing else in the world tells me it’s so, my own experiences prove it to me.

Over the past three years, I have had what’s felt like the mother of all writer’s blocks. I started plenty of things, finished one thing – and that was a nonfiction ebook. Not exactly my preferred area.

I examined the most common causes for blocks and the not so common ones. I asked myself, “Are you afraid of becoming successful? Are you convinced that everything you write will be garbage?”

Some of the questions revealed thoughts and fears that I hadn’t previously been aware were there. Other questions were easily shrugged off. Even so, there was still something there, some issue, that kept me from writing like I wanted to write.

The time came for me to sit down and force myself to write.

I finally managed to sit myself down with pen and paper to write. Oh, it was a disaster. At least, I was convinced it was. I hated everything I wrote, forgot about crucial and obvious things, sounded forced (which kind of made sense)… I hated it all.

But, the important part was that I had written something. Sure, I thought it was crap, but there were words on paper created from my imagination, proving that I could at least write something.

The next time I sat down to write, I nearly sent myself into a panic attack. My pulse raced, I wanted to eat everything in sight (one of my more unfortunate fear responses) and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Extreme response? Yes. Did I let it stop me? No.

Instead of plunging right in, I took five minutes to calm myself down. I wrote a writing mantra, just for me, stressing that I did know how to write, I could write well, I could finish a novel and some other things that I needed to hear (but no one was there to tell me).

I finally managed to calm down enough to write, and what I wrote… Well, I felt quite pleased about it. Not perfect, but a great start, I figured. And that was my first step.

When it comes to writer’s block that plagues you for whatever reasons (there are plenty of causes for blockages), the key is to take things one step at a time.

Maybe that first step won’t be right for you. Perhaps forcing yourself to sit down and write just doesn’t work, but it does work if you have meditated for five minutes beforehand. Maybe you have tried just letting the inspiration come to you, but it doesn’t work. So try scheduling time out just for writing, no distractions.

Experiment. Try different things. Try to feel out what is right for you. It might not be what you expected.

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Posted in General, How To, Writer's Block |

Beating Writer’s Block: 25 Things I Love About Being A Writer

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

heartA lot of people will debate about whether writer’s block truly exists and so on.

I know writer’s block exists. And I’m all about finding ways to solve it.

One of the best ways to get back to something you once loved doing is to remember the reasons you first fell in love with it in the first place.

Inspired by Romancing the Blog, I decided to list 25 Things I Love About Writing:

1. I can do it anywhere. Even if I am, for some strange reason, caught without a pen and notebook, I can still work on writing in my mind.

2. Escapism. I admit it; I love being able to escape life every once in a while to be in a new world.

3. I have an excuse to feed my office supplies addiction.

4. I answer to no one (except my characters) during the first draft. I can do anything I want in my stories, and I don’t have accountability to anyone during my first draft. Basically, I am god in my first draft.

5. My notebook doesn’t care how I look. Pajamas or high heels, I can write in any outfit. I don’t have to wear a uniform to write.

6. Everything is research. Travel. People watching. Book research. Everyday conversations…

7. Planning and organization. In writing and otherwise, I love planning things out, organizing time lines, figuring out the minute details… It’s a wonder I didn’t become a personal assistant.

8. Soul-searching. I think I have discovered more about myself through my writing than any other way. In my journal and even in my novels, I can look back and remember how I viewed the world. I can also compare that to who I am today.Feli

9. Flexible schedule. Not every writer has such flexibility, as the hard schedule is what works for them, but I have a flexible schedule. I love being able to write during a sunny morning or opt for a cool summer night. I also like that emergencies don’t throw my life completely off balance.

10. Entertaining people. Part of me has always and will always just want to make people feel good. While I may make people feel things other than good while they’re reading, but the entertainment factor is still there.

11. The rush of a new idea. There is nothing like the rush of a new idea. It’s all so exciting, it sounds so good in your head, you rush to your pen and paper to write down all the ideas flooding through…

12. Writing longhand. I have taken more to typing out my work because I type a heck of a lot faster than I write, but I do still love the very act of writing something longhand.

13. Bringing experiences and places you love to new people. One of my goals with my contemporary romances in progress is to introduce people to places I love in Australia.

14. Getting to know new characters.

15. Not knowing how the story is going to end. I know authors who say that you should always know the ending before you start, but I often don’t know the ending before I start. Figuring it out is half the fun!

16. Getting my characters into trouble… (because I’m wicked that way)

17. …and managing to get them back out.

18. Writer’s conferences. There is nothing like spending a long weekend with writers at all stages of their careers.

19. Loving what I do. Unfortunately, not everyone has the ability to do what they love for whatever reason. I am forever grateful for the opportunity I have.

20. The writer’s ‘aura’. I’m wicked enough to find it mildly amusing when people respond to me have in curiosity, half in wariness when they learn that I am a writer.

21. Writer’s humor. Because ‘be careful or I’ll put you in my novel’ really is that funny to me.

22. Self-teaching. I think the best things we learn are the things we teach ourselves. When it comes to writing, the learning never stops.

23. It helps me to digest the things that happen in life in my own way.

24. Editing. Yes, I’m one of those weird writers who loves editing. I might love it a little too much, even…

25. That little something… There is something about writing, something I can’t quite describe, that I love about it. It goes beyond words, funnily enough, and I feel its loss when I’m not writing.

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Posted in Fun, General, Writer's Block |

A Breath of Fresh Air – How to Take a Break Without Braking

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

Honestly? I have been a bit sick of writing about the same subjects day in and day out. I try to take breaks, but it doesn’t really work out because I write for a living. As in, to pay bills. This is my job, and I certainly don’t hear other people talking about just not working for a day because they ‘just don’t feel like it’. (Okay, so plenty of people have pulled a sickie, but not on a consistent basis.)

So what is a poor, worn down, tired writer to do?

Keep writing, of course.

You would think that the natural solution to my predicament would be to just take a vacation and stop writing for a while. I have done that in the past, but that only makes it hard to get back into the swing of things when the vacation is over.

So how do you take a break from writing without putting the brakes on your writing?

The answer is so simple, and that’s probably why we forget it so easily: Write something different.

Many bloggers get together and breathe new life into each other’s blogs by guest posting. While I wasn’t exactly enthused with the idea at first, I wasn’t about to turn down guest posts for my sites and I felt like I should repay the gesture.

I am so incredibly glad I did.

By writing about different subjects for once, I regained my enthusiasm for blogging. I wrote not one but about ten posts for various sites, and it felt great! I remembered why I like writing and blogging so much.

So if you’re feeling a bit ‘sick and tired’ of what you’re working on, try something new! Be it a guest post (ahem), a writing prompt, or something else. Give your mind and your creativity a breath of fresh air without stopping writing.

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Posted in General, Writer's Block |