the unusually complicated relationship between a writer and her work

[veijukka]

Hit a major dry spell again. Not sure what's going on with my brain, but words are slow and painful these days. Wouldn't trouble me so much if I didn't have the desire to write. I can't even describe it so much as writer's block. More like...a great internal barreness. Dreadful

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[deep_time]

I signed up to turn out a story for a cruddy zine on LJ, just to force myself to do some writing for the first time in a couple years. It's hard getting back into the habit.

[veijukka]

Habit's a big part of it, though, so I'm glad you're doing it. Do you know what you're going to write about? I signed up for Storium, but I haven't engaged in anything yet. I did sit down and brainstorm in a paper notebook last night, even sketched out a new scene, and I kind of like it. I'm hoping this story takes off...I miss writing as escape. Used to be that when my life was too dull or too difficult, I could disappear into my own stories as easily as I could into anyone else's. That's what I miss most about writing, really...the sense of escape.

[deep_time]

This particular zine first attracted me a couple years ago because each issue is themed: war, romance, travel, steampunk, whatever the editors pick for that month. I sometimes find this helpful as a condensation seed, the first tiny anchor to hook my words to. Right now all I want is to finish a story, so I'm not aiming for high quality or artistic value, just completion; this zine is handy for that as well, because they have practically no editorial standards. (I think the last year or more of issues has been written by the same two or three livejournalists, none of whom are... good.) This time the theme is "Erase & Rewind," which means picking any of their previous themes or mixing and matching previous themes. So I picked "Steampunk" and "Time Travel," decided to try my hand at a 1970s-style fantasy adventure, blew the dust off one of my own story universes, made up some all-new characters, and now I'm in the process of seeing where it goes. I'm a little bit stuck deciding what the Macguffin is and what it does, but I have four

[veijukka]

Sounds like a fun project to start out the year, especially with the Wild West element. Been drawn to that myself lately. Is there a length requirement for your story?

I finished something last year (episode 1 of the screenplay project), but still...it was a collaboration and not a solitary effort. I want to finish something of my own. I have an impressive array of starts, but precious few finishes. So, we'll see. I'm going to keep trying. Plus I want to know what happens in this story. I introduced a new character into the mix last night, one I wasn't anticipating, but one that will hopefully help move things along and keep the other, more introspective characters from "emo-ing" themselves into non-action. I'm also trying out a new genre (horror) and pulling out all the stops in terms of graphic content, in the hopes that I can open up and really write something, without reflexively stopping to doubt if it's getting boring.

[bbovenguy]

Everyone goes through dry spells, be they with writing or something else or everything all at once. I'm currently trying to get my own rhythm back after the dreaded holiday season. ("Dreaded" in terms of taking all my writing time away, that is.) Recently I realized that I've never stuck with the same characters and setting (I'm on Volume 3 of a series) for this long continuously before, and sometimes I feel a bit weary about it.

It's easy to be a writer (or a painter or an engineer or whatever) when the wind is at your back. It's harder when the wind is against you. But I think that if we never had to face those times when the going is difficult, we wouldn't be sure about what we really want. Anybody can do something that's easy. The ones who really want it keep going when it's hard.

Hang in there! You'll get through.

[veijukka]

I just wish the dry spells would correspond with periods in which I'm too busy to write, instead of the other way around! Thanks for the encouragement, though...I'll keep at it!

[stormyserenity]

You and me both on wishing for weather.

I've been writing a great deal but it's all terrible.

[veijukka]

See, yeah. I've been writing, too. Slowly, painfully...and badly. I guess we've got to get all the crap out of the way before we can get to the good stuff?