|
Fiction Debut Author Roundtable
3.
AOTW: The dread of all writers, from novelists to columnists to college students at exam time is writer's block. What methods, or tricks, if you will, have you utilized to overcome the blank stare at the blank page?
Karen V. Siplin: Writer's block is painful, and I tend to encounter it when I haven't taken a break for a while.
When my block is truly awful, and I feel like giving up on the project, I spend a day away from it. Usually, I begin to map out a new story or novel. A day away from a book or scene I'm working on does wonders. I find that when the pressure is off, ideas for the novel I'm working on come to me freely.
But most of the time, I read. I always suggest people suffering from writer's block read pieces they wouldn't normally read. I generally read novels, so when I'm suffering from a block, I read memoirs and short stories. Recently I read a marvelous memoir written in second person. Though I don't think I would ever attempt to write a book in second person, this memoir gave me a whole new perspective on how to tell a story.
Kate Manning: Only two solutions exist. One: Stop and go do something else. (But, better not do this for too long.) Two: just keep writing. Get on with it. If you're stuck in the middle of Chapter Ten, go back and work on Chapter Five, or write a part of the end, since that helps you know what you're heading toward. Maybe you'll have to throw most of it out the next day, but other times, just by forcing yourself to go on you find there's good material in there. It's not supposed to be easy.
Jay Nussbaum: First, I don't give up easily --- my solution is often just to keep working. The term, "writer's block" can be pretty self-indulgent if you define it too quickly. So I stay there. It's amazing all the good that can come out of frustration. Sometimes, frustration compels me to reckless choices that have wonderful results. Other times, I walk away. But when I do, I try not to engage anyone else. I try to stay in my own head. So I'll take a shower or go for a run, and usually, ideas will start occurring to me. That's one of my favorite things about writing: that very often, it happens best when I'm not writing.
Stella Pope Duarte: Writers' block, in my mind, is an illusion. There is a time when the mind is simply at rest, receiving communication about the story in a new way. When I notice any of this "resting time" I simply wait, and if I get frustrated, I start writing gibberish.
Ali Smith: I don't do anything. If it doesn't want to come, I won't make it. James Kelman, Glasgow novelist, says a good thing to do if you're stuck is take your character for a walk. I say take yourself; it's not your character who's stuck. Change your air.
David Rosenfelt: I have no such methods or tricks because it simply never happens to me. I think that is because I've come to writing later in life than most, and never had any real training. I'm going on instinct, which can certainly have its minuses, but in this particular case is a plus.
Gary Shteyngart: I do not suffer from writer's block in the traditional sense, but often my work stalls when I hit certain parts that are psychologically draining to write. When that happens I go for long walks around Manhattan trying to shake off feelings of frustration and sadness or else yap about it with my analyst. The hardest parts to write are always the most important ones in the end.
Anahita Firouz: I believe and agree with what I've also heard a Dutch writer say once on NPR: it's better to relax and let the novel/writing come to you instead of forcing it. A sort of philosophy and faith that things will reveal themselves to you naturally, and you must be aware and "tuned in," because you're working on it at a subconscious level anyway. However, I also believe in discipline and in writing every day, even if the writing doesn't flow immediately or flow at all. To overcome writer's block I go back and read everything I've written before the page or section I'm stuck on. Often revisions reveal dead-ends and also "artificial" writing --- things that don't belong, aren't natural and integral to the novel and are therefore contrived and misleading. Also, I'll often put on a CD and turn it up very loud. The music blocks out the outside world and helps me to focus and enter the world of my novel. I need to be inside that world to write.
Masha Hamilton: Being a journalist for a decade overseas gave me so much; one of the things it gave me was writing discipline. I plunge forward and keep the fingers moving on the keyboard. Some days I may end up with a handful of keep-able sentence and a couple keep-able ideas. That's okay, part of the process. I have a note on my computer that says "Trust the process," and I repeat that mantra to myself often.
Ad Hudler: I am very lucky; I never have writer's block. Perhaps it's because I never put myself in the position of having to face writer's block. If I don't feel like writing, I don't --- and I'll do laundry or read that day or stop by the drug store to research the colors of fingernail polish for a character in my book.
Jill Bialosky: I'm lucky. I don't suffer from writer's block. If I don't have anything to say, I don't write. If I sat in front of a blank page I'd go crazy. I don't have that kind of patience. Maybe I've structured my life to avoid the problem from ever arising. Since I have a day job as a book editor, I'm always trying to squirrel away time for my writing. I think it puts a certain kind of pressure or intensity to the occasion. I write out of necessity. Because the story has to be told. Otherwise, I'd rather spend my time taking my son to the park.
Arthur Phillips: I'll probably jinx myself horribly by saying this, but even though I, too, dread it, I haven't suffered from the evil block. I like the look of a blank page. My uneducated guess is that you get blocked because for whatever reason, you don't really want to be writing, at least not then or there or on that topic. Speaking glibly from delicious, smug ignorance, I would suggest lightening up on yourself, writing about something else, or writing somewhere else, and not worrying about a final product, or any product. Just make yourself write, even if it's gibberish. Move the pen, rant, whatever.
Terrence Cheng: I don't look at it as writer's block. It's more of a "rest" period where I take some time to just think about my characters, think about my subject matter, the tension or drama of a scene or passage. Often I find that if nothing is coming, it's because I don't know enough about my characters or the situation I'm putting the characters in, or my knowledge or emotional level is not at the place it should be. So I rest, I read (someone else's writing), I go jogging or lift weights or just watch television or surf the net. Doing brainless things often helps the brain kick-start itself, so wasting time is really helpful. Again, writer's block, or whatever you want to call it, is not a disease. I attribute it to either being a) too tired, b) too deeply engrossed in one's own work so that you lose perspective, or c) not having all your facts and emotions positioned correctly to write. Often a little downtime is the perfect adjustment.
Jill A. Davis: Booze helps. Lots of booze. If you got some old medication laying around, try putting that in a blender with some booze. Relaxed? Dizzy? Tell me you don't feel like writing now...Actually, I've experienced writers' block once in my life, and it happened while writing the last third of Girls' Poker Night. It was scary. And it lasted a good six weeks. A few people had mentioned The Artist's Way to me. Finally I read it and started writing morning pages, and like some miracle on day three of writing the morning pages I was writing again.
Steve Almond: I view writer's block as a function of some deeper internal conflict. I don't think tricks really work for me. In fact, though it's sacrilege to admit this, there are days where the task of writing is too daunting. I'm not sure it really does much good to sit there pounding your head against a blank page and hating yourself for not doing better. So I just step away from the keyboard and to forgive myself and use the time as productively as I can.
Michael Redhill: I write in a number of forms (poetry, theatre, and cultural essays), so I tend to jump to something else in progress before that feeling of being utterly bogged down makes it hard for me to go forward with anything. In the past, when I've been afflicted, I've tried to remind myself that the writing process includes such things as not being able to go forward. Sometimes it's useful to admit defeat in these matters; what is stopping you can be the very thing you need to make a vertical leap in your work.
David Benioff: As above [# 2].
|
