Rx for Writer's Block, Part 2

[cleolinda]

Okay. Having somewhat recovered from The Migraine That Ate My Brain and borrowed a temporary replacement mouse, I'm back with some more thoughts on writer's block.

(A quick interjection first, however. I was telling Sister Girl about the evil in the MySpace banner ads and how it felled a million Internet Explorer users, mostly because I wanted to make her feel guilty for pulling MySpace up on my computer and causing all this in the first place, and she says, "Oh, well, I don't have anything to worry about, then--I use Firefox." When did my life become an O. Henry story?)

Part two: Feeding Your Head

This is the kind of writer's block where you've started writing, and you've written just enough to start feeling insecure about it. What I really I want to talk about is the word "original," which I think is responsible for a great deal of block on its own. In the sense that you're sitting at the computer going, "I'm basically writing the same old fantasy saga/coming-of-age tale/chick lit/detective novel that's been published a thousand times over. Why do I bother? Why am I even trying? I should pretty much stop writing altogether. I'm never going to think of anything new and original. Shit, I'm going to sell my computer on eBay RIGHT NOW."

The problem here is that your logic is both 1) correct and 2) faulty. I'm starting to think that "original" is one of those misunderstood words like "literally" and "unique" (something can't be "somewhat" unique or "very" unique, people! It is unique or it is not. THERE IS ONLY ONE, OR THERE IS NOT). Yes, "original" is a bit more fluid; it's used, perfectly correctly, to mean "new and fresh; creative." But let's think of "original," in this context, to mean "the first of its kind."

No. You are never going to come up with anything original.

Well, you might. Occasionally a new genre, like cyberpunk, does appear, but even new genres tend to build off previous genres. But basically, there hasn't been anything new under the sun since even before Shakespeare's time, so I'm pretty sure we're all fucked as far as originality goes. More to the point: no one is expecting you to be original.

They say they are; they use the word to describe books you wish you'd written. What they're really trying to say, I think, is that something is creative. The way I look at it, all the elements on the literary periodic table have been discovered. Yeah, they manage to isolate some wild new thing every now and then, but you and I are probably not going to invent entire new genres. When you're trying to write, stop worrying about your creativity at an atomic level--start thinking in terms of compounds, combinations, creation. Let's define "creation" here as the act of producing something from multiple raw materials. What kinds of works do you think of as being "original"? Or, better yet, in what way are they creative? I suspect you'll find that they've combined different pre-existing elements to create something "new and fresh." Firefly? Space opera + western + dash of Chinese influence (or so I'm told). Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell? Fantasy + real (and non-medieval!) historical setting. Harry Potter? Not even the first boarding school + wizards book out there. And this is just off the top of my head. This is where your (and my) logic is faulty: you're not going to think of anything "original," but no one's asking you to. You say "original," and I feel blank terror: I can't. You say "creative," and I see possibilities: I can.

And it doesn't even have to be high-concept creativity ("It's like Dracula in space!"). But creative recombination may be exactly what you need once you've gotten yourself writing, and you find yourself losing steam. This is where my theory that a writer needs to balance her input and her output comes in. Whenever I feel empty, either because I can't start writing or because I've just written myself out, that means I need new input. This is where you'll get the atomic elements you'll need to stockpile for a rainy day:

1) Research. Of course, I say this as someone who reads biographies for fun. Whatever you're writing about, go read up on it. If you're writing about something that does not actually exist, i.e., fantasy, go find something reasonably close to draw inspiration from. I find that nonfiction is particularly helpful because of the real-life anecdotes, the particulars, the odd details that you can squirrel away for later, for completely different contexts. My brain is still sort of twitching helplessly at the moment, but off hand, I remember thinking that Lily Dale: The True Story of the Town That Talks to the Dead is a goldmine of character quirks. But you can get the same kind of input from documentaries or even Dateline NBC. A couple of weekends ago there was a Dateline about a woman in Atlanta (I think it was?) who poisoned both her husband/boyfriends with antifreeze, which, number one, excellent plot point; number two, it described how she courted them relentlessly (her former sister-in-law said that she thought the woman was in it for the thrill of the chase mostly), and gave the men nearly identical expensive gifts. She gave both of them expensive cowboy boots, for example. I loved that. I loved that she made the first husband moonlight at a convenience store so she'd have enough money to take her secret boyfriend to NASCAR races. I mean, I'm not pleased that bad things happened to real people, but I sat there thinking, "I could not make this up. I seriously could not. Thank you, crazy lady." The other thing I loved was the way the family of the first husband, a motorcycle cop, loathed the woman from day one, and when he turned up dead, the first thing every single person interviewed said was, "How'd she kill him?" And she still got away with it for years, and probably would have never been arrested had she not gone and poisoned her firefighter boyfriend. Yeah, the same one she took to the races. And none of this is the typical suspense storyline, you know? Everyone immediately suspects her, she's not a sexy-brilliant femme fatale, it's the working class South. And for all that--probably because of all that--it's a hell of a lot more interesting.

2) Contrast. Whatever you're writing about, when you have the time, go and read something wildly off-topic. If nothing else, it gives your brain a rest. Movies often fall into this category as well. The thing is, if you've got your project in the forefront of your mind the whole time, you may very possibly make some startling connection between what you're escaping with and what you're working on. The Dateline example could work here as well--let's say I was writing something set in the present, about a suburban family, but with other minor characters in the background. Actually, it could be any kind of family, in any time period--Victorian era, middle-class; golddigger, arsenic. If you could find a way to work it into the main narrative instead of seeming like a random tangent, the Lady Who Killed Her Husband (And Everyone Totally Knows It) could be a great minor character, and one you wouldn't have thought of, except for the fact that you happened to be watching TV on a Sunday night.

3) Classics. So we have things that are like what you're writing, and things that are not. Classical archetypal things fall into a third category, in the sense that they permeate everything: mythology, Biblical allegory, the classic books and plays that are almost mythology unto themselves (how often do we use "Romeo and Juliet" as shorthand?). I particularly like mythology, because there's so many cultural variations. In fact, yesterday I was reading about the Whac Chan, the Mayan tree of life, and came across this sentence: "Erich von Däniken proposed the alternative interpretation that the sarcophagus of [King] Pacal depicts the king departing the Earth in a space craft," rather than simply showing the tree sprouting from his body. And suddenly, you realize where some of the idea for The Fountain [Mayans + space exploration!] must have come from. But really, any myth or legend can serve as a basic structure to hang new clothes on; what's West Side Story but Romeo and Juliet on the wrong side of the tracks?

The one thing I will say is that when writers' guides and teachers and workshops tell you that Reading Is Fundamental, they are absolutely right. That you can believe with all confidence, because it's where you'll find all these acorns of usable material to tuck away for later. But I think it also involves reading with a writer's mind--taking in the world around you, the movies you see, the TV shows you watch, the news you hear on the radio--with an eye and an ear for things you can break down into smaller pieces and carry away to your nest like shiny beads, to add to your hodgepodge collection and reassemble later as a completely different necklace. Or something.

Next installment, whenever that turns up: using structural elements to figure out what has to happen next.

Comments

[scornedsaint.livejournal.com]

When did my life become an O. Henry story?

I dunno, but it's interesting for us.

Thanks for posting part 2!

[crypticidentity.livejournal.com]

"I could not make this up. I seriously could not. Thank you, crazy lady."

...the Lady Who Killed Her Husband (And Everyone Totally Knows It)...

You never cease to amaze me, and teach while at the same time being utterly hilarious. Thank you.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I always say that originality is overrated, and thank you for articulating why.

The last time I got annoyed at someone over the originality issue, it was because someone on the DeviantArt forums had stomped all over a girl, slinging the "Why don't you do something original?" barb, merely because she happened to say that she wanted the clothing of a character in the manga she was writing to be similar to Final Fantasy characters' clothing.

[redmapletree.livejournal.com]

This is the kind of writer's block where you've started writing, and you've written just enough to start feeling insecure about it. What I really I want to talk about the word "original," which I think is responsible for a great deal of block on its own. In the sense that you're sitting at the computer going, "I'm basically writing the same old fantasy saga/coming-of-age tale/chick lit/detective novel that's been published a thousand times over. Why do I bother? Why am I even trying? I should pretty much stop writing altogether. I'm never going to think of anything new and original. Shit, I'm going to sell my computer on eBay RIGHT NOW."

You know, you're me, only cooler.

[elendiari22.livejournal.com]

This is all brilliant, but this is my favorite:

But I think it also involves reading with a writer's mind--taking in the world around you, the movies you see, the TV shows you watch, the news you hear on the radio--with an eye and an ear for things you can break down into smaller pieces and carry away to your nest like shiny beads, to add to your hodgepodge collection and reassemble later as a completely different necklace. Or something.

The elaborateness of the first sentence followed by the self-deprecating "Or something" is awesome. You are the Queen.

[underalilacmoon.livejournal.com]

Thank you for clarifying types of research! I kindof do that anyway, things that are my focus and things that are not, but it's good to know that it works, I don't have to use all of it all at once, but somewhere in all the Shakespeare and Jane Austen and obscure British movies there could be something.

I wrote a fairy tale once with elements from Beowulf and the myth of Cupid and Psyche, fun stuff...

[quenbolyn.livejournal.com]

This is all so well said.

And so many writers have the problem of thinking they're not "original" enough, and chucking all their life's work in the bin, or.... you have the ones that make no claim to "reinvent the wheel", and use that as an excuse to write one of the most derivative pieces of tripe since someone decided that A and Z sound really great at opposite ends of the alphabet.

[apocalyptically.livejournal.com]

I dig the literary periodic table metaphor. Reading this makes my fingers itch... I may very well go write something.

[reynardine.livejournal.com]

I like the point you made about creativity. It's like studying history (I was a history major). One event may happen, but the record of the event depends on the person writing it. The job of a historian is to sift through these various truths and then present a narrative whole.

A writer may not start with something "original", but she has something that no one else has--her own interpretation of the subject. A successful writer can use the craft to share with the world the view from her own eyes.

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

I didn't know you'd read up on spiritualism. If you're still interested, see if you can find yourself a copy of Aidan Chambers' Book of Ghosts and Hauntings. It's out of print, but there are a number of excellent ghost stories in there, both "real" and made up. In particular, he reprints some stories from Tales from the Fens (really hard to find; I still don't have this one yet) which are great for dialect. Here's an excerpt:

I reckon I was a lad of about seven or eight when...I was sent to stay with an old aunt in one of the loneliest parts of the Fens. [...] Although there wasn't another house within a mile, that didn't bother them; the farm was run by the family, and for most of the year they went to bed when it got dark and got up at daybreak.

While I was there Hallowe'en came round. In the afternoon everyone was busy putting osier twigs in front of all the doors and windows, the pigsties, stables and cow-house. [...]

[Uncle] told me it was the custom, this night, for the oldest man and the youngest boy in the house to go round the farm an hour before midnight; so we set off. It was very queer padding along behind Uncle as he carried the lantern. [...]

After we'd been round the farmyard we had to visit the bees. As we went into the orchard an owl swooped over us with a loud screech, just above Uncle's head. I was scared, but Uncle got a firm grip of the thick stick he was carrying and, when the owl turned to fly over us again, he caught it such a clout that it fell down to the ground, fluttered its wings a bit and then lay still. My uncle bent down, turned it over and said: 'Well, there's one old witch who won't go home tonight.'

When we got to the bee-hive, we went close up and listened to the noise going on inside; it was just like the hum of a threshing machine on a frosty morning.

'Bor,' said Uncle, 'they're all worked up because they're a lot wiser than we are'; then after tapping the hive with his stick, he bend right down to the entrance and said: 'Well done, my beauties. I got one just now and, by the sound of it, you've go another; push her outside when you've done with her.'

[shaky-knees.livejournal.com]

If you stand on your head and sip water through a straw while counting to ten and holding your breath, YOU'LL BE CURED!

[edda.livejournal.com]

WHOA.

[edda.livejournal.com]

More more more!

Please.

*is taken with your teaching skills*

[sapphires13.livejournal.com]

I haven't read Stephen King's On Writing yet, but if memory serves correct, he recommends spending four hours each day reading, and four hours writing. Slightly steep, and I certainly don't come anywhere near to managing it.

Also:
Every artist is a cannibal
Every poet is a thief
All kill their inspiration
And sing about their grief

Even Shakespeare "stole" Romeo and Juliet from Matteo Bandello.

[wirrrn.livejournal.com]

Hey,

Technically. Dracula in Space is the description of the plot for the Z-grade horror film DRACULA 3000 which stars Casper Van Dien and Coolio. And yes, it's as bad as you're thinking. But at least Casper nudes up, so I was awake for a few scenes *g*

Question about linkspamery

[thunderhowl.livejournal.com]

Speaking of struggling writers and other artistic endeavors...
Do you still have a semi-format you like people to follow when they point out a cool website you might like? I'd like to aim you at www.fishclock.ca but I can't seem to find the protocol.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

That's actually the movie I was thinking of. I wondered who was going to catch that. : )

Re: Question about linkspamery

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't call it a protocol, exactly, just... describe what it is.

uwehehe

[fxchip.livejournal.com]

Mac OS X/Firefox combo for the win. Seriously, it's better over here. :)

Yes, Cleo, I am totally pushing you to get a Mac. Word 2004 for Mac OS X is friggin' awesome. Yes, that's me saying a Microsoft product is actually *gasp* GOOD, but there you have it. It looks better, feels better, and it has a nice little notebook-style format thing. :D

Okay, okay, I'll stop selling out now.

I appreciate the tips on writing; they're just what I need. Now, if only I could once again think of something to begin with. :)

In all seriousness, teach some classes. You'll start turning people into writers left and right. :P

Aand... yeah, I'm done. :)

[clodia-risa.livejournal.com]

I am going to have to point this out to my roommate. He's writing a novel, and while he realizes that nothing he can ever write can be original, he seems to worry that his audience doesn't realize it. I think this might help a little.

Thank you for doing these essays!

[alliancesjr.livejournal.com]

IE users get no love. I, personally, do not like it. Partially because I'm just used to IE, and it's given me no problems before (even with MySpace, though I rarely go there - usually only to check on the status of Episode 2 of Mighty Moshin' Emo Rangers), but mostly because of the hordes of Firefox users who are continually screaming at me to use their product.

Don't peddle your candy to me, candy-peddler. If I wanted proselytization, I'd walk through Southern Illinois with a sign that said "I'm a dirty heathen, ask me how!"

[wirrrn.livejournal.com]

Hey,

As Casper is second in my Future-Husband stakes only to Seann William Scott, I've seen quite a few of his films. Even the ones *without* Doogie Hauser as a Nazi and giant space insects *g*

[leila82.livejournal.com]

This is fantastic — thanks! I'm totally memorifying (is that even a word?) this post to reread for encouragement later.

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

Was this too long a post? It's hard to get a feel for the voices without quoting several paragraphs, but it did come out a little longer than I expected. (Sorry, Cleo.)

[want2bspry.livejournal.com]

Plug for a like-minded podcast:

I should be writing. I should be writing. I should be writing. (http://shouldwrite.blogspot.com)

This is very insightful advice. I'd love to see the third installment.

[derangeddarling.livejournal.com]

I also appreciate this advice, but I'm a little confused. Won't people throw a bitch fit if you, say, base a character on something you see on the news? I mean, if it's a memorable story, which it would be if it sticks in your mind, wouldn't other people remember it too? And then when they read it be like 'hey, wait...?'

"You know, you're me, only cooler."
Isn't that how we all feel? ^.^

I do appreciate this advice, though. And to whoever mentioned it, I've read Stephen King's On Writing and I likd it a lot.

One more thing: "Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it."--C. S. Lewis

and could someone enlighten me on how to make other people's journal entries memorable? I know how to do it with my own, I think. I would also like to hang on to these for when I'm feeling particularly dejected about my writing.

Thanks, Cleo.

[word-herder.livejournal.com]

After you write a book on writing advice, you could make a career teaching creative writing classes in college.

Thanks for the 2nd installment!

[word-herder.livejournal.com]

I'd swear that there are only about 7 original plots in the world, star-crossed lovers being one of them.

Re: Question about linkspamery

[thunderhowl.livejournal.com]

Fishclock is an arts collective based in Edmonton, Canada.
It's part blog, part group-of-friends/writers, part humor site.
They've just started a podcast serial redio show called Orphans, based on superheros. One of the creators is a writer...who actually pointed me to your blog and m15m...(when oh when will the book get to North America?!?)
Some of the site is funny, and some is a little shocking, but, they're my friends, and I enjoy it, so maybe I thought some of it would appeal to you and your readers as well.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

The short answer is, yes. People often do get pissed off when thinly-veiled fictional accounts of their (usually infamous) lives or deeds are written. That's why you don't import this stuff whole cloth (which I didn't make clear, sorry). You could easily write a story using only the expensive boots detail, and maybe have the man's family uncomfortable with it, but have it play out in a completely different way. No death, no poisoning, etc. And the idea of moving the basic premise (no one is surprised when husband dies in mysterious circumstance; everyone blames wife; no one can prove it) to a different time or setting is another way around that. What you want to do is take a piece, an element, from a true story and build around that, rather than completely go through and fictionalize an entire case.

[ampersand.livejournal.com]

Into the memories it goes!

[girlupnorth]

Thanks a lot - added this to memories, too :)

[tenebris.livejournal.com]

Seconded. That last bit is just...WOW.

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

Oh, you didn't even get to read the bit about them all drinking lots of homemade botanical beer and the uncle throwing "flowers of sulfur" (like gunpowder) into the fireplace. Which kills a dove, which lands in the uncle's lap. And then he declares that the dove was another witch trying to get into the house, and he defended them all. The coolness of this book is a magnificent thing to behold.

All this stuff is straight oral tradition-- the author went around to all the old-timers in East Anglia and asked for their best stories. It was written in 1967, which means this story would have happened in the late 1890s/early 1900s. Lots of it is true, lots more is exaggerated, and the rest is fiction.

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

Oh, and friended, if you don't mind.

[tenebris.livejournal.com]

*eyes wide with WHOA* That sounds awesome. I think I need to look for a copy of this book, because these kinds of tales are right up my alley. We had a collection of American folklore when I was a kid, and I used to devour chunks of that book. (Then go hide under the covers. Things that go bump! in the night.)

And no problem with the friending--right back at you, in fact. Remind me to dig up the interesting part of my life somewhere in here. :)

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

I'd say your best bet is a university library. Last night, I decided I finally needed to buyTales from the Fens and More Tales from the Fens, so I bought them over the net (on Alibris), but they didn't come cheap. $58 including shipping. (The excerpt above is from More Tales, IIRC.) Anyhow, Penn's library has copies of both, so if you aren't committed to owning them, you might want to look into that option.

[celtic-songster.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I'm in the middle of trying to write a script, and this advice is helping very much. The encouragement isn't hurting, either!

[jekylls-bast.livejournal.com]

Another fantastic bit of advice!! You should do a lecture on this stuff you know? I would defiantly attend and be scribbling notes like mad!

When I tell someone I'm writing an "original" story, I, myself mean to say "It isn't fan fiction for once!" XD!

I actually love doing research for writing! I once did extensive research on "Jack the Ripper" and his victims for a story I was writing a couple of years ago and learned so much about the whole ordeal that I never knew before hand. Needless to say, I have loads of random bits of weird information I can spout off at people, it's fun actually. :)

Hope your head starts feeling better Cleo, of all aliments for a writer to get, a migraine is probably the worst!

[brainchild129.livejournal.com]

And now I'm going to be driven to madness trying to think of the song those lyrics are from, because I know I've heard them before, but I can't recall the specifics.

[sapphires13.livejournal.com]

The Fly by U2

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

Okay, I just picked up the books from the library, and that story actually has a footnote, "A story told by William Kemp who died, aged ninety-one, in 1906." So if the narrator was 7 or 8 when the story happened, that means it was 1822 or 1823.

[jeepchic.livejournal.com]

Just wanted to thank you for sharing your insights and thoughts on writing and overcoming writer's block. I haven't had time to comment on all the entries, but I've read them all and found myself nodding along to a lot of what you say. I'll probably go back and save the entries to memories so I can pull them out again when needed. Actually, they've been an encouragement this week as I've been struggling with varying forms of block for awhile, and *really* want to move past it. This requires time and some extra motivation more than anything (I totally understand your comment awhile back about having the will and desire to do stuff and not having the energy or motivation to follow through).

Also, heaping accolades from a fellow writer on all the good writing you've been getting in lately--and hope the migraines ease off. And lastly, I'd never heard of The Fountain until you mentioned it, but after clicking on the trailer link, I was blown away and am now very interested in seeing that movie. It looks amazing. Thanks for posting that link!

[blinkliz.livejournal.com]

Props to you and O. Henry.

[brainchild129.livejournal.com]

Thank you! BTW, your icon? So true.

*watches Bono writhe sexily*