Are You Writing Serious Fantasy? - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Naaramare · 07-31-2002, 10:28 AM

Mark 12_30: Eh. I'd say no. Because at the moment, I'm not completely blocked, per se; if I had the interest, there are six or seven short story ideas I could churn out. The thing is, I'm blocked on my particular story.

A professional writer claims that WB does not exist. However, a professional writer has to live off their efforts (and I think this is responsible for a lot of hastily churned-out, flawed books, really . . .so many of my almost-favourite authors could have been that much better if they'd stopped and reviewed their stories themselves a few more times. . . I think, anyway).

"We don't have time to nurse neurosis" is the comment I've heard at one point from a writer (through the medium of her writer-character). Well, true enough if you're living off of it in a genre-fiction world. ^^ But! In myself I've noticed two things.

When I try to force myself to "get over" my block by stream-of-consciousness writing or other tricks that are about forcing the block away, my personal writing quality suffers. Badly. It becomes merely acceptable, as opposed to good. However, if I simply wait until I'm actually ready to write, the quality is better.

So there are a bunch of "cures"--stream of consciousness, simply FORCING yourself to write no matter what comes out, reworking the outline, working on something else--but because I have the luxury of being able to simply wait the block out, I do. Because in the end, it's better for my story.

[ July 31, 2002: Message edited by: Naaramare ]

07-31-2002, 10:28 AM	#11
Naaramare Wight Join Date: May 2002 Location: Fort St John Posts: 196	Mark 12_30: Eh. I'd say no. Because at the moment, I'm not completely blocked, per se; if I had the interest, there are six or seven short story ideas I could churn out. The thing is, I'm blocked on my particular story. A professional writer claims that WB does not exist. However, a professional writer has to live off their efforts (and I think this is responsible for a lot of hastily churned-out, flawed books, really . . .so many of my almost-favourite authors could have been that much better if they'd stopped and reviewed their stories themselves a few more times. . . I think, anyway). "We don't have time to nurse neurosis" is the comment I've heard at one point from a writer (through the medium of her writer-character). Well, true enough if you're living off of it in a genre-fiction world. ^^ But! In myself I've noticed two things. When I try to force myself to "get over" my block by stream-of-consciousness writing or other tricks that are about forcing the block away, my personal writing quality suffers. Badly. It becomes merely acceptable, as opposed to good. However, if I simply wait until I'm actually ready to write, the quality is better. So there are a bunch of "cures"--stream of consciousness, simply FORCING yourself to write no matter what comes out, reworking the outline, working on something else--but because I have the luxury of being able to simply wait the block out, I do. Because in the end, it's better for my story. [ July 31, 2002: Message edited by: Naaramare ] __________________ "I once spent two weeks in a tree trying to talk to a bird." --Puck, Brother Mine si man i yulma nin equantuva? [my blog]