Letter 27: July 6, 2008
As we enter our third trimester, let's review.
As I've said during the last six months, one of my favorite ways to deal with "writer's block" is to leave the house, leave the home office. Get away from the phone and the Internet and the endless little jobs around the house that seem so much more important than the one thing you thought you were going to do today.
Some people like to get away to somewhere peaceful, like the library. Others like the activity of a coffee shop or a mall, to drown the yama-yama in their heads, or to inspire their dialogue. And I recommend this to writers and, when they do it, it works (but only when they do it! - aspirin doesn't work in the bottle.)
But other writers refuse to give it a try, making largely-irrelevant excuses about how they can only compose at a keyboard, or can only make rough drafts on paper. I wonder. Have they tried recently?
Personally I find the keyboard puts some pressure on me, and makes me think linearly. On paper I can see relationships and patterns and can set down my own feelings more expressively. Both of these are useful at different times. For other people the two modes have other meanings.
Guess what my advice is? Yes - "try it". Doesn't work in the bottle.
What else? Back at the start of the year, we talked about collaboration. And I was pretty certain that collaboration with the right partner is good. One of the things it gives you is accountability, and you just can’t fake that - you need to be answering to a human.
That's all still true. But in my own writing over those months I've been experimenting with self-dialogue. Just taking some paper and writing a conversation with myself about the intentions, constraints, routes through it all, can be a substitute for talking to someone else. Answers emerge. Things get solved which allow me to go back and write a few more pages of the project.
Again - try it. Don't just think "interesting idea." Doesn't work in the bottle.
On the other hand, recently I've been working on rewriting a project I completed with partners a dozen years ago. Neither of them lives on this continent. Even so, rather than do the whole job in isolation, I corresponded with the old country and we workshopped ideas for improving the structure and content.
And, reader, more and better ideas came up than if I'd gone my own way.
So self-dialogue is still the emergency choice for when you have no way at all to make yourself accountable to a suitable partner.
Something you can try today - there are two suggestions above, pick one and let me know the result.
David
David Jung McGarva
+1 (818) 707 1871
Write me: david at todayiwrite dot com
To get this newsletter every week, enter your email address below.
Privacy policy: I'll send you nothing but the weekly letter, and I'll never voluntarily share your address with anyone.