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Braavos36388 Posts
On October 17 2009 05:28 benjammin wrote:
i think writer's block is quite often used as an excuse for laziness, as the best writers are the ones who work the hardest on their craft. denying its existence is just silly.
on experience/imagination: i've never trusted anyone who has said 'write what you know.'
on being a noob: reading helps, but less than most people think. there's no substitute for practice. everyone starts as a noob, but if you are passionate about improving you will get better. there are many terrible books written on how to improve as a writer. i'd skip those.
Writing is one of those things, much like video games and sports, where people vastly, vastly overestimate their ability. I know there are 100 people reading this right now who are nodding their heads "yup, I know people like that, but I'm not one of them" when they actually are one of them. Yes, you.
edit: to be absolutely clear, i'm not claiming to be a great writer at all.
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They probably felt what they had left to say wasn't good enough or was too mundane. Without an actual account of their thoughts and feelings, it's really not a convincing point.
Are you saying famous writer's aren't capable of not wanting to write anymore?
EDIT: You seem to be implying I have a very high opinion of my writing. I don't. I have a really long way to go, and I know by the time I finish my book, the last chapter is going to be 1000 x better than the first chapter, and I'll have to rewrite everything. You learn how to write better by experience. It isn't innate.
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On October 17 2009 05:10 micronesia wrote:
Where do you go if you are a writing noob and want to get better? Whether it be creative writing... or whatever? That's obviously not the point of this thread but I'm sure some of you guys have suggestions.
Local uni writing center will help you (and probably won't check your id. you're not a student anymore, right?)
Local book stores and libraries probably have information about writing groups even a poetry group can help just expand your vocabulary a bit more and expose you to different styles
just read an assload, and not just from the genre you're aiming to write. if you own the books youre reading, get a sticky pad and mark off pages or passages of interest... hell it could even be the way that one sentence was constructed that intrigued you.
the more you read, the more youll be able to understand the strengths and weaknesses of certain writers, and your own. certain guys are horrendously bland writers (abuse the fuck out of cliches, write run ons without recognizing it, etc) but they could be awesoem story tellers. you will hear english majors harp on about how Stephen King and JK Rowling are horrible writers technically (specifically), but it's difficult to argue against their storytelling abilities.
other fields, like journalism, or stories grounded in fact, you might find a guy can't write for shit, but is a damn good interviewer, evidenced by the information they're able to pry from their subject. The Ice Man: confessions of a mafia contract killer by philip carlo is an extremely interesting book, simply because he's able to get so much outta Kuklinski (who was out of his fucking mind btw) but it is so inredibly poorly written it made my eyes want to bleed. Every sentence is constructed in the same manner. he repeats things verbatum that he used earlier, without even putting effort into saying it in a different way.
it's kind of like being a business owner. you want to look at what other people are doing, emulate (but with your own twist) what works, and learn from what doesnt work.
the last and probably most important thing is to have thick skin, but be totally open to constructive criticism. i saw so many people walk out of classes crying because of somewhat harsh (but dead on) advice, and others disregard prefectly good advice because they think their own shit doesnt stink (hot bid is totally correct on this)
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This thread has gone from off-topic to cancerous.
Look, TL.net has a lot of talented users and I was hoping to receive some submissions from those people along with anyone else.
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you could read the crack-up by f scott fitzgerald to get a better sense of his writer's block
and of course people overestimate themselves, it's because writing is so part and parcel with every day life that people expect to be able to do it well without much effort. it's annoying, i guess, but i don't worry about it too much. all i worry about is improving.
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Braavos36388 Posts
On October 17 2009 05:38 Chef wrote:
They probably felt what they had left to say wasn't good enough or was too mundane. Without an actual account of their thoughts and feelings, it's really not a convincing point.
Are you saying famous writer's aren't capable of not wanting to write anymore?
EDIT: You seem to be implying I have a very high opinion of my writing. I don't. I have a really long way to go, and I know by the time I finish my book, the last chapter is going to be 1000 x better than the first chapter, and I'll have to rewrite everything. You learn how to write better by experience. It isn't innate.
No, I'm saying that there exists a condition where a writer is actually hindered mentally from writing. I don't doubt some people use it as an excuse, but so many great writers have claimed to have it. It's a phenomenon that's existed for so long, are you really saying that all of these people are just lying about it?
Are you really arguing that certain people don't have an innate talent for language and writing? That you can only learn how to write better by experience? Come on. Some people are geniuses, you can't chalk up all of it to life experience.
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On October 17 2009 05:27 CaucasianAsian wrote:
I have to side that there is no such thing as a real writers block.
On October 17 2009 05:27 CaucasianAsian wrote:
Writers Block is just your mind, being blank and not knowing what the hell to happen next. The best way to get rid of writers block...
What the fuck?
I am still baffled that people think writers block doesn't exist... holy fucking shit
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On October 17 2009 04:40 Hawk wrote:
You're out of your fucking mind if you think writer's block isn't real
Tossing my hat in the ring to review some writing stuff, amateur, professional... whatever. I'm bored and my own writing is sucking ass now.
I'm taking you up on your offer. I'll PM you what I have when I get home.
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It's a phenomenon that's existed for so long, are you really saying that all of these people are just lying about it?
To me, it's less absurd to believe that than to believe someone has ever actually truthfully thought "I've written everything I can write." It's really not hard for me to believe a writer can feel tired and not want to write anymore, then describe it as writer's block. But that's not really writer's block. That's "I don't feel like doing this shit anymore," and a week later saying "I still don't feel like doing it, I give up."
The idea that a person couldn't come up with the next part of a story, or even just a new story in general, is ridiculous. That doesn't make sense, no matter what conventional wisdom tells you.
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On October 17 2009 06:12 Chef wrote:Show nested quote +It's a phenomenon that's existed for so long, are you really saying that all of these people are just lying about it? To me, it's less absurd to believe that than to believe someone has ever actually truthfully thought "I've written everything I can write." It's really not hard for me to believe a writer can feel tired and not want to write anymore, then describe it as writer's block. But that's not really writer's block. That's "I don't feel like doing this shit anymore," and a week later saying "I still don't feel like doing it, I give up." The idea that a person couldn't come up with the next part of a story, or even just a new story in general, is ridiculous. That doesn't make sense, no matter what conventional wisdom tells you.
You sir, have never trully writen, you just put words in the paper.
edit: so it doesnt sound completely shallow.
Think of it as making music, yes a musician can just keep writing tunes and jamming sounds, but masterpieces appear in a burst of inspiration, then are hardworked into existance, its the same with writing.
If you are trully making something inspiring, (and inspired) its not enough to just sit on the chair and give it all you have, you need something more, you need to let the writing flow through you, sometimes this energy flux is simply not there, and its not about having nothing more to say, its about losing that grasp in what you wanted to say.
The mind is much more complicated than the mediocre assumptions you made about it.
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A wise person once said "once you give a name to something, it becomes real and you give it power".
Writers block wouldn't be half as scary if it wasn't called that.
You could draw parallels between this and that guy who froze in the freezer that wasn't even turned on.
You don't feel like writing for a few days and someone(or you yourself) says "writer's block".
Only then you're fucked.
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I consider my whole life to be a part of the writing process. Putting the words on the paper is the last step ^^
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On October 17 2009 06:19 Chef wrote:
I consider my whole life to be a part of the writing process. Putting the words on the paper is the last step ^^
huh?
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Canada9720 Posts
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Well it's better than saying I use the energy flux from my bones to impregnate my mind with swirling spirits of my ancestors so that I can communicate properly with the collective unconscious of humanity and translate what they tell me into a language you humans call, English.
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United States24747 Posts
On October 17 2009 06:23 Chef wrote:
Well it's better than saying I use the energy flux from my bones to impregnate my mind with swirling spirits of my ancestors so that I can communicate properly with the collective unconscious of humanity and translate what they tell me into a language you humans call, English.
You may be writing creatively, but your use of energy flux is wrong either way.
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You realize Siegmund Freud first started talking about psychic energy right ? because its not about crazy mojo, its about how our friggin minds work, we when you get past the bio chemical view, we are a thinking creatures, and we have several divisions on our psychic apparatus, and the bases for his theory is that we have a basic energy that powers these psychic processes and there is a science to how it works.
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On October 17 2009 05:36 Hot_Bid wrote:Show nested quote +On October 17 2009 05:28 benjammin wrote:
i think writer's block is quite often used as an excuse for laziness, as the best writers are the ones who work the hardest on their craft. denying its existence is just silly.
on experience/imagination: i've never trusted anyone who has said 'write what you know.'
on being a noob: reading helps, but less than most people think. there's no substitute for practice. everyone starts as a noob, but if you are passionate about improving you will get better. there are many terrible books written on how to improve as a writer. i'd skip those. Writing is one of those things, much like video games and sports, where people vastly, vastly overestimate their ability. I know there are 100 people reading this right now who are nodding their heads "yup, I know people like that, but I'm not one of them" when they actually are one of them. Yes, you. edit: to be absolutely clear, i'm not claiming to be a great writer at all.
i love your writing. t.t
seriously, it's cause of people who are as articulate as you that i continue to write and be inspired to improve.
while i realize articulation and writing are different things, the latter becomes much easier when you have the former.
hot_bid<3ing
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On October 17 2009 06:28 micronesia wrote:Show nested quote +On October 17 2009 06:23 Chef wrote:
Well it's better than saying I use the energy flux from my bones to impregnate my mind with swirling spirits of my ancestors so that I can communicate properly with the collective unconscious of humanity and translate what they tell me into a language you humans call, English. You may be writing creatively, but your use of energy flux is wrong either way.
I used the word mockingly, see D10's post.
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Braavos36388 Posts
On October 17 2009 06:12 Chef wrote:Show nested quote +It's a phenomenon that's existed for so long, are you really saying that all of these people are just lying about it? To me, it's less absurd to believe that than to believe someone has ever actually truthfully thought "I've written everything I can write." It's really not hard for me to believe a writer can feel tired and not want to write anymore, then describe it as writer's block. But that's not really writer's block. That's "I don't feel like doing this shit anymore," and a week later saying "I still don't feel like doing it, I give up."
You don't know what writer's block is. It isn't some disease where the writers say to themselves "I've written everything I can write." Obviously they still have more to write, they are writers. If they didn't believe that, they'd quit writing. Writers struggle with writers block for years sometimes.
They just can't write at that particular moment. For whatever the reason, their creativity or drive or whatever is stopped. Lots of writers have block just for a few days, or even a few hours. The worst cases have it for years, even for their entire lives. None of these people say "I've written everything I can write." They have plenty of things to write, they just have problems doing it. They don't want to have writer's block.
If it was just someone being lazy, how can you explain a writer losing his job and being unable to pay the bills or put food on the table for his family for years (this happens, it ruins careers) as "just being lazy."
The idea that a person couldn't come up with the next part of a story, or even just a new story in general, is ridiculous. That doesn't make sense, no matter what conventional wisdom tells you.
The fact that you say this makes it so, so obvious you are very ignorant about the writing process. It's never as easy as simply "coming up with the next part of the story." You make it sound like anyone can just write a classic.
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