Sometimes the best of writers, not that I am throwing my hat into that category, but, sometimes the best of writers need a little inspiration to get over a difficult block. I love to read inspirational quotes from writers like Mark Twain or Maya Angelou because it makes me realize I am not alone. Those are my group therapy sessions for overcoming writers block. Some of my favorite quotes that I have found recently are:
There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed. - Ernest Hemingway
Talking is a hydrant in the yard and writing is a faucet upstairs in the house. Opening the first takes the pressure off the second. - Robert Frost
When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature. - Ernest Hemingway
My ideas usually come not at my desk writing but in the midst of living. - Anais Nin
You fail only if you stop writing. - Ray Bradbury
These have been inspirational today as I am writing. The problem for me is not necessarily writers block but writers excess. When you have writers block it is difficult to look at a page and put the words you want there. The words may sit in your head but can not get out or like a dam they are just blocked from even pouring forth any ideas. On the other hand, writing excess needs to be considered another writing setback in some cases. Many writers have an overload of thoughts running in their heads. They are considering plot, movement, character, location, ideas, etc. Writing excess though is when there are multiple writing projects occurring all vying for the writer's mental attention.
Have you ever started reading a book, before finishing picked up another one to read with the idea of reading two at the same time, then another and another? Soon you realize that you have not finished one of those books but you did start four. Starting four without finishing then can become chaotic for the brain if you have to keep trying to recall the stories and characters for each book respectively. For a writer it is even worse.
Writing incorporates all the ideas of reading except you add in creating. Writers create the story. They personify the characters. They build the location with words and descriptions. When a writer has multiple writing projects competing for space in their head it becomes overwhelming and then BAM! You stop and you are back to the writers block scenario. Writing excess can lead to writers block.
How do you stop that? That is an excellent question. I have four writing projects I am currently creating. One is of course the ever present novel, but then I have two poems and a short story. The problem is each of these are in the creation mode and the starting mode but there is no completed stamp following because my thoughts are being overwhelmed. The writers block dam has burst but now the ideas are flooding the banks. It is time to find a way to focus and control the deluge of ideas.
I can not address which is best course of action to get over writers block or writers excess for anyone who is a writer but, I know for me, I need to take a step back and do something else. It helps to refocus my mind. That something else may not be any kind of writing or it can be just filling a page of my journal and using that as a starting place to organize and bring a bit of soothing calm to the chaos of ideas swirling around. It is not a bad thing to have multiple projects. It is a great feeling to be able to transition from one idea to the next. It only becomes a hindrance when those projects become a swirling mass of ideas that are running around unfocused and frenzied. So, we have to find a way to organize the brain. It does not mean you will stop writing, nor does it mean the ideas will go away. The only thing it does is make the ideas form more of a straight line and bring some order versus running amok in your head as they were.
Once you can slow down the confusion of ideas writing then becomes more of an organized revolution. You can create and destroy and conquer and you can do that with four different writing projects started, only now your revolution has a peaceful ending because you have completed those same four writing projects with strategic planning and action. The ideas once taking over and overpowering the creativity are not continuously rioting through your head any longer. As Ernest Hemingway did say, as shown above, "There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." Writing takes passion and organization working together. It takes a revolution of ideas and an organization of thoughts to create and conquer. (In honor of Bastille Day!) Vive la Writing!!!
