Opening My Mouth and Removing All Doubt...
Be it shyness or shame I have unwittingly fallen into the roll of the "silent partner" of this rag-tag team of misfits. But given my creative frustrations over the past few weeks I felt it was finally time to share some of my secrets for skillfully avoiding the muse when there is a bounty on your head. With the past four weeks resulting in no less that seven false starts on various projects I am now an expert at dodging the bullet.
Reading & Research: Countless hours can be squandered in responding to important emails, "researching" a minimum of four web-boards, and re-reading those favorites by a specific author in order to "get a grasp on their style." My greatest tip? Randomly pick a subject or hobby and start an spontaneous search to learn as much as you can in a specific amount of time. Start a frantic web-search to find an old friend or lover without paying a dime. My greatest search? One night I set out to find a picture of Homer J. Simpson in the guise of "Mr. X." Five hours later I finally had my avatar for all of the Pocket PC web-boards.
Reading & Re-reading: Far and above ebooks have to be the greatest aid to nursing writer's block ever created. 300MB of ebooks and etexts easily provide a bottomless pit of time wasting diversions for the those of us afflicted with the Block. Old favorites, those classic you never were able to read in school, and for the brave there are always those from writer's you have never heard of. Unlike the paper book which may be in the living room when you're locked in your writing room/dungeon, the ebook is always a few taps away in your PDA which never leaves your side. Long books with long soliloquies are the best of all; I once spent an entire week reading "John Galt's" radio speech.
Journaling: The total time wasted by filling you journal with those useless thoughts can be astounding. Careful though as every once in a while a great idea will spring forth and you will be forced to do some real writing. If you have the will power you can fight the temptation to really work. Ride it out and you can quickly get back to complaining about how many more gray hairs you have today than were there last week.
And the number one way to avoid actually writing...
Fixate on the problem: Moan, lament, and complain about your affliction to yourself and any unsuspecting family member who wanders too close. Even random strangers are great targets for sharing your woe with. Use a random number generator to provide you with a phone number; call them and just start to ramble...
Follow my simple and proven steps and in 2 weeks you'll be not writing just like me. ;-)
Reading & Research: Countless hours can be squandered in responding to important emails, "researching" a minimum of four web-boards, and re-reading those favorites by a specific author in order to "get a grasp on their style." My greatest tip? Randomly pick a subject or hobby and start an spontaneous search to learn as much as you can in a specific amount of time. Start a frantic web-search to find an old friend or lover without paying a dime. My greatest search? One night I set out to find a picture of Homer J. Simpson in the guise of "Mr. X." Five hours later I finally had my avatar for all of the Pocket PC web-boards.
Reading & Re-reading: Far and above ebooks have to be the greatest aid to nursing writer's block ever created. 300MB of ebooks and etexts easily provide a bottomless pit of time wasting diversions for the those of us afflicted with the Block. Old favorites, those classic you never were able to read in school, and for the brave there are always those from writer's you have never heard of. Unlike the paper book which may be in the living room when you're locked in your writing room/dungeon, the ebook is always a few taps away in your PDA which never leaves your side. Long books with long soliloquies are the best of all; I once spent an entire week reading "John Galt's" radio speech.
Journaling: The total time wasted by filling you journal with those useless thoughts can be astounding. Careful though as every once in a while a great idea will spring forth and you will be forced to do some real writing. If you have the will power you can fight the temptation to really work. Ride it out and you can quickly get back to complaining about how many more gray hairs you have today than were there last week.
And the number one way to avoid actually writing...
Fixate on the problem: Moan, lament, and complain about your affliction to yourself and any unsuspecting family member who wanders too close. Even random strangers are great targets for sharing your woe with. Use a random number generator to provide you with a phone number; call them and just start to ramble...
Follow my simple and proven steps and in 2 weeks you'll be not writing just like me. ;-)
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