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Ye holy undead fish in the crockpot of doom,
(I've decided I want to make up new and interesting ephitets to use; this will last until I forget, which ... could be in an hour, who knows)
I am in that peculiar state of being AWAKE and ALERT and also REALLY SLEEPY at the same time. I mean, I woke up this morning convinced and happy "but at least I don't have to go to work tomorrow!" even though I was fully aware tomorrow is Friday, and still a work day. I don't know. Maybe it was because I forgot to eat dinner last night. It was terribly peculiar, because I'm certain there was a point I told someone "I haven't eaten yet, I should do that!" and then got distracted by something shiny. It's never that I don't want to eat, guys; I am just apparently EASILY DISTRACTED at times. Story of my life. I made up for it by actually having breakfast this morning, though, so I still win!
With that in mind, before I forget: Pointer: I have written some Pandora Hearts ficlets over at character-journal.
--See, I feel bad because I don't feel like I've WRITTEN anything worthwhile for ... a month or so? Which isn't entirely true, as I do have Super Awesome Secret Project, but that isn't quiiiite ready to be shared yet. :( B-but at the same time, I feel like I've been slacking off; I am once again in that place of "I waaaant to but I dunno whaaaat" and it's. A little frustrating! Or I have some ideas, but they're kind of nebulous and involve one-line exclamations. "I want to write Haruka meeting Soujoubou!" or "I want to write dubious het!" or "Let's get started on the next![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
imaginarybeasts story!" and the suchlike; which is all well and good and awesome, except for the part where I sit down and my attention wanders and it's suddenly two hours later. :(
It's like I can either do that or sit around and pontificate (in text) at length about how X song is like Y character or Z series and isn't that great!! except that's just me listening to myself talk. Uh.
hey guys, hey guys, what do you do to break writer's block? I WOULD LOVE SUGGESTIONS BECAUSE MY HEAD, IT IS BLOCK'D. :(b
(I've decided I want to make up new and interesting ephitets to use; this will last until I forget, which ... could be in an hour, who knows)
I am in that peculiar state of being AWAKE and ALERT and also REALLY SLEEPY at the same time. I mean, I woke up this morning convinced and happy "but at least I don't have to go to work tomorrow!" even though I was fully aware tomorrow is Friday, and still a work day. I don't know. Maybe it was because I forgot to eat dinner last night. It was terribly peculiar, because I'm certain there was a point I told someone "I haven't eaten yet, I should do that!" and then got distracted by something shiny. It's never that I don't want to eat, guys; I am just apparently EASILY DISTRACTED at times. Story of my life. I made up for it by actually having breakfast this morning, though, so I still win!
With that in mind, before I forget: Pointer: I have written some Pandora Hearts ficlets over at character-journal.
--See, I feel bad because I don't feel like I've WRITTEN anything worthwhile for ... a month or so? Which isn't entirely true, as I do have Super Awesome Secret Project, but that isn't quiiiite ready to be shared yet. :( B-but at the same time, I feel like I've been slacking off; I am once again in that place of "I waaaant to but I dunno whaaaat" and it's. A little frustrating! Or I have some ideas, but they're kind of nebulous and involve one-line exclamations. "I want to write Haruka meeting Soujoubou!" or "I want to write dubious het!" or "Let's get started on the next
imaginarybeasts story!" and the suchlike; which is all well and good and awesome, except for the part where I sit down and my attention wanders and it's suddenly two hours later. :(It's like I can either do that or sit around and pontificate (in text) at length about how X song is like Y character or Z series and isn't that great!! except that's just me listening to myself talk. Uh.
hey guys, hey guys, what do you do to break writer's block? I WOULD LOVE SUGGESTIONS BECAUSE MY HEAD, IT IS BLOCK'D. :(b
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From:
no subject
I read a lot. Fiction, non-fiction, whatever. Then I write. I just sit and write on a subject or a scene, even if it's horrible, or I'm not sure where it's going, or even if it's just a bunch of one sentence summaries of scenes that I'm not yet sure how to fit into a story. Something will come of it that I can use. Sometimes, I go on a walk, and force myself to focus on the story while I do it or I doodle about an idea, which also forces me to focus on it until it squirts out a usable idea.
From what you describe, it's not so much writer's block, though, as difficulty focusing :) It's sounds to me like you've got plenty of things to write about :D
This is my favorite article about writer's block.
From:
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Finding my focus again would be good, though. ;o;b Do you have any suggestions for that.
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1) Disconnect from the Internet. Don't care if you need research materials. Cut and paste it from the Internet into a Doc. Don't care if you want to talk to your friend about the story. That's not writing the story.
1a) Shut all applications except the one I'm using.
2) Turn off the TV.
2a) And music, and remove books, and anything else that you might possible stare at or flip through instead of your monitor.
2b) If you must have background noise, use the least distracting, such as music you are familiar enough with to ignore or doesn't have lyrics or is in a language you don't understand.
2c) Re: music again. If you have particular, but non-distracting songs that remind you of what you want to write, those help focus.
3) Disconnect from the Internet.
4) Turn off the TV.
5) Go somewhere you can be alone and close the door, or otherwise somewhere that functions the same (for example, coffee shops work for me because the scattered presences around me also act kind of like a silent wall, same with libraries, away from the books).
6) Disconnect from the Internet.
7) Turn off the TV.
8) Spend a few minutes, mentally, actively dismissing everything but the story you want to tell. Continue to do that as you write and other non-story things creep in.
9) Timed writing. Set the alarm for 10 minutes, and do nothing but write for those 10 minutes or until you read X goal. Rinse and repeat.
10) Write in the morning when everyone else is asleep, and you don't have a whole day of distractions on your mind and distracting you.
Also, disconnect from the Internet.
Those are some things I try when I'm having focusing issues. Your mileage may vary, but I always tell people to try it before they "but...." or "that won't work for meeeeeeeeee". Because, hey, it might and you don't lose anything if it doesn't.
From:
no subject
Disconnecting from the internet was a lot easier when I wasn't wireless, but I SHALL TRY THOSE. o/ Thank you, Ann. :D
From:
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I don't usually turn my Internet OFF, per se, but I shut down my browser, email, IM, and anything that accesses the Internet that will potentially distract me. When I take a break, it's easy enough to open up a browser to check LJ and Gmail, but if I just leave it open, it's incredibly distracting and leads to "constant refresh" syndrome :D
And these are things I do when I'm feeling distracted. If I'm not having focus issues, I can have the TV on and ignore it, or have FireFox open and not touch it too often. But when I'm having trouble, I go down to the basics and strip out everything else until I find my ground.
From:
no subject
STOP DANGLING THE SUPER AWESOME SECRET PROJECT IN FRONT OF ME, DRAT IT, SQUISHY. :E I want to knooooowwwww.
I don't write, but I've heard that just writing anything down on paper is supposed to get you thinking. So basically rambling on in an LJ-esque fashion, I believe?
From:
no subject
SUPER AWESOME SECRET PROJECT IS SUPER AWESOME. ALSO SECRET. 8DDDDD It makes us happy, at any rate. 8Db
[proceeds to use her LJ as a mouthpiece for WHINE WHINE WHINE WHY CAN I NOT FOOOOOCUS XD]
From:
no subject
Pfft. XD We'll m'glad it makes you guys happy. ♥
Well, I was thinking more like just scribbling down your thoughts and story ideas and then piecing them together once you have an idea what you want to do with them. XD
From:
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I got some really awesome suggestions above, so I'm going to try those out. ♥ BUT I CAN TRY THAT TOO, thanks♥
From:
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Sorry I couldn't help, but m'happy you got good suggestions! :D
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YOUR DRIBBLES ARE AWESOME you should always have them. ♥
From:
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As for being disfocused, uh. I build a playlist, close IRC (because the shiny is always there) and type. Or I ditch the computer entirely and I do it in a notebook because sometimes it works better that way--I spend less time putting in thought to how it looks, and more time putting words down.
From:
no subject
I might try the notebook thing -- I use it off and on during my commute home, though I find I much prefer typing (because I try to handwrite as fast as I type and that usually results in handcramp XD), BUT. Closing IRC might be a good idea; I love everyone, but sodistracting. 8D;;
THIS WEEKEND, I SHALL TRY TO BE GOOD AND FOCUS. \o
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...yeaaaah, sometimes they're inspiring, sometimes it's like having a ferret in the room that can talk.
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... I. I'm trying to imagine the people who're usually active in chan when I'm around as ferrets.
...
I think I'm succeeding a little too well. It's kind of awesome. 8D
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...now I'm imaging Stelas as like. Torg. From Sluggy Freelance.
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... sob. What is this horrible and beautiful idea.
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