What do you do to get yourself out of a writing funk? A month or two ago, I had ideas for two or three stories that excited me. But I got caught up with revisions for stories accepted for anthologies and the stories I was excited about now don't occupy the same place in my brain. Am I making sense? After more than a hundred stories, maybe I am just running out of ideas. What do you do when nothing grabs you and the unfinished stories on your hard drive seem old and stale? What happens when no one steps inside your head and takes it over?
11 comments:
Sounds like you just need a break and a little inspiration. Museum visits, good movies and a long hike (or better yet: a vacation) always work for me.
Wish I could take a vacation now...
Dunno, Patti. I'm still stuck in it.
I get bright ideas for stories when I'm travelling, usually to and from work. By the time I'm home, I have forgotten everything. It rarely ever comes back.
I very much sympathize with that kind of funk. I too think that long walks or travel work well; also reading certain authors. Some books make me less inclined to write my own work, but others inspire me to start writing. If you have some of those...? And sometimes good conversations with friends about completely unrelated but interesting topics. You're so good at asking compelling questions, Patti; perhaps the conversation arising from responses might strike a writerly chord?
Put me in with the crowd who uses long walks and/or exercise to free up the creative dams that pop up in the brain now and then. My problem tends to be too MANY ideas.
I'm thinking more of some nonfiction essays I'd like to pursue. At this point that seems more interesting to me, but it's all still percolating a bit as to how to go about it.
I have some fiction ideas too, but I haven't pursued them . . . I don't know that I intend to continue pursuing submissions of short fiction. I may focus on the two novels I have in process, or I may abandon fiction altogether. Like I said -- I'm undecided, but not feeling necessarily blocked or bothered by it.
Well, there's "take a break". In a week or two you'll feel differently. Or "Try a different genre." Or "Muddle through it writing as much as you can."
That probably contributes to my recent lack of writing, Olivia. On here too much.
I walk twice day but my husband is with me and we usually talk. It was better when I took a bus to work.
Thanks for the commiseration, Loren. Not being alone is nice.
I troll the D.A.'s press releases or I walk into a place where I've never been, maybe ask for a strange name or say I'm lost, and see what happens.
Sounds like you need to set one of your challenges again based on a photo/piece of art, etc. That might prod you along. Or how about we give you prompts? Perhaps a parody of Megan's last book entitled 'Pair Me' about the cut-throat world of bridge in a retirement community.
HA! The problem is that all the flash fiction challenges never seen to evolve into longer stories for me. Do they for you?
I can get lots of stories from my DA son, but I never can wrap my head around them. They seem too written.
A different activity or genre . . . a trip, even a short one . . .
or, go to a diner and listen to people talking, start writing down dialogue and go from there.
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