Content Interrupted by Content, aka Book Writing Sucks Time…

 

Drawing, Richie Billing

It’s not that I planned it this way, you know. But two things occurred.

One – A simple photo in a WWII documentary I’ve seen many times. But this time, disembodied male voices called out to me. “Get us out of here.”

Result: I was dumb enough to try. It took me 7 years to complete the literary quest.

Two – So-called experts told me to write a simple pulp fiction series, and I did so, I’d rake in the online dough.

Result: Turns out I don’t know how to write a simple story, or series of simple stories for that matter, that I could write fast enough to rake in said online dough. It took me 4 years to simply complete one not-so-simple story.

Moral of a Multi-Years Tale: Don’t listen to disembodied voices wherever they’re trapped, and never listen to online experts if you want to maintain any kind of online content writing schedule.

I should have known better.

But knowing better is advice I could have given myself since I was a toddler.

When Writer Lost is the Best Place to Be...

 

You wake up.

You open your eyes.

Your mind sparks, remembering all the writing you did NOT do yesterday... and the day before, and the day before that.

Your incentive to get out of bed — the literary loser you think you are — is non-existent.

You think to yourself, Even if I start writing today, I'm so far behind, and I'm so demoralized, my words will be crap anyway, as you throw the duvet over your head and wish a tree trunk would pummel your brains and free you from this living literary misery.

Sound familiar, peeps?

Guess what? You've hit the very bottom as an artist! CONGRATULATIONS!!! WHOO HOO!!!

Yes, this is the very best place to be as a writer. Why, you ask?

Because, no matter what scene you conjure, no matter what words you plunk onto the page, you can't damage your writer self anymore or fall any farther down than you already find your nervous exhausted butt. (Which is why I wrap Christmas gifts on the floor. Okay, a different topic for a different blog. Sorry...)

At your absolute worst IS THE BEST TIME to write! You don't owe anyone anything. Your demands are nil. Even if all you do is fill a page with the word "the" a thousand times over, think how great your typing speed has become, and you'll never misspell the word "the" ever again. See? Already two wins!

Okay, I'm being a bit factitious here...but you get my drift. 

Simply put, being at the bottom makes you failure-proof!

And guess what will happen when you do drag your pathetic carcass to the keyboard and hammer your peanut butter and jam sticky fingers onto those keys...

Characters birth — they open their eyes, and darned if they don't start yapping. I mean, Every. Damn Time. You can't shut them up! What is with that???

Locales pop — sea shores appear, stormy skies, too. A bobbing ship springs as a mirage on a foggy sea with a sailor barfing overboard... (Okay, sorry, again...my imagination is feral. I've tried to reign it in so the neighbors stop talking about me. No luck...)

Actions abound — those characters grab stuff, play hop scotch with kiddies on a sidewalk, and drink strikingly stirred martinis with James Bond as the Casino in Nice...(Seriously, shit starts happening!)

All because you had NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE.

Rock Bottom can be one of the most wonderful places to be. 

Fear of falling, fear of failing, they don't exist anymore.

It's you and those keys and your wandering mind, and amid that triad, wondrous worlds breathe. They always have for you, and they always will. No matter how tangled your hair or if you have raccoon eyes from binge-watching Netflix instead of writing. (This may or may not be a self-portrait. If you ask me if it is, I will hit you with something hard and sharp.)

So, on days like this... 

• Rent a car winch, and winch yourself out of bed.
• Take a flea delousing shower. (Don't tell me you don't need a good delousing. You're a writer, after all. Of course, you have fleas!) Bonus: In that wildly wet world, you'll be bombarded by ideas aplenty. Trust me. Buy waterproof crayons to take notes on the tiles. Stop pointing and laughing at me. Just DOO EET!
  
• Guzzle some coffee. Cold, hot, fresh, old, I don't care. Inject some caffeine, already!
  
• Plunk yourself down at that desk.
• And start typing...anything... NOW!
  

You'll be amazed by how damn good that prose shit actually lays out. No, really.

And as you amaze yourself with your conjurings, relish your time at the bottom., for you're too good to be there for long. I promise you.

~~~

P.S. While you're down there, could you hand me my pen? I dropped it the last time I was... never mind. ;-)

Writing Through Exhaustion...

Short Story: You have to do it.

Long Story: Finding a way to do it.

You're healthy, you're fit, and you've had sleep, and you look at the clock, and know it's time for your writing session.

But you feel the gravity around your body at approximately 628%, and the acuity of your mind is lower than the Archie comic character, Moose's, on his worst day.

You have prison pallor, bags under your eyes, and a weird scent is coming from your hoodie. (Okay, this all could just be me.)

You have writing deadlines that are threatening not to be met if you do not do what readers expect you to do, and that is to hunker down, put that 4th cup of coffee to the side, and get creating.

(Feel free to laugh now at the layman's romantic version of being a full-time writer. Crikey, I don't even own a cravat.)

Yes. Mental exhaustion can overtake. 99% of the time it's due to stress. And that stress can be the 7th circle of hell if you don't find a way to break the cycle...

 

 

 

No writing > More worrying > Less sleep > More exhaustion > No writing.

You get the drift.

How do you break that cycle? You write through the exhaustion.

 

 

You write regardless > Your self-image soars with pride that you managed to plunk those keys, however bull-in-a-china-shop ungraceful the act may have been > You're more tired for that mental effort come bedtime > The worrying about not writing disappears > You collapse into a contented coma > You wake up, exhaustion and guilt free > You happily write again.

In order to break this nightmarish cycle, you have to allow yourself to have a bloody awful writing day when you pound those keys on the projects that need doing — regardless of how you feel or how well you're writing.

~ Basically, it's nature's way of punishing you for ending up in that negative cycle in the first place. Way. To Go. ~

You've heard how the best way to write every day is to write every day, trying everything you can to NOT break that self-fulfilling cycle.

But life can get in the way — sickness, holidays, emergencies — where your good habit breaks, and you fall for the umpteenth time, head long, into the No Writing Fatigue abyss.

At some point, you must come to terms with the fact that you screwed up. You know you need to stop the negative cycle, cold turkey, and grab a hold of the ledge and claw your way back up to where the good cycle resides.

 

 

 

 

Just like with any bad habit, stopping cold turkey hurts, and hurts bad. The Horror...

Suck it up. Suffer through that exhausted writing day. Then go to sleep later that night assured that the next day, you'll be back on track — no exhaustion, much self-confidence, and renewed excitement about writing consistently again.

Fact: No matter how many years or how many works you've produced, this fall from grace can and will happen. Veteran writers aren't any more immune to the negative cycle than you. If they say they have no problems writing every day, they are lying. Life happens, even to the blue-blood blessed. Take some evil comfort in that. I surely do.

~~~

Today, I look, and feel, like crap. Thanks a lot, you Christmas cheer.

Today, I will write. And it will be painful. (help...me...)

I will take a shower afterwards to wash off any residual crappy feeling. (Be gone with you, oh, Mr. Crapoid!)

And tonight, I will collapse into bed, and I will sleep the sleep of the contented, rather proud of myself. (Hey, stop snickering... we writers barely have a life. We have to grab imagined good stuff where we conjure it.)

~~~

Okay now, it's your turn, oh, exhausted word hound. TAG!

Life Demands Your Attention? Don't Write...

 

Yes. You read the title right. A blog solely dedicated to making you write every day is telling you NOT to write.

Hey, I told you I'd be weirdly honest. Okay, I may have not used those exact words... although, by now, I'm sure anything you get from me falls into the weird category. And I'm disturbingly honest, so there.

Back to the show...

Yes. There are times when you should not write.

If your life has been bombarded by other, more crucial, events, responsibilities, the last thing you need to do is avoid those demands by escaping into your writing world, "escape" being the operative word here.

Like anything else humans use to avoid difficult times or duties, writing can become a crutch, too. It can be as detrimental as alcohol, drugs, gambling, etc., if you use it to escape the crucial moments in your life.

Last week, I had some important duties to complete. They were stressful, mentally exhausting, but necessary to finish in order to sustain my quality of life. I could have ignored them and dove, headfirst, into my manuscript... cloaked in a huge sweater, hood up, avoiding the world.

And yes, words would have gone down on the page... but at what cost?

Those life demands would still be there when I came up for air, and my quality of life could have been damaged, preventing me from writing in the future, so where's the point in escaping???

Writing should be a synthesis, a celebration, of life, not a distraction from it. And the difficult tasks you need to do, those unique experiences, WILL end up bubbling their way to the surface in your future works that will weave richer tales.

My favorite saying, "You can't write on life if you don't live life."

HOMEWORK: If you have things that need doing in your life, DO THEM. And when they are done, then return to your literary world, knowing you didn't try to escape anything, using any crutch. Your guilt meter won't erupt off the Richter Scale, and your contented smiles as you hack away on that keyboard will be genuine.

Life IS hard. 

I wish to God my parents had clued me into this fact when I was 6. At least then I could have better prepared to educate myself for a permanent job of Barbie-doll testing at Mattel.

Writer Fear, Writer Doubt - Psychological Catatonia

 

How many of you here have still not opened your notebook or laptop to start writing again on your WIP?

If you're still stuck, go back to my 5-Minute Game article posted earlier on this site, and reboot your mind. (Click on the Sitemap to locate.)

The fact you are still mired denotes a psychological catatonia — fear and doubt, the two evil forces, have taken your brain hostage. You need to acknowledge their presence, and write on despite their weight upon you. The only way to win against those forces is through ACCEPTANCE of their existence, that they will be there as you perform for the rest of your life, as an actor faces stage fright every time the klieg lights turn to face them.

 

No artist is immune. No producer of any kind is immune. Acceptance and practice to open that notebook or laptop and write/edit through that emotional pain is the ONLY way.

Comment below what progress, if any, you're reached in your book writing journey since you've signed on with me here. Let's uncover the obstacles to find ways around them. Every problem has a solution if you're willing to look, and do the emotional work.

No obstacle is silly, and this is a safe place to talk.

NO judgement.

ALL help.

Let's get those words flowing...