In 2023 I took a six-month break from writing in order to get a professional certificate (PMP for those wondering) but I’m now trying to get my creative juices working again. My current situation is that I find my brain full of ideas up to the point of actually putting words down. I enjoy outlining a scene or a blog post or even an entire novel plot. Yet, when it comes to actually creating the prose … my creativity locks up and lets me down.
Other than being creatively cramped, I find myself completely full of advice for ‘others’ to follow. I’ve got an endless litany of pointers and guidelines and tricks for the beginner or struggling writer. And yet … I struggle to take my own advice. The old saw about teaching immediately comes to mind: Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach. I don’t want to be that guy; I’m not qualified to teach. I want to write.
The trick I’ve been foisting on others lately while failing to do myself is: Write yourself out of the weeds.
It is an extension of my most quoted advice: Write all the words, even the crap. Which is an exercise meant to get the gears moving and to keep them moving.
Writing your way out of the weeds is meant to take the gears that are now moving and use them to find a direction for your writing. Write so much crap that you eventually write your way past your block or hangup or whatever was keeping you from writing useable words until you can find a path through the weeds and back to the plot of the story.
Essentially: If you write enough garbage you’ll find something worth keeping.
Currently, I’m at the write-all-the-words stage. To be honest, I wish I was in the weeds; I’m still trying to find them. To be in the weeds you have to be writing, even if it’s garbage. I have yet to get to that point. Writing this post was a start and painful as all get out. But it is part of my working through the issue. And hopefully, create something I can post to my long-neglected blog.
Only more writing can lead to better writing. I’m hoping this is the start of more.
See Ya!!
So Many Words... 