(no subject)

[pantryslut]

I've been entertaining thoughts of abandoning the Project. I can't seem to start any new word-objects, not beyond the note-taking phase anyway. I make aching, horrible, slow progress in the stories I've already begun.

I think I may be heading towards writerly burnout.

I can't seem to concentrate on a piece of fiction for more than a paragraph or two at a time. (I'm a "sprinter" at the best of times, I should note; I rarely find myself totally subsumed into a writing project for hours at a time. Sometimes it happens, but not often enough to bank on.) I can't tell you how grateful I am that tonight's writer's group exercise is "100 words or less," because that, I can do.

Now, if the paragraphs were anything more than workmanlike, this might not be too much of a problem. But they're just words. Inert, functional, and no more.

It's been like this for weeks. Going on months.

In February, I could chalk it up to Late Winter. But now, with the sun shining and the sky a bright blue, I am itching to get some real work done. And it's not happening. And I'm getting cranky, as I always do when I'm not writing.

This has happened often enough that you'd think I would know some remedies for the situation. But I don't. I'm stuck.

Comments

[charliegrrrl.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... I've certainly experienced the onset of writerly burnout on many, many occasions. Things that helped: creating rituals around writing, like taking a long walk to a cafe somewhere and sitting there for at least two hours. Getting the fuck away from the Internet (no wifi cafes!) Scheduling writing time with a partner (it's together time, but you're both just sitting quietly and reading/writing). Skipping to the end of the story and then working your way backwards. Trying something completely different, like personal essay or poetry or whatnot, even if it's not something you'd want to publish. Taking a week off and just reading some really good books. Figuring out what's really pissing you off lately and then just free-associating about it for a long time. (Inspiration may be hard to come by, but there's always something pissing me off.) Setting a word limit for the day -- even if it's all crap -- and promising yourself a treat if you reach it. Just a few things off the top of my head.

But don't give up! You're an amazing writer with some fucking fantastic stories to tell. We need you to keep telling them.

[rgay.livejournal.com]

I've been going through something similar, when it comes to my non-day job writing. I have tons of ideas, and I keep starting essays and stories and book proposals and I'm working on two novels (by which I mean, they've got a couple pages each) and its driving me crazy because I can't snap out of this funk and get entire, completed works out as often as I need to/would like to/have in the past. I just feel stuck, like my mind is wading in a thick glue. So. I say this to say, I feel your pain in a similar yet different way.