Tue, November 1, 2005
The dreaded blank screen—2:08 PM
There's a scene in the Simpsons episode where Homer is trying to be an inventor: at a loss for inspiration, he tries to force the issue by getting a running start. He takes off from across the room, sprints up to the inventing table, and stops with his face a few inches above his pencils and blank sheet of paper. I'm at a point where I'm trying the same thing with this week's Survivor column.
It's been that way for a while, which I'm sure has been pretty clear if you look at the drop-off in onebee output. Reluctant as I am to post the "whining about writer's block" post, it's the only thing I've been able to think about for weeks. I've really been looking forward to writing insightful things about Junebug, Shopgirl, and Serenity – but when I sprint across the room and dive towards the laptop, nothing happens.
It'll pass; it always does. But in the meantime, what a weird feeling! Ack! I need to come up with better strategies for this sort of situation. Usually, I just apply a lot of caffeine to the problem, but that's not working this week, and I've even got a Survivor episode full of ready-made material. The gears just aren't turning.
Anyway, that's what I've been up to.
"Alicia" — Wed, 11/2/05 9:25am
I believe in caffeine as a solution to writer's block also, I think because when I'm sped up I can just babble onwards and I'm not depressingly re-reading every sentence as I write it. Writing without inhibitions is the key, I think, and sometimes with stress or distractions, inhibitions spark up and confidence drops. Holly and I both love Stephen King's "On Writing" where he says that he must write really really fast in order to out-run self doubt. Writer's block always feels like the end of the line, which is what makes it so frustrating. Even logically knowing that you'll be back in the saddle soon enough doesn't make it seem any easier.