Writers Block. Demon or Muse gone bad?
The curse of writers every where. Does it really exist? Can it consume your soul? Rot your brain? Turn you into a mumbling, mindless fool at the keyboard?
Why should we believe in such a monster? If it exists, then point it out, shove it into the bright light of day, expose it for what it is claimed to be.
Well, I’m waiting. . .
Show me this beast that eats the words from your very mind.
You can’t, can you?
But I can, the face of this ravening beast is as close as your mirror.
Honestly folks, writers block does not exist, except as an excuse not to listen to our subconscious.
Writers block - Muse, Muse - Writers block, two sides of the same coin. Everyone wants the Muse and no one wants writers block, I’m sorry, but you can’t toss a heads every time (well, not unless you use an Australian two dollar coin).
As writers we all suffer from bouts of not being able to put words on paper (or screen as may be) but it’s not because of some evil beast spawned from the nether regions sent to destroy us.
The conscious mind has an ego as big as the Queen Mary. In fact there are those that would have it that the conscious mind is all “EGO”. What ever the truth is, the fact remains that the conscious mind is dead set certain that it is the boss.
But it’s a lot like marriage. In this union we have the conscious mind (male) and the unconscious mind (female, this is where we get the concept of the muse).
Let’s take this simile a step further. WB says he is going to watch the football on the weekend, M says WB is going to paint the bed room on the weekend. If they don’t come to an agreement then the weekend is going to be a dead loss.
So you might consciously decide to write, the subconscious says ‘Hang on a moment, we’re not ready to write yet.’ Now the conscious mind might insist that the writing will be done Now! So you sit down at the keyboard and. . . write a line, delete the line, get up, sit down, wipe the counter, fiddle with the radio, put out the cat, make another cup of tea, let the cat in, etc, etc.
Yes, we have all been there. And yes, the conscious mind can over ride the subconscious. And yes, a lot of therapists will buy a new BMWs.
Writers block does not exist.
Ah, but the Muse. She is real. She is the personification of balance between the conscious and subconscious. To find your muse is to find that balance.
So if you hit a patch where the words won’t flow, relax. The words are there. They’re just being sorted out by the subconscious. Go and do something else, anything else. When the words are ready for use, you will be ready to use them.
But if you let the ego rant about writers block, then for you, it will exist.
This is one of my favourites when it comes to writing and editing. It is one of the areas that writers make the most mistakes.
I have posted on this subject before but it always crops up in books that I read. It drives me to distraction. There is really no reason for it to happen.
The latest is in Terry Pratchett’s “The Light Fantastic”. Page 139 in the Corgi paper back.
The character is Twoflower. ‘There was this. . . a clock that. . . and these people who. . . ’ said Twoflower. He shook his head. ‘Why does everything smell of horses?’
Now we fast forward to Page 228 where we find;
Which explains why, when the shop finally materialized in Ankh-Morpork, Rincwwind sat bolt upright and said ‘We’re here,’ Bethan went pale and Twoflower, who had no sense of smell, said, ‘Really? How can you tell?’
Now, how does this happen? Well, it’s all too easy. There we are writing away and we write something about a character and later on while the words are flowing and the keys are running hot under our fingers, we write this really great line.
As fate would have it, and we all know that fate is a real bitch, someone points out the discrepancy to the whole world to see. Character development is important. You have to get to know your characters.
Now another point of editing that has caught my eye is a matter of inconsistency in style. Style is different from country to country and indeed from publisher to publisher. As a writer you will need to know what the style is for the publisher you intend to regale with your writing.
Now, Corgi books is British. The style convention for British publishers is to use single quotation marks for speaking and double quotation marks for quotes. The interesting thing is that while Corgi follows this convention they have used the American spelling of “materialized” as opposed to the British “materialised”.
Well, that’s enough for this post. Now all I have to do is find a subject for the next one.
Editing, as I have said before, is something that all writers should do. Editing covers a wide range of problems writers often fail to catch in their own work.
The reason we fail to catch these problems is that when we read our own work, our brain is reading what we wrote in our minds and not what we actually typed.
The two areas of editing of most interest to writers are:
• Substantive or structural editing
• Copy editing
What makes these so special? Well, money really.
You see, when you have finished your manuscript it will need to be edited by someone. That someone is going to be paid and how well you have done your own editing will have a lot of bearing on how many hours that person spends on the job.
“But we’re writers, not editors.” Yes I hear you.
As a writer you are an editor, you edit as you write. This is what writing is. All you need is a better understanding of the editing requirements to write to your best ability.
But beware, it is all too easy to become trapped in the editing cycle to the point of a never ending edit where no writing gets done. You have to strike a balance.
Some writers edit as they go along, some write a whole book and then edit it, some edit as chapters are finished. What approach you take will depend on your temperament. But no matter how you do it you will need to understand what is required. You will already know some of this.
Structural editing as a writer means you need to be aware of the structure and sequence of your story. Maintaining clear and unambiguous language. Proper development of characters, plot and setting. Use language that is appropriate for the intended market. Avoid sexist and racist bias.
The writer as a copyeditor must watch out for grammar, punctuation and spelling as well as paragraphing. Then there are omissions, repetitions and inaccuracies to keep an eye on as well.
Can you even remember what the story was about? It really isn’t as bad as it sounds. As writers we do the editing, I mean, we look after the spelling and grammar in the background as it is, so adding these other bits of editing to our background editing should be no trouble at all.
Comments (3)
Add Comments
Read More
