Burn out?

[belial.1980]

Plain and simple: I'm feeling burned out.

It's like the creative spark in my brain just died. I really do want to become a successful writer someday. I average about 3 hours a day writing. (More on the weekends) But something happened this week. I've barely been able to crank out a page a day and when I write it feels like pulling teeth.

I'm near the end of the "swampy middle" of my first draft manuscript. I'm starting to write the scene that sets up the climax and ending. But when I sit down and try to write I just hear an empty echo in my head. I'd thought about writing a short story to take my mind off it for a bit but I've set a personal deadline to finish this manuscript and don't want to get distracted from it. Even worse--no other story ideas I've got floating around seem inspiring to me.

This last week had been a real pain and I think stress levels and personal frustration from my job probably have a large part to do with it. ::Hopefully:: this is just a funk that'll pass in a few days. Anybody else ever get this way? Any suggestions for how to deal with it? Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

[Starbeam]

If I'm feeling burned out, I take a break and watch a movie, read a book, listen to music, or something like that, and I try to pick something that was an inspiration to me in the first place.  Like watching the Lord of the Rings movies.  And sometimes I just hit a streak where I want to do nothing but read.  And go through something like a book or two a day, for about a month.  In other words, sometimes you just have to step back a bit and take a breather.  Plus the looming deadline might be stressing you and making you overcomplicate things.  If I set a deadline for myself, and I don't make it, then I don't make it.  I don't let myself stress about it because most of the time there's something or other that pops up, like right now research, and making that deadline isn't feasible.  And I'm not published and don't have an agent so it's not a deadline where it absolutely has to be done right then.  Which is a good thing because the first deadline I gave myself for a finished rough draft was Oct 3, and I've been reading research stuff for about 3 months.  Real life always intrudes when I least like it to.

[Kris_W]

There's lots of reasons for burn-out, so just start up a collection of remedies and try them all one by one until something works.

For me, often physical exercise helps knock me out of writer's block. Instead of writing for 3 hours head out on a 90 minute walk and then write. In my case, I like to be walking towards something, like home, rather than round and round in a circle. I live in a big city so I take a bus 30 minutes from home in any direction (except down hill, because walking up hill sucks) and walk back.

Another thing to try - People. Lack of socialization causes blocks for a lot of people. Join some club, preferably NOT a writing club, and go off once a week to fill up your community feeling supplies.

Best of luck!

[LizW65]

Another thing to try - People.

Agree 100%.  Interacting with real people (not just on the internet) is the best way to make your writing real.

[Kid Longshot]

I third that. I found that the more I was simply talking to other people, and for me it could be online or otherwise, the more I felt connected to the characters I was writing for and things that were happening to them. In my case, that's as simple as going to church, logging onto a forum, like this one, where you're part of a conversation, or just spending an afternoon with a friend playing hours of Call of Duty 4 online or similair.

On a side note, for ideas, I found that when I'm reading an article in a magazine, say Reader's Digest for instance, I am shown an aspect of part of the universe I've already constructed that I hadn't thought of before. An example would be when I read an article on random crime and how to be prepared for them in your everyday life, I found that the fight scenes I tend to write for could gain a new dimension by having inexperienced fighters rely on regular everyday motions, drawn from their "muscle memory" (think of how you draw your seatbelt from behind your back and then realize that movement is perfect as an elbow strike).

Also, I roleplay in a forum online, and I found that roleplaying online is alot like writing your character's novel, except you exert control over a much smaller portion of the world. For me, it helps just to move away from the place I'm even just a little stressed about and have fun with a different character, no stress and no strings. For me, that roleplaying is in the same universe, so I only kind of take a break from writing in that way.

Finally, something I haven't tried yet but am eager to, you might try writing a separate scene in the universe and just having some fun with it. Whether you're making a joke at your hero's expense, or pointing out some small flaw in your writing that only you notice, as long as that's in writing, it might free up your thinking and allow you to see the scene you're writing with new eyes.

Oh, and on a last note, I think interacting on a forum is a fine way to destress and aid your writing. Why else would Jim himself spend so much time here?

[meg_evonne]

Okay, this might be tough beliel, so hang in there.  If you are lucky, it might be your work life.  In which case, write a scathing, murderous short story with your work mates as part of a Stephen King short story. (Are you laughing yet?  You should.  It would relieve that pressure maybe.  Just don't let a soul read it!)

You say you are ending the swampy middle and ready to connect to your ending. I think that point is generally a problem for writers.  You've got two ends to tie together--assuming you have your ending roughly charted out.  The goal of seamlessness is hard to do.

You might ask these questions:

1. In my swampy middle, did I do something that wasn't natural to my characters?
2. Did I abuse one of them without realizing it?  Make them do something that deep down in my heart I realize on re-reading wasn't right?  Maybe take a short cut with the character to get where I wanted to force the middle to go?

If the answer is a clear, no--then ask:
1. Is therea piece missing that my writer's soul knows and my conscious writer mind doesn't?  Or
2. Did my swampy middle take control of me, the writer, and it's wanting to go somewhere other than I thought?  If I have an end-point C in mind, but part B wants to go to alternate reality C--you might find that I, the writer, is in denial.

If that's the case, your writer soul is arguing with your writer mind to the detriment of both.  If that is the case, then you can do two things, free up the stick in the butt writer mind to let your writer soul do what naturally is going to happen....OR you can be Jim Butcher and go back and take a whip and chain to work that plot line back into the form you want.  I suspect he does that same thing to a crotchity swampy middle.

I know you fairly well from your posts and from your samples--that you will come out of this.  It might get ugly, but you will. :-)

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Agree 100%.  Interacting with real people (not just on the internet) is the best way to make your writing real.

I don't know, I find the internet lets me interact with a much wider rnage of interesting people than geography alone.

[belial.1980]

Thanks so much to everybody for thier advice and encouragement. I went for two good hard runs this weekend, spent Saturday night drinking pitchers and playing pool with an old high school buddy who had the same kind of week I did. Things are on the upswing. My brain's still not fresh as I'd like but I can think about my story without blanching.

In regard to the Swamy Middle: I have set road markers that I definitely want in the story. But it's those middle passages between these scenes that present problems. I need to actually write those scenes to figure out what happens in between those points. That's where the story meanders and becomes frustrating for me.

So I think I'll probably be back on track pretty soon. Thanks again everyone.

[Paynesgrey]

Something else to consider is to from time to time take a break from The Story, and just do things like character sketches, vignettes, random day-in-the-life of the character experiences.  Jot down some notes  on concepts for other stories.  They can be unrelated to the current project, or something alternate you'd like to have done with this or that character or situation.  This serves a couple of purposes.  You aren't trying to hammer your brain through a square hole on The Story, but you're still excercising it, still creating.  And you save those little bits you write, play with them later like toy soldiers or dollies or whatever in your mind.  You might find them leading you to something that fits in the swampy middle, either in this story, or some other future project you've not even conceived of yet.

[belial.1980]

Your suggestion to write vignettes is a great idea that I've used before. I ended up writing about some of the secondary characters in my novel. I think it ended up being some of the best stuff I've written to date. That's when I made the switch from telling the story in 1st person POV and used 3rd, so I could show things happening outside the MC's viewpoint. I actually ended up borrowing a few scenes from these side stories and putting them in my novel.

I know Jim and other authors recommend 1st person POV for beginning writers but I've since learned that I'm more comfortable writing in the 3rd. Wierd. Some things are lost from the switch but I think more is gained. Anyway, I'm back on the main story. I'm chipping away and skipping a few tougher scenes to write scenes that feel more natural but at least I'm back behind the wheel.

Thanks again to everybody for their advice and encouragement.

[BobForPresident]

Plain and simple: I'm feeling burned out.

It's like the creative spark in my brain just died. I really do want to become a successful writer someday. I average about 3 hours a day writing. (More on the weekends) But something happened this week. I've barely been able to crank out a page a day and when I write it feels like pulling teeth.

I'm near the end of the "swampy middle" of my first draft manuscript. I'm starting to write the scene that sets up the climax and ending. But when I sit down and try to write I just hear an empty echo in my head. I'd thought about writing a short story to take my mind off it for a bit but I've set a personal deadline to finish this manuscript and don't want to get distracted from it. Even worse--no other story ideas I've got floating around seem inspiring to me.

This last week had been a real pain and I think stress levels and personal frustration from my job probably have a large part to do with it. ::Hopefully:: this is just a funk that'll pass in a few days. Anybody else ever get this way? Any suggestions for how to deal with it? Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

My advice - don't write. Read more. Go to movies. Go see plays. Find entertainment sources that flirt with (but don't match) your genre.

Doing this really tends to get my brain moving and augment my characters and plotlines with ideas unusual to my genre. For example, absorbing Paul S Kemp's stuff has sort of inspired me to make the characters grittier and more 3-dimensional, and studying up on European history and crime has shaken things up in my writing as well.

One more thing - if you must write, write something else. A vignette, poetry (just don't get too purple), music. It moves the mind toward creativity.

[meg_evonne]

...I think it ended up being some of the best stuff I've written to date. That's when I made the switch from telling the story in 1st person POV and used 3rd, so I could show things happening outside the MC's viewpoint.

I know Jim and other authors recommend 1st person POV for beginning writers but I've since learned that I'm more comfortable writing in the 3rd. Wierd.

I also fall into the catagory that finds 1st POV easier.  I think because my stories come from my characters, in my case. 

At writer's workshops with 'real' writers (not hobby duffs like me) though, they have a huge marked preference for 3rd in all it's various forms.  There were editors at houses that said, "never send me a 1st". I take that as a bit of snobbery and filed it as unimportant.  I'm not writing Tolstoy.

As to putting it away for awhile.  I have mixed feelings on that.  Sometimes it's easy for a hobby writer to put it off, but I'd like to think that I can force my way through it like a serious writer who is trying to meet a deadline.  They can't put it off or disaster will strike.

I don't expect to even be published, but I'd like to know that I do have the, uhm balls?  Huffpa(sp)? to do it if it worked out that I could sit in front of the keyboard when I really don't have a clue as to what is going wrong and sticking it out.  The idea fulfills some competitive need in me. 

Finally, it also bothers me because I hear so many writers say they have a ton of books started, but only a rare one gets through to the end of the rough draft, or the 2nd, or--you get my drift. 

Glad you worked your way through it belial!  Push forward!

[Starbeam]

Also with the 1st vs 3rd POV, a lot of it can depend on the story.  I started writing with 3rd person, and then when I started my bigger fantasy story, I started in 1st.  Which was quick and easy, and different, but when I workshopped it for a class, the one good suggestion I got was to switch to 3rd.  Did that, and got a ton of new stuff, partly from getting the POV of other characters.  Plus it's in the swords and sorcery style of fantasy, so my 1st person style really didn't work well.  I tend to write first like I think, so it would look a lot like this paragraph.  Lots of fragments and such.  But it works great for the urban fantasy I've been working on.

[Philliph]

I also fall into the catagory that finds 1st POV easier.  I think because my stories come from my characters, in my case. 

At writer's workshops with 'real' writers (not hobby duffs like me) though, they have a huge marked preference for 3rd in all it's various forms.  There were editors at houses that said, "never send me a 1st". I take that as a bit of snobbery and filed it as unimportant.  I'm not writing Tolstoy.

Whoah whoah whoah whoah!
Hold up!
Never send me a 1st. i haven't even gotten past that before my world went concave. thats ridiculous. i write in first. i hope editors don't really mind 1st...I'll continue reading what you wrote.

Reading.

Hmm. now theres some advice i never see. most books started never get finished. I suppose i'll have to oppose this law of writers.
Heheheheheee, motorvation.

I also give kudos to Belial. as a newly starting writer I have only experienced this burn once. it lasted my whole summer break(i'm still in highschool ). all of that free time wasted in front of a computer screen destroying my eyesight in an "I'm not gonna blink until i can push out a page" type of staredown with a monitor. Then, once the stress of the oncoming school year crushed me it came back. at the exact time when i'm not motivated to write, just sleep and hope i wake up as a fish or something. If only i had know about the "Outline Your Chapters" trick. i started that at the beginning of school and it has helped me bulldoze over the beginning signs of writers block. Well, i hope this (auto)biography gave you any insight into the ignorantly oblivious(Does that even work??) teenager.

Back to my point. Congrats to anybody that defeated this plague. just remember, you are a crystal hammer and the block is a brick wall. you'll get through it...eventually.

[BobForPresident]

Hmm. now theres some advice i never see. most books started never get finished. I suppose i'll have to oppose this law of writers.
Heheheheheee, motorvation.

For what it's worth, Salvatore would disagree with me. He claims he doesn't really read anymore, as it tends to affect his style. Whoa.