link, blink, blink.Nothing is more inspiring
than a blank sheet of paper.
than a blank sheet of paper.
Bullshit! That damn blinking cursor on the screen is mocking me! Always!
I love beginnings, but I hate blank pages. See the crux of the matter, where the dog chases his own tail? You have to fill that empty page to get a beginning, but at the same time that very same blank page is blocking you!
Well, one method that works for me to break the vicious circle, I simply leave that blank paper and find myself a comfortable place. I close my eyes and imagine, that topic/theme I have in mind is a dark night sky. I know, the stars are already there, but I can't see them yet. I let my mind relax and allow my thoughts fly free. Some stars began slowly to sparkle, they appear and some vanish again. I let them. No pressure. No expectations. After a while the sparkles became more visible, more tangible, and I can begin to search for the right group of stars. This might take some time, but in the end I have wonderful constellation. Back to my blank page I can fill it with the perfect first sentence, the perfect first little paragraph. From now on it's much easier to continue. The curse of the blank page is broken.
I also use that technique on every other part of the text, but it only works, when I already have a theme/topic in mind. I'm still searching for creativity techniques, when my mind is also blank. Every tip is welcome!
P.S. Blockade is the same word in German and in English, only differently pronounced.
I do the same thing. I let my mind play with the topic for awhile. If it gets bored or doesn't really like the game, then I find a new toy for it to play with. I keep doing this over and over until I find the perfect one.
Dafeenah
Ditto, ditto. And here I was thinking that I was original!!
Well, maybe we all as writers are more similar than we think?!?
I like the Blockade but also like the starting word of "bullshit". LOL
I think we all suffer from this. When I'm physically writing versus typing I find it helpful to doodle in the margins. When typing I tend to using "Google Images" for inspiration.
Great post Nofretiri!
I'll be back to check in on "C" on Monday.
Lisa
InspiredbyLisa
Hi Lisa,
*lol* my cursing in English is limited! ;-)
Images are always a good inspiration, Writing Exercise 08: A Photo As Inspiration is also dealing with that! Besides Google images I'm also very fond of flickr.
Well, at the moment three C's are discussing, who's gonna be the winner! ;-)
I love your solution for the blank page! My "B" post was about being blocked as well. Great minds think alike, eh? :-)
Oh, I totally agree, Carol! :-)
Excellent idea, I'll give it a try :)
Wagging Tales - Blog for Writers
Hi Charmaine Clancy,
great! Let us know how it worked out for you? :-)
Ah, you just have to B-anish all those B-ad words from your vocabulary. There is no such thing as B-locked! :)
Interesting method to combat the block! I either force myself to start writing about anything or I go away and clear my mind and start asking questions or focus on another task. I find it helps it start percolating in my brain.
Good luck on the A to Z Challenge!
@Wendy: *g* Sometimes I wished, it would be so easy! :-)
@Shannon: I'm a very visual person, those imaginations help me quite a lot in various situations. But I think, over the time every writer developes his/her own techniques, but it's good to get some outside inspiration to maybe try something new!