Writer's Crisis. Part II.
Mind Ramblings vs Inspiration
When your mind is searching for the key to the door of self-expression, you need to find a suitable sword to conquer the most annoying beast, guarding that door. Have you guessed the riddle? Yes, this beast is Laziness.
When Self-Writing Quills Don’t Work in Our Reality
Lazy laziness… are you still there? Summoning a noble heartfelt Muse is not that easy. Thoughts, and quite picturesque ones, appear in your head of a striving writer, but you are still enchanted, surrounded by the ominous fog of procrastination that slows every creative process down… We are not so lucky to have self-writing or quick-quotes quills that can effortlessly perpetuate our thoughts – just don’t be indolent to express them. But if you remember the mean quality of Rita Skeeter’s long green quill, then you will realize that even in the magic world, these tricks are not beneficial – at least, for honest writers. If you want to create something fantastic, the charmed quill is not as useful as it seems since it is a master of distortions – your fantasies will become the quill’s babelisms and you will get puzzled, not knowing if those words are actually yours.
Questioning Your Writer’s Potential
A rational reader of all these mind ramblings will likely say, “If such writer’s crises are so common and seem to be never-ending, do they happen to people who can write? Maybe, they pretend to be wordsmiths, but in reality, they cannot put words together.” Yes, there are scribblers, imitation writers, but individuals who can express themselves eloquently, who live creatively, who see beauty in extraordinary things, and who already wrote many amazing stories and poems are especially prone to writer’s blocks. It is about their volatile tempers, their vulnerable personalities, unique world perceptions, and often low self-esteem. However, crises appear when you have other distractions and your eloquence, at some point, seems to be drained. If you investigate the biographies of Samuel Coleridge, Harper Lee, Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain, Stephen King, and many others, you will find so many confessions about procrastination that you will be justly surprised. King once wrote about his observation of the nature of writer’s block, “There may be a stretch of weeks or months when it doesn't come at all; this is called writer's block. Some writers in the throes of writer's block think their muses have died, but I don't think that happens often; I think what happens is that the writers themselves sow the edges of their clearing with poison bait to keep their muses away, often without knowing they are doing it.” It can take months before you start adhering to a decent writing routine again, but you can overcome the writer’s block, for sure. If muses disappear in your head, doesn’t it mean they are still there anyway? Focus on the ways to let them come back.
Not in the Mood to Write, not in the Mood at All? Force Yourself to Describe your Inertia
At this very moment, I am listening to a song “All in my Head” by a little-known atmospheric vintage-inspired duo from the United States – Primrose Forever Sanctuary. Alyssa Miller is repeatedly singing, “All my head, all in my head. I guess it's all my head, all in my head…” Somehow it is becoming my inner writer’s mantra, it helps me to breathe more deeply but it doesn’t make me switch my thoughts off. On the contrary, I am concentrating on my potential to create something. I am thinking, what story can I tell today? Isn’t a day that doesn’t tell a story a lost one, a wasted one? Well, it is impossible to live a storiless day unless you are in a coma and simply can’t describe the dimensions you find yourself in. The events you take part in or feelings you go through tell stories. Even if you don’t leave your home throughout the day and “do nothing”, you can still write a story about the emotional state that makes you inert. Writing about your internal indifference is transforming it into something that is almost palpable as it grows meanings in itself. Your task is to transcend this indifference or frustration, looking into its deepest stems. Even if the result is a grim existential prose or minimalist poetry – it is already a good step to write it down. As I formerly mentioned in one of my articles, your sword that fights a lazy beast, a writer’s block or a lack of inspiration, is obtained through writing down anything that creates impediments. Those writer’s resolutions are helpful all year round, and you can find the precious tips here: https://plagiarismsearch.com/blog/resolutions-of-a-writer
Describe Your Music Affection
Sing me a song about Inspiration. Become a song that produces images. Listen to a song and describe it. Though these thoughts may seem to be slightly vague, by expressing them I meant that one artistic embodiment attracts another. Let’s take music as an example. It’s difficult to find a creative person (and in our case, a writer), who doesn’t like music. And a writer does not simply listen to music, he dives into it similarly to immersing in a decent book because music also carries a story on its wings… Sometimes, lyrics help to see this story, sometimes, instruments make you imagine whatever you can, and owing to this flow of emotions and associations, your own words are being born. Dear author-martyr, you have to write your thinking streams down because only after you start doing it, you will gradually feel released.
During one of those sullen, pencraft-doomed crises, I was listening to Pink Floyd’s album “The Dark Side of the Moon”. Deep inside, I was repining at my unhappy lot: it seemed that only mishaps were around me, I was tired of a tedious unremunerative job where my skills weren’t valued in a befitting way, I was drowning in debts and couldn’t get rid of them despite working hard, so I felt completely miserable and couldn’t write a word… Suddenly, I started to go through pleasant sensations that made me imagine a flamboyant space satiated with planets and galaxies all around me. It contradicted my gloomy mood, and then I understood the source of these imaginative pictures in my head – that was the music I was listening to. I switched my mind from routine thoughts about life strivings and bad luck to the inner dimension full of colors, sounds, and symbols. Similarly to meditations, I began concentrating merely on these images, diving deeper and deeper… Almost subconsciously, I started writing. The energy that filled my core turned into an invisible hand of creation and I couldn’t stop expressing myself. As a result, I wrote a grotesque (half-ironical, magic realism) literary piece that would hopefully take its place somewhere in the realm of weird fiction one day. I reread my awkward ramblings in a single burst, and I even didn’t ask myself, “Does someone need to read such a whimsical prose? Will I find my readers?” I felt self-fulfillment. I knew that a significant first step was made. I transcended that transgression every writer can be guilty of – being afraid of releasing the incessant twirl of ideas, sharing it with others, or at least with yourself. If you simply sit out there, being surrounded with your irrational phobias, you will never achieve the quintessence of your abilities. It’s not only about writing, obviously; but a wannabe writer, as a thoughtful person, always comprehends a curing role of such comparisons. It’s like staying in a tower and looking out of the window, waiting for your Prince Charming to take you away. Luckily, it’s the modern world of opportunities that used to be unbelievable centuries ago. You are not the Lady of Shallot; you are not cursed by a malevolent witch to observe the world through your solitary mirror (even if a magical one). The only thing you need to accomplish for a start is to open that quintessential door, which is illuminating hints night and day for you to finally see them, and introduce yourself to the world.
You pass that lovely bookshop every day, shyly dreaming about being a recognized author to sell your own books there and organize cozy evening meetings with your loyal readers… simply ask yourself, “What hinders me from becoming that Author?” If you CAN write, all those impediments are delusive. It’s useful to remind yourself that your major mission is to turn “impossible into I’m possible”.
