The Writers River Styx..

[Tagnizkur]

Its been a few years for me since anything from my artistic side was allowed to flourish. Singing, paining, drawing, writing, all of it... send down the river Styx to die. However my mind is still packed with characters, places, story lines and more. Yet life and all its glory seems to turn me from a keyboard if I am not in front of one to fix an end user generated computer issue.

So with that semi drawn out opening statement, aside from forum short story writing, what Ideas do you all have to help dust free the cobwebs that cover my creative side?

 

[Penpilot]

Not to be flip, but one word, WRITE.

If you want to do something, do it. Don't think about doing it. Don't talk about doing it. Just do it.

Don't look for tricks. Don't look for the easy way. Just roll up the sleeves and go.

To me, that's the simplest answer.

I remember this interview with Neil Gaiman. In it, he talks about how a person once went up to him and said they have all these ideas and characters caught up in their head, but they can't find the time to write them out, so they feel guilty.

Gaiman told them something to the effect just because they have ideas doesn't mean they have any obligation to write them down. There's not an idea police ready to ticket someone for not doing something with their ideas. It's a choice to do or don't do. Neither is wrong, because everyone has priorities in their lives, and if writing isn't at or near the top, there's nothing wrong with that.

If you want to do something creative, make the time for it and have at it. If you can't make the time, don't worry.

There are professional writers out there who work a day job, have a family, and still manage to pump out three novels a year. They do this because everything outside of those three things gets sacrificed, including sleep.

What are you willing to sacrifice to make time for creativity? TV, movies, sports, maybe a little sleep, etc.

 

[Tagnizkur]

OH I agree with you fully. As it stands I have little time for TV, movies, sports etc. This is not by any means a crutch statement I am about to make... but I have two boys with Autism and it seems like all that I am is given to them... That is as it should be. Yet when I try to take that quiet time to write, draw, sculpt... or what ever I get in my own head and start thinking of other things. With me its kids, wife, work, bills, other family, friends, and then if I can, me. I just need to learn some writing workshop that can help dust off the cobwebs of time an inactivity

So What I want to do is maybe writing exercises...

Sheesh, maybe I should get therapy.

 

[Ayaka Di'rutia]

Remember what all your priorities are, and list them in importance. Of course your family is important, they should definitely be near the top of your list. I can't even imagine what it must be like raising an autistic child, let alone two, so my heart goes out to you. But also remember that "me" time is important for your mental and emotional well-being.

If you're determined to get back into creative practice, try to schedule things out, list your priorities and eliminate anything that you can live without, and talk with your family about what you would like to do in some of your own time. Enlist the help of extended family and/or friends to help with your kids if you need to, just to get some quiet time.

I know what it's like to have my mind filled with all sorts of things in life and have it racing at a hundred miles an hour (this normally happens to me in the early morning hours between 2-4) and it can be hard to tame. Having a specific focus, like a writing or drawing project, or doing meditation can help.

Hope I helped

 

[Philip Overby]

OH I agree with you fully. As it stands I have little time for TV, movies, sports etc. This is not by any means a crutch statement I am about to make... but I have two boys with Autism and it seems like all that I am is given to them... That is as it should be. Yet when I try to take that quiet time to write, draw, sculpt... or what ever I get in my own head and start thinking of other things. With me its kids, wife, work, bills, other family, friends, and then if I can, me. I just need to learn some writing workshop that can help dust off the cobwebs of time an inactivity

So What I want to do is maybe writing exercises...

Sheesh, maybe I should get therapy.

If you want to do some writing exercises, you can look over at the Challenges section. Sometimes we have more involved challenges like Iron Pen and sometimes we have casual ones you can just jump into to practice your writing. It's going to be difficult to get writing done if you don't make at least some time for it. It doesn't have to be hours upon hours. I write for 30 minutes-1 hour a day, every day. That's enough to still live life and do other things, but also enough to make sure I'm keeping forward momentum.

 

[Mythopoet]

OH I agree with you fully. As it stands I have little time for TV, movies, sports etc. This is not by any means a crutch statement I am about to make... but I have two boys with Autism and it seems like all that I am is given to them... That is as it should be. Yet when I try to take that quiet time to write, draw, sculpt... or what ever I get in my own head and start thinking of other things. With me its kids, wife, work, bills, other family, friends, and then if I can, me. I just need to learn some writing workshop that can help dust off the cobwebs of time an inactivity

So What I want to do is maybe writing exercises...

Sheesh, maybe I should get therapy.

I so empathize with this. I have a husband with Asperger's, my oldest son is autistic and my younger son probably is too. (Based on his similar development to his older brother, he's still just a toddler though and hadn't been evaluated.) Fortunately, my older son is quite high functioning and once he'd spent a year in a special school program for Autistic kids, he improved by leaps and bounds. He's even better after his second year, but he's still very demanding on me. Both boys are extremely ritual and routine oriented which means my schedule is always determined by them. And those are just two of my 5 kids, ranging from age 11 to 1. My life is consumed by them. My husband tries really hard to be supportive, really hard to encourage and push me to set aside time for writing. But he needs a significant amount of my time and attention as well. And a lot of the time I'm just physically and emotionally exhausted. It gets a bit better when the 3 older kids are in school, but that still leaves me with two young children who need a lot of attention.

I've seen so much writing productivity advice that centers around being able to make your own schedule. But it doesn't work for people in my kind of situation. I can't wake up early to write, I already have to wake up early either to shuffle 3 kids off to school or take care of a crying kid. I try to find time where I can, but kids are always needy. Unless I can manage to make the two younger ones nap at the same time while the older ones are in school, there's not 5 minutes together when one of my kids don't need something from me. And again, at night, I am usually completely drained. There's no spark left in me to be creative and productive, it's a miracle if I can manage to just relax and rest.

So I decided a while back that at this time in my life, writing has to take a back seat. It's important to me, but my family is more important. Being a mom is my vocation. I'll do my best to keeping working on my writing slowly, gradually, making progress here and there. I won't give up. But I'm not going to put it before my real work, taking care of my family. And I'm ok with that. I'm ok with my creative projects being more like hobbies than serious work (though of course I do take it seriously). The time will come when my family doesn't need my constant attention so much and then I'll be able to devote more time to writing. I can be patient. Some of the best writers in the world didn't start until later in life, after all.

 

[Philip Overby]

If you want to do something creative, make the time for it and have at it. If you can't make the time, don't worry.

There are professional writers out there who work a day job, have a family, and still manage to pump out three novels a year. They do this because everything outside of those three things gets sacrificed, including sleep.

What are you willing to sacrifice to make time for creativity? TV, movies, sports, maybe a little sleep, etc.

Something Penpilot says here stuck out to me. Of course family is always going to be most important. You shouldn't ever sacrifice that. However, if you have other interests like TV, movies, sports, etc. then if you really want to make time, you'll dump some of those things. Even internet time. In the time it took me to write this forum post, I could have been working on my writing for at least 5 minutes. Small increments of time add up.

My biggest recommendation would be to lose sleep. Stay up later than the rest of your family and get in those 30 minutes or whatever. Or wake up super early. If you want to get that time, you'll find it somewhere, somehow.

 

[LadyKatina]

Its been a few years for me since anything from my artistic side was allowed to flourish. Singing, paining, drawing, writing, all of it... send down the river Styx to die. However my mind is still packed with characters, places, story lines and more. Yet life and all its glory seems to turn me from a keyboard if I am not in front of one to fix an end user generated computer issue.

So with that semi drawn out opening statement, aside from forum short story writing, what Ideas do you all have to help dust free the cobwebs that cover my creative side?

I took a long break from creative writing, too. Like, a couple of decades. I found that joining a writing group at my local library (2 hours per month), and starting small with flash fiction pieces less than 1000 words got the gears moving again. And for what it's worth, talking about writing with other writers really did help my brain remember some of the stuff I'd laid aside for years. But you can't stop at talking about it. To penpilot's point, you also have to put BIC-WOP (butt in chair, words on page).

 

[Tagnizkur]

Thank you all. These words of advice and encouragement are helpful beyond measure by thank you again.

 

[Terry Greer]

I found that forcing myself to write just 1 page each day helped (and I'd formatted the doc so that that was about 400500 words or so) - every night before I allowed myself to go to sleep.
It's not much - and it wasn't always good (but that's what rewrites are for) - it's surprising how many nights i wrote far more than 1 page.

 

[SM-Dreamer]

I agree with finding the time to just write, whatever time you can, whatever writing you can get done. Even if its in small increments of time throughout the day, it's still better than having nothing written. Like, just taking a random prompt, I determined that I can write by hand 200 words in 10 minutes, about as long as a quick break at work or between classes. It's not a lot, but I'd rather have spent that time writing than sitting around doing nothing.

As for dusting away the cobwebs, you could try creative journaling. It could help get some creative juices flowing; it's been helping me work through a writer's block.

 

[DLWatson]

Sounds like you spend a lot of time at the computer--as do I every day at home, writing and editing full-time for a non-profit organization. Sometimes when I want to sit down and write, it's like pulling teeth to sit back down at that computer. On days like that, I pull out the old pen and paper and sometimes that jogs my creativity without having to stare at the screen any longer. That also works for me when I seem to be having a bit of writer's block. I hope that helps.

 

[callmeclemens]

I find that the greater quality of the content I put to paper, and having the discipline to stop as the quality tapers off the more motivated I become to write. Being a new writer, and a long term musician I've always found that it benefits me to give things a day once I've got something really good together.

Writing until I hit a blank wall usually leaves me drained for quite a while, and because of that I find it really difficult to write more than 2-3 pages a day, or a complete song within a day but that allows me to get excited about it and allows my mind to dwell on all the potential outcomes, or destinations of the piece.

I guess what I'm trying to say is I never tap the source of my creativity.