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Can you Lose 'it'?

TheokinsJ

Troubadour
I'll admit, I've been out of the game for a while- I haven't written in nearly three years. I write here and there of coarse, small passages or a part of a chapter that I think would be really cool, or some random dialogue or part of a short story or two, but its been three years since I started my last serious project; a novel which I never finished. Life gets in the way a bit, I suppose- university, exams, work etc. I always promised myself I'd come back to write it in a few years time, when I had more time and when the plot was finally worked out- as that's what screwed me over in my first draft; the plot was not fully planned out, and I got stuck about 150 pages in.

Yet those 150 pages felt really good. I remember writing them and really enjoying myself, everything was flowing nicely, I was writing with freedom. So, fast forward three years, I've finally got the plot mapped out, wasted a long time world building and writing lore (Simply for my own enjoyment), and I finally find myself ready to write this book that I've always wanted to write.

And I'm stuck. Two sentences in. Writing is a skill, I know, and I know that like any skill, improvement takes practice, but I really am shocked at how trapped and powerless I feel, at how much of 'it' I seem to have lost- whereas three years ago I was writing with freedom, all the words were flowing, I was typing away madly- now I find myself stuck, I'm questioning every sentence I write, it doesn't feel right, it isn't flowing.

So, I suppose my question is a bit simple, have you ever lost 'it', the ability to write, and what do you do to get yourself back into the flow of writing after a very long break?
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
So, I suppose my question is a bit simple, have you ever lost 'it', the ability to write, and what do you do to get yourself back into the flow of writing after a very long break?

More than once. I have floppy disks littered with old abandoned projects.

As to getting back into it...

...used to be I was a participant in a religious debate site. Same arguments, brought up over and over, going nowhere. At one point, I sat down to reply to one of these arguments...and instead typed up a thousand word story right there in the 'send reply,' box. It was an instant hit. Wrote a couple others in the months that followed. Prompted me to take a look at my other projects, decided a couple were worth pursuing.

Last time I was stuck in a job I hated but really needed. I'd come home from work keyed up and ticked off. That job, combined with other matters made me feel like a test subject running around in a giant maze filled with dead ends. To relieve the frustration I began writing a story based around that premise, freely borrowing stuff from my old gaming notes. That story turned into the first draft of 'Labyrinth' - which I still plug away at. (third rewrite) I have a different job now, which ranges from 'blah' to 'annoying.' Not near as bad as the other one.

Get right down to it, if you are a writer, you will write.
 

Penpilot

Staff
Article Team
I've travelled similar roads. When I was going to school, most of the writing I did was for writing courses, creative and business. Otherwise, I would only scribble down scenes or descriptions while I was taking small breaks from studying. School is important, so if you can't find the time, writing will always be there.

As for losing it, I ran into health problems a couple of years ago that prevented my mind from focusing and made it very difficult to stare at a screen for more than a few minutes. I didn't write for around six months. This broke a streak of writing/editing pretty much every day, sometimes two or three times a day, for five years, with at most one or two day disruptions. Getting back into the rhythm, was very difficult. And it consisted of just doing one thing, writing.

When I started writing again, finding the words was a struggle. It's because I wasn't used to thinking in prose any more. I wasn't used to putting myself in that mindset. Putting down 500 words drained me, compared to before when putting down 1500+ words was all in a day's work. It took me a while before the words began to flow again, and a while longer before I got anywhere close to where I was before I got sick. I'm still not there, but that's because I've had to take some of what was my writing time and spend it on exercising in order to make sure I stay healthy.

I put down words without worrying about how good they were. In fact, they were pretty terrible, but they got better the more I wrote, and my brain started to think that way again.

On thing I felt helped was I wrote some short stories in addition to working on my novel. The short stories gave me a chance to run through my whole writing process, from draft, to edits, to final polish, and were a low risk proposition if I messed them up.
 
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BWFoster78

Myth Weaver
And I'm stuck. Two sentences in. Writing is a skill, I know, and I know that like any skill, improvement takes practice, but I really am shocked at how trapped and powerless I feel, at how much of 'it' I seem to have lost- whereas three years ago I was writing with freedom, all the words were flowing, I was typing away madly- now I find myself stuck, I'm questioning every sentence I write, it doesn't feel right, it isn't flowing.

So, I suppose my question is a bit simple, have you ever lost 'it', the ability to write, and what do you do to get yourself back into the flow of writing after a very long break?

You are not alone.

Every time I stop writing, it's hard to start again, and the longer the interlude, the harder it is to start back.

Best thing that I found to do is to start just thinking about your story away from the keyboard. Find those scenes that you really loved, that made you excited. Soon, your mind will start coming up with something that gets you just stoked and you won't be able to do anything else but put it on paper.
 
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