{"id":1183,"date":"2020-08-12T14:42:55","date_gmt":"2020-08-12T18:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/?p=1183"},"modified":"2020-08-12T14:42:55","modified_gmt":"2020-08-12T18:42:55","slug":"the-blahs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/2020\/08\/12\/the-blahs\/","title":{"rendered":"The Blahs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On December 22, 2019, viola03 wrote, Hi y\u2019all, you may have noticed that I haven\u2019t been as active on here lately, and that\u2019s because I haven\u2019t had a lot of time for writing because of school (I\u2019m a high school sophomore). I\u2019m hoping to write some over winter break, but I\u2019ve run into a serious lack of inspiration. I do really want to write, but I\u2019ve found that the inspiration for all of my WIPs has just ground to a halt. Any tips?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Melissa Mead kindly wrote, Welcome back! Gail\u2019s posts have some great prompts.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Writing Ballerina wrote, I get this sometimes too. You have a few options:
1) You can let them sit for a while until you feel refreshed. (Be careful with this one \u2013 I do this and then have the tendency never to feel refreshed. If this happens, let them sit until the details are fuzzy, then read them over with a reader\u2019s eye and you\u2019ll probably get excited about them a bit.)
2) You can add something random to spark things up and get the ball rolling (something like a green sea monster obsessed with raspberries or a random cat). (I did this a few times during NaNo.) This will help you write something, anything, and then the momentum of that writing (that will inevitably be cut later) can help you move on to the next plot point.
3) You can skip to a part that does excite and inspire you. There\u2019s no rule that says a book has to be written chronologically.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And future_famous_author wrote, Read!!! Read a book that\u2019s written really well. Read a scene from your favorite book. Watch a good movie. Or re-read something that you\u2019ve already written.
Scroll through Pinterest. Look at the character inspiration pictures, and just keep scrolling. I got a really good idea for a story based on a picture that I found on Pinterest.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are great suggestions! I don\u2019t use prompts much for fiction, but I often do for poems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just yesterday, I finished teaching my annual writing workshop, on Zoom this year. Reversing the usual order of things, here are three prompts that I gave the kids that I don\u2019t think have appeared here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Imagine the people who lived in your house before you did. Think about who they might have been, how they might have furnished it, what their hopes were. Put them in a story and use the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 In this version of \u201cSleeping Beauty,\u201d the prince is the main character. His father, the king, has been captured by the evil Baron Von Roten. The ransom the baron requires is the pillow on which Sleeping Beauty has been resting her head for a hundred years. The prince has fought his way through the thorny hedge, but when he enters the castle, he discovers that it\u2019s haunted. Write the final scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Write the first scene for the prompt above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s a which-is-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg question: Which comes first, inspiration or writing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess it depends on the writer\u2019s process. But I\u2019d wager writers get more done if writing comes first and inspiration follows. Here\u2019s what I do:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 If I have to leave my WIP, when I go back to it, I reread the last chapter or two to see where I am. If I wasn\u2019t in deep trouble when I put it aside, that\u2019s usually enough to get me going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 If I was in deep trouble, I\u2019ll probably read from the beginning to see when my enthusiasm begins to wane. That\u2019s the spot I need to focus on. What\u2019s the problem there? Do the later scenes solve it? What else can I do? I\u2019m always sad to cut lots of pages, but I do it if I need to. Getting to the root of the problem makes me happy enough to want to soldier on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 When I can\u2019t figure out how to fix a story, then I\u2019m unhappy and distinctly uninspired. I write notes. I\u2019m kind to myself about my daily writing time, but I do keep on with notes, dozens of pages of them sometimes. So far, I\u2019ve always been able to get my story going again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 If I suspended work for a month or more, I\u2019ll also read from the beginning, because I\u2019ll have forgotten too much. Rereading (and revising, because I can\u2019t help myself) will start me up again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(As an aside, I just wondered, since we have the word revise<\/em>, was there ever a verb vise<\/em>? My Oxford English Dictionary\u2013OED\u2013says yes! There was a verb vise<\/em> with several meaning, having last appeared in print in 1587. How does that happen, for the do-over meaning to survive and the first-time-around meaning to bite the dust?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inspiration does come to me eventually. Over the many years, I\u2019ve developed ways to find my stories, and I\u2019ve talked about the ways here, but maybe not all of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 While I\u2019m working on a novel, part of my brain is auditioning ideas for my next project. Usually, by the time I finish my WIP, my next book is in the wings, waiting for its cue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 While I\u2019m working on a novel, I read books connected with what I think may come next. Lately, since I\u2019ve become interested in history, I\u2019ve been reading history books. Both Ever <\/em>and A Ceiling Made of Eggshells<\/em> came out of reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 I maintain a state of receptivity to inspiration, so in a way I\u2019m always trolling for ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 I\u2019ll leave my WIP, briefly, to write notes about a new idea that may sail through my brain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 I save my ideas so that I can go back to them. I\u2019ve mentioned more than once several fairy tales that intrigue me but I haven\u2019t figured out enough to make them into a novel. Sometimes the gestation of an idea can take years, but I keep the germs on ice in my computer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I\u2019m uninspired, I write anyway. My daily time goal goads me into it. Sometimes I don\u2019t reach it, and then I forgive myself, but it\u2019s there waiting for me the next day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, unless you have a deadline, unless you are absolutely committed to writing, I don\u2019t think you should do it in misery. And even if you are absolutely committed, I still don\u2019t think you\u2013or I\u2013should do it in misery. Take a vacation! Read a book! Swim the English Channel! Play solitaire!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dip your toes back in the writing waters when you feel refreshed. Then see what happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I finished writing this blog yesterday, but today, in the shower, a relaxing place for ideas and inspiration to drop in, I started to list what I do and don\u2019t like about writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here goes, starting with the negatives:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The isolation.
\u2022 Lacking a shared enterprise. My publisher puts out lots of books.
\u2022 How difficult writing is. I wish there were a potion to make it a little easier, one that wouldn\u2019t rot my liver and didn\u2019t contain eye of newt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The positives:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 I tell myself stories. This is the most important one.
\u2022 I love my stories to be read. And my poems. On the poetry side, I\u2019m satisfied if only my poetry critique friends see them.
\u2022 I get better. There\u2019s always more to learn about writing.
\u2022 I learn about whatever I\u2019m writing about\u2013the Middle Ages, Mesopotamia, ancient Greece.
\u2022 Contact with readers and other writers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s no contest. For me, writing is much better than not writing. And that\u2019s inspiring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Try the three prompts above and\/or this one: Write the circumstances surrounding the death of the word vise<\/em>. Who was there? Was its end deliberate? Was there a trial? Did it plead for its survival?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have fun and save what you write!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On December 22, 2019, viola03 wrote, Hi y\u2019all, you may have noticed that I haven\u2019t been as active on here lately, and that\u2019s because I haven\u2019t had a lot of time for writing because of school (I\u2019m a high school sophomore). I\u2019m hoping to write some over winter break, but I\u2019ve run into a serious […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[185,119],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1183"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1184,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183\/revisions\/1184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}