there are corners of this website where the year is still 2013. and sometimes, on beautiful nights when the veil is thin, you can find them . if you know where to look
I’m writing scenes which are good, and I don’t know where they are going to fit in the book. But it’s what I call ‘The Valley Filled With Clouds’ technique. You’re at the edge of the valley, and there is a church steeple, and there is a tree, and there is a rocky outcrop, but the rest of it is mist. But you know that because they exist, there must be ways of getting from one to the other that you cannot see. And so you start the journey. And when I write, I write a draft entirely for myself, just to walk the valley and find out what the book is going to be all about.
-- Terry Pratchett - A Slip Of The Keyboard: Collected Non-fiction
the most annoying stage of burnout is when i want to write, and i have the urge to write, and somewhere in my skull are the words that want to be written, but they have to get through the cursed minotaur maze first and nobody remembered to bring string
Thank you, Diane, for reblogging this. I've had burnout for years and the creativity is coming back in fits and starts, so it's really, really hope-reviving and motivating to see a successful, beloved author also understanding the same struggle.
It's a pleasure to reblog—! (and to add a little bit). Because not only do other people sometimes forget that writers are not unstoppable fiction machines, but sometimes the writers forget it too. And then they have to deal with the too-widespread, societally-endemic guilt and shame at Not Being Productive Enough.
(growls*) Life's literally too short to have to deal with this shit.
...Anyway: sometimes you just have to sit still and do nothing and let the mental and spiritual "aquifers" refill. They absolutely will. But the waiting can be hell.
I wrote a post about this some time back, dealing with the (heretical to some) concept of just holding still and giving the issue time to sort itself out (as opposed to running all over the landscape exhausting yourself further while trying different ways to Fix It Quick). Those struggling with this problem might like to take a look at the post linked to below. It also contains links to some other Tumblr replies that deal with aspects of the overall phenomenon in more granular detail.
Lately this concept keeps putting its head up over the parapet in one context or another, so it may as well have its own posting to link bac
Anyway, hope this helps. And congrats on your ongoing recovery. :)
*Hmm, a bit grouchy about this today! Did I just get another of those emails from a sweet and plainly very committed reader saying Please hurry up and finish this series so I can read the last book before I die? Why, yes! Yes I did. (And since the series in question has been running for pushing fifty years now, the sentiment's understandable.)
...Not that this is a [cough]novel[/cough] experience. These messages routinely come in two types. There's "Please finish the series before you die", to which the response is "Yeah, I appreciate your concern! Working on that right now. And yeah, I'm over seventy—" (Which admittedly in Tumblr Years makes me officially an Ancient Wizened Old who might conceivably crumble away with my next breath.) "—But the health's relatively good if frequently annoying, and I'm as careful as I can be when crossing the street, so let's hope for the best, okay? I don't think I'm about to discorporate just yet."
But then there's "Please finish the series before I, the reader, die," which—from where I'm sitting—is far worse. My thoughts about my own mortality are (insert shrug here) my burden to bear. But the thought of other people's mortalities being more bearable because of something I did? That can stop you in your tracks no matter how often you hear it. ...Or less so because of something I didn't do? Especially at the creative end of things? That stings.
(sigh)(and another shrug) It'll pass. At the end of the day, getting the work done right matters most (along the lines of the sentiment discussed in this post from some years back). But sometimes I have to remind myself of that. ...And then take a moment to listen to Billy Joel singing "She's Only A Woman" again, and get the Dark back to it. :)
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