I'm pleased to have fellow blogger and aspiring author, Sarah Allen, with me today.
Lets dive right in ...
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Hitting the Wall
So there's something that happens after you've been writing
for a while. Even a short while. You finally get some words going, you get in
the flow, it's coming, and then all of the sudden, it happens.
You hit the wall.
That's what runners call it anyway, and I think it's an apt
metaphor. Because its an abrupt stop, ramming the momentum you had head on into
brick.
It happens to me every few hundred words. I'll get three or
four hundred words down and then finish a scene or get pulled away by my
wonderfully distracting sister or mindlessly clicking onto Pinterest. Then I'm
stuck. The flow stops flowing. (By the way I think minimizing distractions i.e.
Pinterest is key to pushing back the wall and something I'm going to try to do
better at).
I'm pretty sure it happens this way for everyone. Maybe a
lot of you can go a lot further than me without hitting the wall, but it
happens eventually, right?
If not--if you never come up against The Wall--please tell
me your magic secret? Please???
Anyway. When you get to this point, what do you think is the
best thing to do?
The way I see it, there's two options. Either you sit there
and push until you've broken through the wall, or you go away and use your
mental powers elsewhere until the wall has gone away. Which do you think is the
best thing to do?
On the one hand, we are WRITERS DANG IT and WRITERS WRITE
and no dumb ol wall is going to stop us. On the other hand, sometimes it is a
FREAKING THICK WALL and you don't want the writing to sound forced anyway and
it’s Just. Not. Coming.
After some thought, I think the answer I've come up with is
that neither approach will work in every situation. I think sometimes the wall
isn't going to go away on its own and you have to push through. Other times no
amount of shoving will budge the stupid thing, and you have to take a breather
or its going to stay there like a stubborn mule.
The pattern that I think works best for me personally is
this: Usually the first wall or two I come to aren't super thick. They're
definitely there and they leave me staring blankly for a while, but I can push
through and get another few hundred words down. Then a wall will come that
really throws me off and I start feeling like my butt is beginning to fuse to the
chair anyway so its time for me to at least step out onto the balcony for a
while and probably get something to eat. Sometimes it takes until the next day
for the wall to go away, and sometimes it still takes a little forcing, but if
I make myself sit down the next day and get started, the words will eventually
start flowing again.
That's how I've seen it working in my own head. Anybody else
have clearer ideas or a better approach? Do you think it's better to push
through or take a break?
Sarah is an aspiring writer living in the DC area and
working on querying her first novel and finishing her second. If she’s not
writing she’s probably obsessing over a movie or show with painfully stunning
acting. Slyther-puff. Anglophile. Jane Austen groupie. Secret lover of jazz and
post-grunge rock, not so secret lover of Colin Firth, white chocolate, cavalier
king charles spaniels, and Frasier.
Links:
Thank you so, so much Terri for having me over. Your blog is always helpful and wise and I'm honored to be on it!
ReplyDeleteSarah
Hey Sarah! Don't hate me, but when writing, I never hit a wall. I think it's because I'll spend months planning the outline, often much longer than writing that first draft. I've already worked through all of the things that could stop me.
ReplyDeleteWhen the wall finds me, I read about writing hoping that will break it down brick by brick. It works mostly and when it doesn't I've learnt a few things I didn't know before. It's a win win for me. :-)
ReplyDelete