Any ideas?

Everything I write feels flat at the moment. That's happened before, but only when I've lacked ideas. Right now there's three or four stories in my head, but as soon as I start setting them down, even in note form, they turn to wood. Hdeous stiff language, no flow... For want of a better general description: no voice. I can hear, or sense the voices of the various narrators, or the moods of the stories in 3rd person narratives, but the words on the page seem not to connect to what's inside at all.

Not the first to have experienced this, so wondered if others have any freeing techniques they've found that work.

Sorry for the ramble.

Worth trying free writing? I've described it here, if you've not met it (or even if you have) http://www.writewords.org.uk/forum/47_191529.asp?spage=1

You could try with an anchor phrase of something like "Jeremiah is..." for one of your characters, or perhaps for a theme, though the latter can get very abstract, so you'd have to try to direct yourself a little to keep it concrete.

Emma

I know just how you feel, cherys, as I'm currently struggling with the same feeling on my wip - there are only flashes of the 'voice' here and there, the rest is, as you describe, like wood.
BUT at least I have something to work with. If you don't write it down, you've got nothing to edit into shape, and I keep telling myself it's just the first draft. Once the story is down, I can go back through it and see what works and try to shape the rest of it to that format. But it is depressing to come back to it day after day while it remains in it's unpolished state.

- NaomiM

This is slightly tangential, but this:

http://www.bookarazzi.com/front/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=175&Itemid=71

has some good tips on beating procrastination, which can often be because the writing's got stuck, so some of the un-sticking-it tips might be useful.

I think Naomi's thing of just getting something down, knowing that you can change every word later, can be hugely helpful. Something thinking you've got to get it 'right' - fully characterised, fully written, et. - is completely paralysying. Maybe wooden is fine, for now. Maybe those wooden words are placekeepers for the real words, which will come along when you know more about the book, and when they're ready. You may find that if you relax about that, and keep (woodenly) writing, they'll turn into a Real Boy quite soon.


Emma

Thank you both.
About to check out those websites right now.
Susannah

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Just seen the free writing explanation Emma and will try it. Used to do a lot of that sort of work buit not recently. Definitely worth a try... Many thanks.

Have you seen this? It looks fun and effective

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Writers-Block-Ideas-Jump-start-Imagination/dp/0762409487/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196110381&sr=8-2[/am]

Treat yourself to an exotic trip somewhere you've always wanted to go. I always find planes/trains/boats to be amazingly stimulating. Combined with unusual surroundings and the excitement of the new never fails to inspire me.

Thanks Leila
Great idea Geoff, but two small kids and no funds keep that a pipe dream, otherwise I'd be walking the length of the Great wall of China right now.


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Have noticed something though. Have returned to longhand which I used to swear by. The words are coming far more easily. I feel blocked by the glare of a screen and enticed by the smooth icing of the page. Interesting... why is that?

I think it's because we learnt to write before we learnt to type. However fast a typist you are, there's a more fundamental, visceral if you like, connection between your mind and your hand. I think the dead giveaway is how many people brainstorm on paper, even if they write straight onto the computer. A first draft is a form of brainstorming, in many ways. The screen is too permanently perfect: you relate to it with your chilly left-brained judgemental editorial mind, rather than an intuitive, un-judging, right-brained mind...

Emma

Although Geoff's exotic holiday might not be feasible for you, I do think that sitting on a bus or a train - doesn't matter to where - can do a lot to loosen up your thoughts. There's something about sitting still while moving that does something to my brain, at any rate...I invariably end up with twice as many notes after a train journey than after several hours staring at a blank screen.

The other important thing is to allow yourself a break. I lost my writing mojo the other week - just two chapters from finishing the WIP, which for various reasons I needed to finish by the second week in December - and after fighting it for several days and turning out nothing but wooden prose, I stopped. Read a lot, got out and about, saw some movies, spent time with the bf...and do you know what? This morning, I was raring to go again!

I wish I could offer some suggestions but am in a similar situation having sort of half promised I can come up with a serial of 14500 words in three weeks when I only have a germ of an idea. I really want to do it, cos it's a real challenge but am really struggling to come up with an idea that has legs Just been out for a bottle of milk, which has given me one more centimetre of prose. Definitely a good idea to take time off but in my case it's not really an option - I need a quick fix and the quicker the better!

I've just told myself I'll get through Christmas before starting up again with renewed vigour in the New Year (although I am still writing a synopsis and plotting at the moment). It's always one of my resolutions to start a new book in January anyway. A break can be a really, really good thing when you feel a bit disillusioned with writing.

I'd suggest you stop writing a bit and read a novel or short story collection by a writer whose use of language you really admire - or 2 or 3 different writers. NOT so you can copy the style but because the rhythms and sounds of the words will get into your brain and wake up your use of language again. I've had the same problem as you and the only way I found of getting over it was to read, and stop writing for a bit.

Thanks for all the replies. Flowing a bit more now. I remembered what used to work: reading much more experimental writers than I am: James Kelman, Stephen Dixon, Russell Hoban etc. just read the first paragraph of Riddley Walker and a story came out in a couple of hours. They're like sink unblocker.
Anyone else find that or know why?