briefly: writer’s block funk
A followup to my recent post “briefly: you should make an original character”.
I recently added a couple of original character pages to my website. They’re for a couple comfort characters of mine that I kept around after quitting Destiny 2. They’re kind of boring, but they are mine and I love them, you know?
Their pages are still in a very work-in-progress state - I mainly just wanted the pages up so that I’d have an art repository for them. But I’ve noticed that, despite these two rotating in my head for as long as they’ve been, I’ve had difficulties putting aspects of them down on digital paper. I can get basic ideas - what they look like, their general personalities, a brief summary of their histories and experiences - but further interrogating the characters and who they are becomes difficult.
I feel it’s a problem of my own doing - I have ideas and aspects of them in mind, but it could just be that they’re not as interesting or developed as I had originally thought they’d be. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with this per se - characters need to develop to be developed, they can’t just pop outta the pussy with a history rivaling Rome. They gotta make that history first.
But I think in addition to this - I may simply be hit with a degree of writer’s block. It’s been a while since I’ve done creative writing, trying to think of things to write and how to write them is a struggle, et cetera, et cetera. It makes me a little bitter thinking about it - part of me is inundated by this idea that writer’s block doesn’t actually exist and I’m just an undisciplined and shitty writer. Which is true, it comes with the territory of mental illness and generally being an undisciplined and shitty writer. Excuses, excuses, excuses.
But also: 1) that line of thinking is a product of my mother’s Protestant-esque self-flagellating “if you’re not productive and on that grindset, kill yourself actually” type ideals that obliterated my mental and emotional well-being as a kid. Being kinder to myself is extremely important in the pursuit of creative freedom, and to stop myself from committing self-sabotage for the sake of some warped sense of repentance and accomplishing nothing - you gain nothing by becoming a tyrant to yourself; and 2) sometimes you’re just hit with a funk, and forcing yourself through it might get you out, but it also might get you a one-way ticket to burnout town and making an already rough situation even worse.
It got me thinking, and I did what a solid chunk of people do: scroll through Reddit for a solid hour looking for advice. I think Redditor advice, while helpful, should be taken with a grain of salt. After all, it is wholly anonymous and Redditors are emboldened to be abrasive, in a diet Channer wannabe kind of way where they’re just mean enough to make you feel bad but not quite encroaching on busting out the slur dictionary. Not to mention that simply going on Reddit in and of itself can roll into a form of procrastination - suddenly I’m no longer on r/Writing and now I’m on r/CatastrophicFailure watching houses explode. Ope.
Regardless: I’ve summarized a few things I ought to take to heart.
- Putt in brackets in areas you’re unsure about, and just barf out literally any unfiltered thought your brain thinks of between the brackets.
I remember doing this back when I was in college working on papers, and this helped significantly. For some reason, I never thought to start trying that with my creative writing.
- Consume similar media to what you’re interested in writing about.
Sometimes a (re)primer on what it is you’re writing about is needed. I’ve been binge playing Baldur’s Gate 3 what with my recent bout of COVID, and recently completed a run with one of my two original characters in question, Phoebe. Looking back, it was a great exercise in character development: it made me think about what she would do, how she would feel about certain events. I wish I had written down my thoughts throughout the run. I have another playthrough I’m chipping away at that I’ll start doing this with.
- Look over what you’re doing in a bird’s eye view and breaking down the general ideas and motivations of what you’re writing about.
I often find myself drowning in the minutiae of the moment, and I think remeasuring could help with getting back on track.
- Write about something totally irrelevant to get the creative juices flowing.
Maybe something about your day, or your thoughts on current events, or a 2k word diatribe about things you miss from your childhood home, or some ramble-on about my writing woes. I’ve seen similar advice concerning writing small one-off stories that may or may not be relevant to the overarching one you’re working on.
- Touch grass. In a less meme-y way, take 20 minutes to step outside of your workspace (or app, or whatever).
Take a breather. Drink water. Go for a walk. Get something to eat. I have a pretty nasty habit of forgetting to eat or drink when I’m focused on a specific task, which in turn makes me feel like garbage, which makes it hard to work on things. It’s a simple thing, but again - mental illness loves to make simple things so, so much less simple.
- Try a different medium.
I’m surprised I only saw this suggested once, maybe twice - in art blocks, a common way of tackling it is through trying new mediums. A digital artist working with pencil and paper, a sketch artist trying watercolors, what have you. I think this could be translated well into writing - for example, using your phone instead of your computer, using dictation to “tell” your story, or brainstorming with flash cards.
Not sure if I’ll ever actually ever internalize any of these things, but it’d be great if I could. Still, it’s good to think about.