Ask the Author: C.R. Harris
Answered Questions (3)
C.R. Harris
I am currently working on editing my new novel. It's exciting and depressing all at the same time. You find yourself pleased with some parts of the manuscript and knowing you have to do some major re-writing to get the rest of the manuscript to match the best parts!
C.R. Harris
Read! Read in your genre, read for pleasure, read to admire style and technique but most of all read.
C.R. Harris
I suppose writer's block comes in two forms - the inability to find anything fresh to say and the belief that what you are writing isn't working so you become so judgemental it all seems a somewhat pointless activity.
I find the easiest way to overcome the inability to find something fresh to say, can be overcome by going to the newsagents and buying a tabloid newspaper. (In the States for example it could be National Enquirer - in the UK - The Daily Express, I would point out that I don't read these periodicals for any other purpose!!!) In the paper there will be a story which will have me cross, or incredulous or simply wanting to re-write the ending, or maybe finding an ending, my characters don't follow the newspaper story they are released to do whatever they want. This is then a short story - it is self contained. I then polish the story and put in a file for some future event. Somehow the process of writing this story releases me from constrained thinking.
The second type of writers block is best overcome by writing story and then editing a couple of days later. Enjoy the story, live the hopes and fears of your characters - let them speak to you, don't worry if it doesn't look great today, in a few days time better ideas will come - but keep writing!
I find the easiest way to overcome the inability to find something fresh to say, can be overcome by going to the newsagents and buying a tabloid newspaper. (In the States for example it could be National Enquirer - in the UK - The Daily Express, I would point out that I don't read these periodicals for any other purpose!!!) In the paper there will be a story which will have me cross, or incredulous or simply wanting to re-write the ending, or maybe finding an ending, my characters don't follow the newspaper story they are released to do whatever they want. This is then a short story - it is self contained. I then polish the story and put in a file for some future event. Somehow the process of writing this story releases me from constrained thinking.
The second type of writers block is best overcome by writing story and then editing a couple of days later. Enjoy the story, live the hopes and fears of your characters - let them speak to you, don't worry if it doesn't look great today, in a few days time better ideas will come - but keep writing!
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