Christian Ellingsen
I’m lucky, I don’t get full-on writer’s block *touches wood*. There are days and weeks where the words will come more slowly - painfully slow at times - but they never stop completely.
What’s been of benefit over the past few years has been working as a bid writer, where you’re often working to very tight deadlines that cannot be avoided or put back and people would likely get very upset if you were to miss them. It quickly trains you to just sit down and write regardless of whether the words are flowing or not. It’s useful to remind myself that all I have to do is write, it doesn’t have to be good, it’s allowed to be absolutely terrible, as I know I will get to edit it. Editing is a lot simpler than writing. With editing I’m dealing with something that exists. With writing I’m creating something from nothing.
A lot of the times when the words are coming more slowly it’s because I’m not quite sure where things are going or what should be happening in a scene. Having an outline or making notes as I’m going along can help with this. I don’t have to keep to it slavishly. If better ideas come along I can go with them. If I think of something that should be in a scene, I jot it down for later so when I reach it I’ll have a better sense of what it should be and where it is going. Also, again, just writing without any need for it to be good can help. It will often mean a scene is long and meandering and I don’t really get to the heart of it until I’ve written hundreds of words, but I know that later I’ll edit out all the stuff that isn’t really needed. It may not seem efficient, but neither is waiting to write until I’m hit with inspiration.
The final thing that helps is tea. There’s something in the process of making tea and then sitting down to drink it that is relaxing and reassuring and gives a moment of pause that helps the words flow again. There was actually a study back in around 2009 and that showed that tea and the process of making it helps reduce stress, especially for British people.
What’s been of benefit over the past few years has been working as a bid writer, where you’re often working to very tight deadlines that cannot be avoided or put back and people would likely get very upset if you were to miss them. It quickly trains you to just sit down and write regardless of whether the words are flowing or not. It’s useful to remind myself that all I have to do is write, it doesn’t have to be good, it’s allowed to be absolutely terrible, as I know I will get to edit it. Editing is a lot simpler than writing. With editing I’m dealing with something that exists. With writing I’m creating something from nothing.
A lot of the times when the words are coming more slowly it’s because I’m not quite sure where things are going or what should be happening in a scene. Having an outline or making notes as I’m going along can help with this. I don’t have to keep to it slavishly. If better ideas come along I can go with them. If I think of something that should be in a scene, I jot it down for later so when I reach it I’ll have a better sense of what it should be and where it is going. Also, again, just writing without any need for it to be good can help. It will often mean a scene is long and meandering and I don’t really get to the heart of it until I’ve written hundreds of words, but I know that later I’ll edit out all the stuff that isn’t really needed. It may not seem efficient, but neither is waiting to write until I’m hit with inspiration.
The final thing that helps is tea. There’s something in the process of making tea and then sitting down to drink it that is relaxing and reassuring and gives a moment of pause that helps the words flow again. There was actually a study back in around 2009 and that showed that tea and the process of making it helps reduce stress, especially for British people.
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