h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You got a block? Eat more fibre!

But if your writer's block is like constipation, then what does that make your writing?

Well, now, there are those that make a case for writing being a bodily function. You have to do it everyday if you do it at all.
And since it does excercise da brain and da fingers...I'm sure some of the poisons that the illiterate keep bottled deep inside do indeed find an outlet....

Writers block is like constipation. You can always work it out with a pencil.

When I write poetry it externalises the emotion. I quite literally cannot feel the emotion again, and I can only touch it by re-reading the poem. (Hint: Do not write about good emotions).

When a poem wants to be written it bangs on the inside of my skull, demanding to be let out. It is very like gurgling intestines. I will leave it up to you to decide whether the results are hot air or crap!

I was in a relationship last year, and was very aware of the physical aspects of it. I wanted to write a poem, but it just would not let itself be written. It was not until several months after the relationship was over that I realised that the physical and the emotional were metaphors for each other. Duh! When I did eventualy write the poem it took me 7 minutes flat.

Prose is logorhoegha. Or however you spell it.

B

(Consults online dictionary. Discovers that 'logorrhea' = 'Excessive use of words')

Are you saying that *all* prose consists of using too many words, agcB?

Not at all, just that for me, writing prose is almost as easy as breathing. Mind you someone did ask me to write something on Paradigm Shifts the other day, and I declined.

I wish I could remember where I read the phrase 'pisseur de copie'.

*ambles off, thinking about Paradigm Shifts, without the f*

B

> I will leave it up to you to decide whether the results are hot air or crap! <

Sorry, but if you're giving only those two options I simply refuse to choose. No, there's definitely gotta be a door number three.

The obvious conclusion to draw, agcB, is that you can get 'blocked' as regards your poetry because it's intensely personal, but can happily churn out prose because you're less emotionally attached to it. But amateur psychology is a bad habit of mine, so please tell me if I'm talking utter

When you are writing stuff that you feel close to in any format, then it can be pretty difficult to separate writer's block from depression. You can just think 'Oh, what's the point? Whatever I write won't do any good.' And if you're not feeling good about yourself, then you're likely to project that feeling on to your work, and believe that as you're rubbish, your writing must be likewise.

Unfortunately, I am all too familiar with these kind of problems.

Makes, sense to me, Ormandroyd.

And it helps that I think in words (not everyone does) - and that is one of the reasons I don't like to have music on too loud in the car - it drowns out the fascinating things I am saying to myself!

Ben

'And it helps that I think in words (not everyone does)'

Hmm. I think in images. And clots of words. Paragraphs!

I don't get the prose versus poesy dichotomy.

I only play music in the vehicle that I like. To sing poorly along with.

I'm making a certain leap of intuition, and plugging a book at the same time! If writer's block is anything like the block you get when you know you can't draw, and you can't bring yourself to put pencil to paper, I can only recommend the book called "Drawing on the right side of the brain"... [sorry if that gets moderated]

Essentially, silence the nagging voice-in-your-mind and just open your spirit it can be done - I couldn't draw two weeks ago, and am now much gratified!

x x Fenny (UT)

Thanks, Fenny! I imagine that you mean this book? http://www.drawright.com/

Hey Ormy, just saw the article - nice one

Glad you approve, Orcus!

Would anyone else like to comment on the Collaborative Entry I've put together? It's on A691661 .

That's the one, Ormy! Great book. Just started exploring the site, too. Thanks for the link!

x x Fenny (UT)

There didn't seem to be many signs of life over in the Collaborative Writing Workshop, so I've put the Guide Entry into Peer Review! The PR thread is at http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/classic/F48874?thread=167200 . :-)

Simple answer: write. Some people never get writer's block because they never stop writing for more than a day at a time. Of course, they don't get out much, but at least they never suffer from the horror that is writer's block. And to get back into it, just sit down and keep writing (who was it who said free association-- good idea! Also known as Free Writing.)-- no matter what it is, no matter how bad you think it is. Sometimes you have to write junk in order to write some good stuff.

Now, if only I could take my own advice...

Silence, please.
Observe the watch as I swing it before your eyes...
let your lids become heavy...
relax....
feel your body melt....
you're getting sleepy, sleepy, sleepy....

(post-hypnotic suggestion; when you awake, every time you hear a song with a minor third in it, you will tpadance while performing an ASL version of 'War and Peace')