Getting Stuck
I am spending, roughly on average, about eleven or twelve hours a day in my office at the moment. Most of that time spent at this here trust laptop. Much of my time is spent writing, but I won’t lie and say all of it is. I’ll knock out a page, a paragraph or even just a sentence and then sometimes it feels like a break is necessary.
I edit in my head, as much as I can. I try to plan it out and then just have it form on the page as it should be. Not a foolproof system, but I like to think I’m no fool so I should be right. If I’m stuck with just what to write next, be it a sentence, a word in a sentence, or just the next scene in general, I’ll take a break. There’s no point being worried about getting stuck. If I was able to sit in here for half a day, every day, and just have prose flow from me like electric kool-aid from Ken Kesey then I’d be ecstatic. I’d also be further in that just my first novel. I take a little longer, but it usually comes out just how I want.
The trick is, handling those moments when I get stuck. There are plenty of ways, but they need to be a distraction for the bad moments, not the good.
That crazy wwInterweb has everything on it. Check your email, update your Facebook status, look for old comics on eBay. This week I’ve been watching all sorts of things on YouTube. I know, so many people seem to rail against it like it’s the end of something pure. I don’t get it. YouTube is awesome, where else could I watch an old BBC Arena doco on Philip K Dick, in six easy to download parts, dont’cha know. I’ve watched footage of Stephen King speaking about writing and how to do it. I’ve watched ItsJustSomeRandomGuy make his NYC ComiCon ads. All stuff I never would have been able to view were it not for the blessed forum that is YouTube. I think it is brilliant and I love finding the cherries hidden amongst all of the, and I admit it, shit that is on there. Blasting YouTube as idiotic is like saying all films are bad because they made Freddy Got Fingered, or all books are bad because they published Paris Hilton’s writings. One bad oyster doesn’t cancel seafood season.
Next to my desk, as I have bragged before, is a futon. A lovely and comfortable blue futon that I can sit in and prop up against the wall and read in. Across from my futon is an array of shelves, as per previous bragging, and I can find anything to read in them. I have books scattered across one side of the futon and they offer up plenty of distraction for those stuck moments. I find comics to be perfect to read because one issue and then I’m right to come back to the laptop. I’m right to get back to work.
Food is the other perfect distraction, and one that I find I will neglect when working. I get into my head so deep that i forget about time and thus I forget when it is meal time. Getting stuck on a line brings me out of the work, and then I see it’s food o’clock. The latest, besides any fruit (plums, pears, apples, bananas, nectarines and more plums), is sandwiches. God’s food. Wholemeal bread. Ricotta cheese, low fat, spread on. Tomato liberally thrown about. Tabasco and pepper all over that juicy tomato. Slices of delicious garlic and herb kangaroo roast. Doesn’t get any better excuse for a break. Plus, while I eat I am reading Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. Still cracking through it, and still absolutely loving it.
That’s why I don’t mind getting stuck in my work, because there’s plenty to do while thinking my way through it. I hope that others find such an open mind to what can be an annoying problem while working.
————————————————————————————————–
I went to dinner at a local, and fancy, restaurant last night. Standing in the foyer of the hotel, I realised that this was where the next chapter of my book had to take place. Luckily enough, my next chapter was at a stand-still because I didn’t know where to place it, and the hotel foyer worked perfectly for my means. Open in space, but claustrophobic in feel. I love when things fortuitously work like that, makes me smile and know the universe is still working as it should.
————————————————————————————————–
Made some purchases today, probably the last of the holidays while I try to save after this.
Having been reading Duane Swierczynski’s run on The Immortal Iron Fist, I wanted to try some of his novel work. But do you think I could find any in this crazy upside-down country? No. Not on eBay, not in secondhand bookstores, not in big name bookstores, or their websites. I was at wits end, but then tried my local Borders today. They had a copy of The Blonde, and it included his sequel novella, Redhead. No second thoughts there sports fans, I went straight to the counter with that bad boy. It is next on my list, which shouldn’t be far off with the way I am whizzing through Abarat.
The next Walking Dead trade came out. Snatched that up, again without any superfluous thoughts about what to do. Will be sinking my undead teeth into that soon as well.
Brubaker and Phillip’s’s Incognito was all over the nerd press, in the States it had sold out. Well, it hadn’t sold out in Canberra, so grabbed the first issue of that. Very, very, very keen to see how it goes. Also got the next issue of The Stand and The Boys.
Seems I have plenty to keep me busy.
————————————————————————————————–
Oh yeah, and as for my novel. Cracked out nearly 3k words today, pretty much in one sitting, which I am not used to doing. That puts the grand total, for those still working my stats, at just over 92k. Nearly finished the second act, just a conclusion to go now that ties it all together. Hmm, ties in all the many characters that keep popping up and gets them across Europe all into the same place.
Fun.
Posted on January 15th, 2009 by ryan
Filed under: Writing, books, comics
Leave a Reply