Why Is It So Hard To Write?

Hi Angel,

Wow! Interesting question there. Maybe I can add a little insight for you.
The question of why is it so hard to write is fairly complex, or it is for me.
A lot of times writing is fairly easy you get an idea, you get a storyline then you write like crazy.

But I know what your saying seams to me your writers muse is blocked.
OK here is something you may not want to here but just forget about writing for now. Let it sit for a couple of months example three to four months.

Right now after those three or four months pick up a story you recently did then read it. I'm pretty sure after you've read your prior story it will imspire you to write again.

Don't get down on yourself what your experiencing is what every writer experiences A writers block.

Hope I was able to help, and look forword to reading anything you write about in the future.

Your tickle friend 4-ever
Slave4Barefeet/Tickleslave07

You haven't gotten lazy.

Consider it a lull that's sort of taken a choke hold on you. The only real way to break free is to absorb everything around you. Pull from music, movies, literature. View the world with as little cynicism as possible, unless absolutely necessary.

I've read your writing before and have enjoyed it. You can make it work.

For some reason this song inspired me with Paramara. Might or might not do something for you.:

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Thank you both.

I appreciate all of the input.

S4BF- Thank you for the insight. I believe that letting it sit may be helpful.

Jo- It is a relief to know that I have not gotten lazy, in your point of view. I can agree that it is a lull, a lull that has me in a tight chokehold. Thank you for saying that you have enjoyed my work, I do try to make it the absolute best I can. I will reciprocate and say the same to you. Your writing is excellent, and I enjoy it. The taking in everything around me is brilliant- I have never thought of that. I will have to start paying attention and listen/look for something that will jump out at me.

A lot of useful insight from some good writers. First off, this letter itself is an exercise in creative writing. There's a start. Even something like this opens new doors into your creative core.

Every writer is different. It was suggested to look at the world with as little cynicism as possible. Personlly, I do the exact opposite and filter everything through cynical eyes. But, that's me. It's what works to get me going. You need to find that motivation. And it doesn't have to be an event or a situation that you want to write about. I mean the motivation that drives you to be creative in the first place.

The last thing you want to do is to worry about it too much. What you've done here is positive. However, don't dote on it too much. I went two years without writing anything before this year...and there were times I was convinced that it was a part of my past, never to resurface. And, when I did start writing again, what came out was, and continues to be, something completely different than anything else I did in the past. Sometimes that happens. You can find yourself thinking that you've "stepped away", but what you're really doing is creating a cocoon of sorts, a way to recenter yourself...to re-emerge as something different, yet still you.

Talent doesn't go away. And you have that. Don't press yourself or force it. Finally, I might suggest trying something new. Take a stab at a style or direction that you've never done. Write it for yourself, with no plans on posting it...just see what comes out. You'll find you'll probably wind up sharing it.

Drop a line if you wish, my door's always open to writers of all kinds. We gotta stick together, you know!

I don't think you're lazy. Artists can get blocked sometimes (just ask Axl Rose).

I echo what Jo said about experiencing your surroundings on a deeper level. My own advice is don't enter into things with any preconcieved notions about what you want to write. I know you want to do TK-fiction, but if an idea for something else strikes you then run with it. Even if it's just some random image that catches your eye and you end up writing one paragraph of prose about it, then you've managed to get an idea out of your head and birth it fully formed. The point is to move in whatever direction is the most organic to you. Sorry if that's a bit vague, but it's what I got.

I can deffinitly understand where your coming from. For a very good while, several years in fact, I was hit by a nasty case of writers block. I had, IMO, reached my writing peak, and was hard pressed to do something better. It took a long while for my inspirational muse to find me again. Best advice I can give is to throw yourself into music, books, art, and anything else that you find creative and inspirational. I've managed to find my own muse and have been writing up a storm since then. I hope you have the same luck.

I agree with everyone and Dave here. Can't force it. If its not coming its not coming. Nothing you can do about it. Just wait.

It'll come.

Also, yeah, just write for yourself. Not with the intention of matching up to anyone or posting it or whatever. It just gets in the way.

In my experience it's combination of conflicting POVs: intellectualism and fugue state.

You write your most personal stuff when you're in that ZONE where you can feel and sense what the characters are...it gives you the richness of the details and atmosphere that make the story so compelling and believable. It's bit like a fugue state where the world shuts out and it's just you and the work...time becomes a dream at that point. To get into that space is hard from a sitting position where you have to concentrate on making yourself do it, and then you spend all your time thinking about what to think about instead of letting your mind drift into the ethereal mists of your subconscious. Mostly because if you let your mind wander, it tends to wander off topic, lol.

But compounding that for ME is the academic approach I take to my work. I try to treat each story as an individual piece that deserves the same sort of serious consideration as any piece of New Yorker-quality literature (1930-1960s New Yorker, not modern day New Yorker). Because I take it seriously like that, I try to consider all of the theoretical and stylistic arguments made from journals, books, essays, and any other sort of serious criticism that examines writing as a philosophy and craft. I can' tell you how many stories I've tried to write where I argue whether to take a formalist, existentialist, post-modernist, etc, stance before I even decide what the story's going to be about.

NOW try to write something powerful and personal when you're THAT detached.

There's also the problem that using sense memory or imagination (which actors use to imagine characters unlike them) to create the setting, it can be very exposing and that vulnerability can make it seem too sensitive to write about or to keep going.

Ideas have never been a problem with me...it's always been about trying to balance the two disciplines at the same time and then having to deal with being an impatient perfectionist who becomes a defeatist when things don't turn out right perfectly on their first draft.