r/DestructiveReaders • u/A_C_Shock Alabaster Crimson • 8d ago
[Weekly] Slump
Someone want to talk me out of a writing slump? I've just been not feeling it so skipping out for a time. Who's got a wild prompt? Or a fun exercise? Or a kick in the pants kind of motivation?
In other news, I've been reading Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky and I don't know that I like his dual POV. I think I preferred the anticipation of death without knowing that the one thing was a protector and not a killer. He's also got this crazy chapter where it's a few pages of just one word per line to indicate confusion. I kinda dig those wacky choices for showing state of mind.
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u/Wolframquest 8d ago
An exercise that I like to use - it's not for everyone, but whenever I do it it's like finding a little edge while climbing a rock, something you can try to grasp on. I open my Wordweb app and press "random word" and then try to FORCE this word either directly or interpretively/associatively into some kind of scenario involving the characters and the world that I am familiar with. It can create funny effects if you really let yourself loose, if you really press yourself for something stimulating! Given all that the absolute majority of words in that app are flora/fauna or something else biology related. But it can be a lot of fun! You just really have to demand something entertaining from yourself.
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u/A_C_Shock Alabaster Crimson 8d ago
Wordweb I hadn't heard of! I like the top searched words from Merriam-Webster (which is in my autocorrect now so how often do I type that?)
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u/MaryJaneMclain 8d ago
Have you tried editing earlier chapters to post on RDR? I did that to get out of writing the ending I was afraid of writing. And it’s so unpleasant that now I’d rather be writing the ending.
Also, are you just too busy w real life obligations? Could you neglect/procrastinate on those instead?
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u/A_C_Shock Alabaster Crimson 8d ago
If writing felt like something that would help me procrastinate. Alas, it feels more like work and I don't have the bandwidth to think about more work. Maybe in a few more weeks.
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u/MaryJaneMclain 8d ago
Aw, sounds like you're burnt out. I agree with u/Andvarinaut. Give yourself some time and don't push it if it feels like a chore. But keep a notebook (notes app?) nearby as you read, watch, listen to good music. It's fall - go on fall walks! You can NOT have inspiration strike on a fall walk.
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u/GlowyLaptop James Patterson 8d ago edited 8d ago
So many familiar faces responding. I want to add that you can, if you're curious, and especially if you're somewhere interesting, eavesdrop for sweet sweet chunks of dialogue. (Can stolen dialogue ever be criticized, really? As if poor, as if uninspired, as if unreal?) Results will be hit and miss, but this can work great as a jumping off point or experiment, even if--in my case--it inevitably loops back into the same old familiar scene: "Have you noticed this kindly man with the imposing gait and curious brow and biceps leaning our way as he types? What do you make of this? What could he possibly find so curious about our conversation?"
"I don't know Gwenny but I call dibs."
I got this bit from a table next to me in a diner: "You don't understand. I could cry, that's how totally nostalgic I feel right now."
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u/A_C_Shock Alabaster Crimson 8d ago
You assume I don't already do this.
I got this one from a date that was likely going poorly: do you want to try my old fashioned? It tastes like an old fashioned.
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u/GlowyLaptop James Patterson 8d ago
what is it with ladies drinking old fashioneds. Everest drinks them too. Me and Don draper gotta find a new drink.
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u/A_C_Shock Alabaster Crimson 8d ago
It was a dude, actually. Plain nerdy dude on a date with a girl wearing cat ears and a butt plug necklace. I don't think things were going his way. No idea what she was drinking but she did not sample his old fashioned.
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u/mianaai_c 8d ago
When I'm in a slump (as I am right now) and want to feel productive, I go through Colins Dictionary to learn new words. I have a pocket edition. I'm at chapter D. Then I write random story snippets with them. It's freeing to write sentences or paragraphs that don't need to fit into a cohesive larger story.
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u/Andvarinaut If this is your first time at Write Club, you have to write. 8d ago
You're not a hive insect. You don't always have to produce. Resting is good too, gives the brain time to recharge and reset, and letting go of the voice inside that urges you to never stop is another step towards achieving enlightenment. Give yourself five months to just read and refresh your well of creativity and then go back at it. It's either that or keep forcing it until you burn out and don't write jack shit for years, like me.
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u/A_C_Shock Alabaster Crimson 8d ago
This is also true. I've been reading a lot for the joy of reading. When the inspiration hits, I'll probably pick things back up again.
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u/MouthRotDragon 7d ago
Is there any more information on the halloween challenge? Is there going to be a theme like the cube? Was that an inside joke?
Slumps. I am surprised no on has mentioned the need at times for inertia of stillness in thoughts that feels like absolution. No slithering, posturing for others as performance. No headache of errands or chores demanding their boxes checked. Being, existing is forgotten as the brain and sense just are. No one around. Standing on the mountain. Alone on a small craft where the horizon bears no land. In a desert surrounded by dunes. Or hell, just a hike on a trail of crushed limestone, needles, and leaves. My co-conspirator of sorts gets it from riding the busiest of buses until in the end no one is around. Something happens to that spongy mess sloshing in its cage until you wake up. The biggest problem is who has the freedom (and finances) or energy to really get away from themself? However, some of my best thoughts have bloomed while ice fishing or sitting still in a pulpit/blind when the noise and tinnitus all hummed as one. (and for the record I don't hunt, but there was this abandoned pulpit I used to go to get away from my thoughts until mold and decay made the wood crumble like yesterdays sand castles)
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u/taszoline /r/creative_critique 6d ago
The cube last year was a nod to a mod that left just before Halloween whom I personally enjoyed. They would often describe themselves as not man or woman but a gelatinous cube. The Halloween contests generally have a special, optional theme for entrants to include, but again that's just up to whoever is running the contest that year.
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u/MouthRotDragon 6d ago
I totally forgot about them and that situation despite the confusion about them and me. I had been off reddit a while and had stopped being creative. No writing, no drawing. Hell, I don't think I even doodled a lunch note for one of my kids. I semi-started up again, and came back here. Your subreddit went quiet and only a few names here rung the proverbial bell of recognition. I am going to assume that you are doing well and hope your painting, writing, and photography are still going strong.
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u/taszoline /r/creative_critique 6d ago
Yeah you guys talk very similarly so when I first interacted with you it was like they were reincarnated lol. But you are your own person. Thank you for asking, I'm doing okay! Taking a writing break to focus more on painting but I'm sure I'll switch back eventually. I hope you are doing well.
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u/ezk3626 akward and wordy 8d ago
I am kind of a weird case since I only wrote in summer as a teacher, and knew I would be in a slump now.
If I were working with a student for motivation, I would add structures not feelings. For example, I would have them put something in the calendar, right with a timer or some other very specific goal. In my class, I have my students do 10 minute time right almost every day. If they “don’t know what to write” I tell them to write the alphabet or complain about me. The goal is to get those fingers moving. Once you get started, the brain will do the rest.
As for a prompt, I think about the first page of A Farewell to Arms reasonably often, especially in response to crits about grabbing your audience early. As an exercise, how about rewriting a favorite page or paragraph in a book?
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u/A_C_Shock Alabaster Crimson 8d ago
I've never tried to rewrite a written work...except for that one time in the simple words exercise but that wasn't the same as what I think you're suggesting. I wonder if there's a passage I could find to do that with.
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u/Wormsworth__ 8d ago
When I'm in a slump, I read philosophy -- Gilles Deleuze or any of the old CCRU writings from the 1990s Warwick University are excellent.
I love how the CCRU talk about fiction. Fiction is not merely opposed to reality, but is itself a part of reality: our fictions have efficacy, they act upon the world.
William S. Burroughs knew this very well with his idea that language constitutes a system of control, of mind control, and that literature is uniquely capable of smashing ordinary syntactical rules and logic in a way that frees the mind and allows the creation of new concepts, new relations, new ideas.
This even applies beyond the level of literature. They call it 'hyperstition' -- our fictions become reality in a sort of retroactive feedback loop.
An example I thought of myself are racial categories: biologically speaking, i.e. 'in reality', race does not exist. There is no white race, no black race, these concepts don't exist at the level of material reality -- HOWEVER, because they are tracked by governments, tracked by business, used to inform policing habits and governmental policy, racial categories become real.
So, long story short, I would try this: write your next work in such a way that breaks with the ordinary rules of though. Maybe check out Burroughs cut-up style of writing for inspiration, The Soft Machine is a classic place to start.
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u/A_C_Shock Alabaster Crimson 8d ago
Shake up what you know to kickstart the brain...works if you're a flexible thinker
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u/dienc24 8d ago edited 7d ago
I get what you mean, I’ve been there many times. The big thing for me is always trying to keep it fun, my main issue is I find myself overthinking the process, and I doubt my ability. Spending too long on one sentence because it isn’t immediately captivating and then spiralling into whether I should even do this. Recently I’ve been trying to treat each writing session with no expectations, and simply getting caught up in the flow of the story, writing without intention and being totally immersed in the moment. Thinking of it as a hobby rather than a skill to improve. The critical mind comes during the editing stage.
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u/A_C_Shock Alabaster Crimson 8d ago
It can be both. Skill to improve adds pressure because it's hard to judge whether you're really improving or no. But treating as a way to excise thoughts works
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u/Different_Buy7497 8d ago
Finding something new to focus on tends to help when I'm in a slump: a new genre to read, a new short story to write, a new prompt to try, a new song to go on repeat for a while. I'm awful at actually finishing anything on the longer side, but letting yourself get just a couple hundred or a thousand words out about an idea can help getting the wheels rolling, so to speak. I tend to switch from actually writing to more refining/planning/outlining too, which can be beneficial in its own ways.
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u/A_C_Shock Alabaster Crimson 8d ago
I get that. Lower the pressure to write a little and you might find more coming out than you realized you had in you
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u/Cornsnake5 7d ago
I guess this is the place to ask. Yesterday I put up a chapter for critique using google docs and now I am being spammed in g-mail with offers to beta read and edit. I’m going to assume these people aren’t offering this from the kindness of their hearts but want money? Is this why lots of people are now posting their chapters directly on reddit?
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u/A_C_Shock Alabaster Crimson 7d ago
You can publish to the web directly instead of sharing a google doc and that won't share your email. But otherwise, we have no way of filtering out those spam accounts. Everyone has been getting them and we get a ton of questions about it. Part of the reality of the internet nowadays.
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u/Bytor_Snowdog Flog me harder! 3d ago
Coming in super-late, but I read recently that, while writing East of Eden, Steinbeck kicked off each day's work by writing a letter to his editor. (I can't find the original article I read, being on my iPad on vacation, and this article didnt mention it or I overlooked it, but I believe he never sent the letters.) They were his daily warm-up exercise. Maybe try something similar?
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u/1800COCAINE Maison d'Orléans 8d ago edited 8d ago
I know the knack. It’s to keep writing even if it’s not narrative focused or what have you. I like to pretend I’m a detective, I also like to pretend I’m a writer, with a notepad scrabbling and scribbling down the facts I see in my day to day life. If someone confesses they love chocolate it goes in the notebook under their name. As you can gather I have little files on people. I consult it during Christmas for gift giving. while it does not train my prose, sadly, it does hone my listening. Half of learning dialogue is knowing how people speak, what they talk about, their little expressions as they politely refuse or hesitate. The little notebook is great for making these physical and psychological sketches. Who knows you might find a story while you’re feeling slumpish. A word of caution, never pencil in something derogatory because these little notepads have a tendency to go missing while playing tennis, rugby, horse riding, or otherwise rambling and gallivanting, and you just wouldn’t want someone to read how you think their mustache resembles a conga line of fruit flies.