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Writer’s Block
By Taylor | July 13, 2012
I have a bad case of it. Sort of. There are so many things, yet not very many things, to discuss. Confused? Read on.
So this week during my Orientation job I am on the midnight shift. This means that, as of Sunday night, I’ve been working 11pm to 7am everyday. I have not seen the sun at its highest point in days. My body has adjusted to the dark and my nocturnal, vampire-like qualities are beginning to emerge (being blinded by the sun, not drinking humans blood.)
The scariest part is that I have to sit at a desk for eight hours straight and I have NOTHING to do. And no one to talk to except my two co-workers that are with me. I haven’t seen anyone outside of them in days and I’ve done more sitting than when I was in high school class.
There’s no homework to be done. I read but my eyes grow weary after so many hours. I could watch TV shows on my computer but that proves to be tiresome even, and I’m not a huge television buff anyway.
Movies, right? That’s the way to go, especially for a film major?
Wrong. Even I can’t do that for more than one movie or two at a time. That is four hours, tops.
So I waste away hours on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Yahoo! News, Instagram, YouTube, StumbleUpon, etc. The list goes on and on of random websites.
Which brings me to my point. I have nothing to discuss. I haven’t seen anything or even moved from the tower’s desk to draw thoughts on anything. I could discuss the train derailment, I was actually awake for that occurrence and heard it myself, the view from my tower window below:
But you’ve heard so much about that already that I wouldn’t dare bore you with anymore redundant information.
I could tell you that I downloaded the entire Rock of Ages album (great film, must see.) I could tell you that I’ve edited my second novel Aura a countless number of times. I could tell you that I caught up on The Glee Project or have a really sore behind from sitting in this chair so much. I could tell you a lot of really unimportant tiny things that have happened in the long, dull hours of my midnight shifts that would simply bore you to death.
But I won’t.
Hence, my writer’s block.
Which has now, in this moment, turned into my topic.
OVERCOMING WRITERS BLOCK.
(when you’re not on the midnight shift.)
1. Exercise. Talk a walk. A run. Anything to stimulate your muscles, including the ones in your brain (maybe?)
2. They say to carry a notebook with you everywhere. Jot down anything interesting that happens, anything different or out of the ordinary, any joke. Any thing.
3. Talk. Talk with those you know, but even better, those you don’t know. Learn something new about someone else’s life. I’ve come to realize that talking to certain international students here at OSU about their high school days in China is very intriguing and … almost unbelievable to any American.
4. Stop being negative. Don’t think that anything you write is going to be terrible or that no one will read it. If you’re reading my blog right now, I promise you I thought that same thing before I started this post. Yet here it is, and here I am, and there you are reading. Start writing, and hope that something will trigger an awesome idea for material (as I did with Overcoming Writers Block.)
5. Writing Exercises. It sounds lame, but it’s very helpful. This website says to imagine a major event in your life and write about it as if it had a completely different outcome. This sparks all kinds of ideas in all kinds of different directions. Trust me, as a writer I’ve tried and succeeded.
These rules apply to both all of you bloggers out there as well as anyone in any English class dreading to write that boring paper. Think of it from all angles, just as your juicy television shows do, and pour it out.
Tay :)
Topics: Author | 1 Comment »
July 13th, 2012 at 12:01 pm
I was amazed by your post. Please continue the nice work.