Sunday, October 28, 2012

Not reading, writing.


This fortnight I’ve been concentrating on creating my own pieces of writing rather than reading and responding to the writing of others. And I have to admit, it’s not going well.

It’s a little bit like a log-jam of ideas where the logs have made quite an effective dam in the river and none of them are easily freed. I can see bits and pieces of logs/ideas but none are happily floating along anymore. And tomorrow I need to email something I’ve been working on to my supervisor…

I’m a bit concerned.

Not overly concerned because this happened during my honours year also. I got particularly stuck on one or two stories that ended up being rewritten so many times that I now can’t stand the sight of them and they are now completely unrecognizable from the original idea that sparked them. But I am a bit concerned.

This concern probably springs more from a desire not to disappoint my supervisor than an actual distress about my project at this stage—if I was this stuck later into my candidature I imagine I would be really worried but it’s early days yet (at least that’s what I’m telling myself). Maybe I should just go and play in the sandpit with Calvin until the right mood hits me.


Posted by at

2 comments:

  1. Emily McGeeOctober 29, 2012 at 6:38 AM

    At least you've overcome this before. It may sound silly, but exercising works for me. If I go numb my mind on the treadmill for a while, I find that ideas start to flow.

    ReplyDelete
  2. kjhOctober 30, 2012 at 3:00 AM

    Hi Deb,

    It's been a while since I've been in touch.(Just to jog your memory, I also did creative writing at Deakin!)

    It may be that all those logs in the water are just a sign that your brain is firing on all fronts, so to say. If you have time, can you write something just for you or just for fun - something that you don't intend to submit to your assessor? I found that while writing a piece for assessment, I always felt a bit constrained. Recently I wrote a story that I was determined to submit to a literary publication. It's dragged on and on, and it's turned into something rather like a millstone. I had enough of it one day and started another story that I don't intend submitting anywhere. It has sort of freed up my writing though. It can have an effect on the way you approach a piece if you've been writing something else where you just let your creative mind have free reign for a while. Having more than one piece on the go is a good tactic too - but I daresay you're doing that already!

    Anyway, I just wanted to wish you well - you're an inspiration!

    Karen

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)