Writer’s block
June 26th, 2008 by Erin
What to do, what to do.
I try and stick to a schedule when I’m writing a first draft: minimum 5 pages a day (maximum 10 - although I’ve never written more than 8 pages in one day). But recently I’ve been suffering from writer’s block. I’m halfway through my first draft and I am stuck. stuck. stuck. stuck.
This isn’t the first time that I’ve been stuck. When it happens, I try and do other things just to keep writing (like blogging) or I try to think of a new idea for a story and start working on another script. Which is exactly what I’m doing right now (and I’m already twenty pages in). I also do lots and lots of freewriting. Other times I go to a cafe and just transcribe a conversation from the table next to me (which has been difficult in recent months because my grasp of the German language is still very minimal.)
There’s the story that when J.D. Salinger was suffering from severe writer’s block, his mentor and friend Somerset Maugham told him that when he suffered from writer’s bock he would write “I am Somerset Maugham” over and over and over again. He told Salinger that “eventually, something will come of it.” Salinger went home, took out his typewriter and typed “I am Somerset Maugham, I am Somerset Maugham” but to his dismay, nothing came.
On the iPod: Éternelle: The Best of Edith Piaf
Posted in Film |