Posts Tagged: writer’s block

“WRESTLING WITH A PROJECT . . . AND MYSELF”

On April 2, 2018 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

 

Monday, April 2, 2018

I am not so much trying to write a decent scholarly paper on Ruth and Mary, as I am trying to write a decent version of Daryl.

But I have writer’s block.  And the block is also named Daryl.  I never believe that I’ve read enough, that I’ve thought enough, that I know enough (that I am enough) to write something worthwhile.  This was true for the first paper I ever wrote in high school.  It was true for all my college papers.  It was true for my Ph.D. dissertation.  It is still true.

Am I really struggling to write and be something “worthwhile?”  Or do I mean “perfect?”

So, as I listen to a song on You Tube, I wrestle with my own self-expectations.  (I love Terry Wollman’s song “Survive”!)

Of course if you wrestle with yourself, you are bound to lose.  Perhaps surviving this wrestling match is the name of the game.  Or, better, perhaps the name of the game is surrender to God?

 

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“WRITING THE EXTRAORDINARILY ORDINARY”

On October 31, 2017 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

I was talking with another writer the other night.  I asked her what she had written this week.  She hadn’t.

I tried to console her with my own truth: “I didn’t write much this week either,” I confessed.  This led to an interesting discussion about why it is difficult to write.

I can’t speak for Jenny, but I do know that I have several problems that get in the way of writing.  For one thing, I sit around waiting for inspiration or great thoughts to hit me.  All that hits me when I do that is the desire to distract myself with on-line word games or a Snicker’s bar.

And then there is garden-variety laziness.  Writing is work.  Well, maybe not the physical act of writing.  The hard work is the mind and heart and soul that you put into writing.  Sometimes, writing flows for me, but not often.  I have to be aware of what I am feeling and thinking.  Even more difficult is thinking and feeling what my characters are thinking and feeling.

But I think that my biggest problem is that I don’t want to write about ordinary stuff.  I want to deal with cosmic issues.  And here is the problem with that: I don’t know much (or even suspect much) about cosmic issues.

However, here is what I think in my better moments: There is no such thing as “ordinary stuff.”  I listen to other people’s stories, and I see this clearly.

However, my own life seems pretty ordinary to me.  Still, there are moments when I see the truth.  My story may be more comic than cosmic, but my life may impinge on great issues.  I need to begin to see my life as it is—as an interesting life.  Interestingly boring—that’s what my life is.  As someone has said, I need to “dip my quill into my own heart’s lifeblood and write.”

All stories are interesting.  To think of them otherwise is one of the gravest mistakes we can make.

And good writing about ordinary things makes for good reading.  One of the many functions of good writing is that it lifts us out of ourselves, and then takes us back to ourselves.  Of course, bad writing makes our “ordinary” lives seem drab and mundane.  But, when we return to ourselves after reading a good poem, story, or book, we come back to find our selves slightly changed for the better.  Perhaps we begin to see that our own lives are more interesting than we had previously imagined.

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