{"id":777,"date":"2015-09-18T10:46:13","date_gmt":"2015-09-18T17:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/?p=777"},"modified":"2015-09-25T15:09:54","modified_gmt":"2015-09-25T22:09:54","slug":"bad-writing-days-are-worth-the-effort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/bad-writing-days-are-worth-the-effort\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad Writing Days are Worth the Effort"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve all had days, at least if you\u2019re a writer, where you stare at a blank screen and try to push an idea out of your brain that just won\u2019t come. It gets blown into a huge confidence crisis. You question whether you\u2019re cut out for it, or if it\u2019s even worth the effort. You might feel like giving up, or at least taking the day off.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve learned its worth the effort even when it sucks.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not saying you have to write every day, or sit in front of that blank screen and beat your brain in. Maybe you do need a break \u2013 get a snack, have a bath, take a walk \u2013 to get the creative juices flowing. But if you\u2019ve done all that and it\u2019s still not helping, I\u2019ve found sitting down and trying to engage with what you\u2019re working on is often the best solution, even if it\u2019s only taking five minutes to outline.<\/p>\n

The writing may suck that day and make you feel horrible, but what you\u2019re doing is priming your subconscious to work on it in the background. Since I started planning what I want to write tomorrow before going to bed, I\u2019ve been having more good writing days than bad ones.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve also noticed another pattern with my hour-a-day regimen: great writing days follow terrible ones, probably because I force myself to stay engaged with my project so I don\u2019t lose momentum. I figure, if the words aren\u2019t coming, at least I can try to figure out story problems. My outlines are horrible. They\u2019re full of stupid ideas, indecisiveness, dead-ends, and gaping plot holes. I almost never follow them, but they prime my subconscious to come up with better ideas later.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a similar situation to when I\u2019m so hungry I can\u2019t think. When I used to go to restaurants with an ex-boyfriend (one of the good ones) in that condition, I\u2019d be struck with indecisiveness. As my eyes glazed over the menu, he\u2019d say, \u201cIf you don\u2019t pick something soon, I\u2019m ordering you this.\u201d Without fail I\u2019d snap out of it and say, \u201cI don\u2019t want that. I want this!\u201d I figure I\u2019m doing the same thing when force myself to write ideas so bad they make me feel like the worst hack who ever shat words all over the keyboard. My brain says, \u201cScrew that. That\u2019s dumb. This is better.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve known for a while the discipline to sit and work even when you\u2019re not in the mood is one thing that distinguishes successful writers from struggling ones. Now I know why. The wisdom about not waiting for the muse \u2013 the metaphor never made the point real to me. It feels wrong, on a visceral level, to try to create when you\u2019re uninspired. It\u2019s counter-intuitive to try anyway, but now I\u2019ve seen the result doesn\u2019t happen right away, but in the future.<\/p>\n

It takes time for an idea to stew. Some people think with their fingers, others by talking. I seem to be the type who thinks with the fingers, because I have to write several awful drafts before I get a good one. I can try to plot everything out in my head, but it\u2019s a shifty shadowy thing before I commit it to the keyboard. I can\u2019t tighten my ideas until they\u2019re in concrete form, so for people like me, \u201cJust write already,\u201d seems to be pretty good advice.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>by <\/span>\"feather\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve all had days, at least if you\u2019re a writer, where you stare at a blank screen and try to push an idea out of your brain that just won\u2019t come. It gets blown into a huge confidence crisis. You question whether you\u2019re cut out for it, or if it\u2019s even worth the effort. You […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[20,32,36],"class_list":["post-777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing","tag-advice","tag-creativity","tag-things-that-make-you-go-duh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":781,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777\/revisions\/781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}