Time again for the Blog Chain, and this round the topic was chosen by my fabulous Elana. Carolyn tackled the funk before me, and Sandra will be up next.
Elana wants to know:
When you're in a pool of writing funk, how do you get out?
This question is horribly timely as I am currently trying to hose off the gunk of the funk as we speak. Now, first of all, I need to point out that it is not my writing that gets me funky. Oh sure, when the rejections pour in, it dampens my mood a bit. And mostly because I get those “good” rejections; the ones that say “you are a great writer and this is a great story, it’s just not quite right for us right now.” It’s harder to be that close and not quite make it. My favorite was when one of my dream agents told me “it’s not you, it’s me.” Had me rolling on the ground. I hope one of these days I have a project she loves, because she is just too awesome.
Anyhow, my writing funks tend to happen as a side effect to what is going on in my Real Life. Writer’s block never lasts for long. Like Carolyn, I just work on something else, or go do a load of dishes. I always get GREAT ideas when I’m doing dishes. But if I’ve been cooped in the house with the kids for months on end with no break, or if I’m stressed over anything else going on in my life, or just not feeling well…..my Real Life funk spills over into writing territory and becomes (dunh dunh duuuunh) WRITING FUNK.
How do I get out of if, you ask? I take a writing break. I read…a LOT. I will usually pick one of my favorite series and will read all the way through. Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse series, or Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake or Merry Gentry series. I am currently trying to pull out of the funk by enjoying the Anita Blake series. As there are currently 16 books in this series, my breaks do tend to last a while, even if I can power through a book a day. I am working on keeping my breaks to a few days, but most of the time, they will last several weeks.
I also load up on romantic and British comedies. Two of my favorite British comedies are the shows Vicar of Dibley and Absolutely Fabulous. I love watching movies like Fools Gold and The Holiday and Pure Luck. When I get in a funk, I want to laugh. Here are a couple clips of my favorite funnies for you (if I figure out how to post the video, I'll change it from the links) :) …
Absolutely Fabulous
Vicar of Dibley
And of course, as Heather also mentioned, my wonderful friends are great at pulling me out when I’m about to go under. I start sending out hoards of desperate emails and IM’s. And when things are really bad, I tend to shut down a bit, stay away from everything and everyone, and that is when the hoards of emails and IM’s start coming my way. I don’t know how I ever got through the day without my writing family. They are a true God-send.
And of course, my daily funny fix, like Carolyn, comes from the lolcats, dogs, fails, lolcelebs and graphs….here are a few of my favorites….
7 comments:
I LOVE that cat at the top! And the ones at the bottom too! Especially the Inigo Mantoya one. I wish I had inspiration while doing dishes. Most of my "ah-ha!" moments come while I'm driving in the car.
Great post, Michelle!
Love your pix...needed a good laugh! Great job.
You tell the BEST stories in posts. (You tell great ones in your actual stories, too, but I've never seen anyone who's such a good storyteller with illustrations and such in things like board posts, blog posts, etc.) You're a natural, sweetie!
Those are awesome LOL's you found! I totally understand taking a reading break - I just did that for the past three days, powering through the Vampire Academy books that I won from Elana's blog.
Somehow, I KNEW there would be a plethora of LOLcats here. :)
Vy are you drippings wis goo? We will hose you off. ;)
lol I sooo have to go watch that movie now! :D
"I am currently trying to hose off the gunk of the funk as we speak."
Now that is as funny as the LOL cats. Great post, Michelle
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