104 lines
6.0 KiB
Plaintext
104 lines
6.0 KiB
Plaintext
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Underground eXperts United
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Presents...
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[ Writer's Block ] [ By The GNN ]
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____________________________________________________________________
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____________________________________________________________________
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WRITER'S BLOCK
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by THE GNN/DualCrew-Shining/uXu
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or... 'a generally quite boring conceptual analysis of a luXurious
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problem strictly limited to the interest of a few.'
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People who write on a regular basis now and then experience a problem that,
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despite its temporary character, is highly annoying. Roughly speaking, this
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is the inability to write. One day, when the writer sits in front of the
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word processor, typewriter or pen to nail the latest thoughts down, nothing
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happens. If the writer is experienced, he or she will understand that this
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has nothing to do with her ability, but is merely a psychological block.
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This insight, however, is not very helpful. A writer wants to write. If she
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cannot do what she wants, she will despair. It is therefore not surprising
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to find historical examples of writers who has been abusers of various
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stimulants, desperately trying to overcome the periods of writer's block.
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Writing requires two main things: inspiration and experience.
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Inspiration is needed for the ideas, experience for getting the ideas down
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on paper in an acceptable manner. A regular writer seldom needs any more
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than one single (and often quite simple) idea to be able to write a short
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story or novel. The rest - characters, places, history, disposition - comes
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automatically, thanks to the experience. Someone who is inexperienced must
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weigh every sentence, every person and place, during the writing process. I
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believe the reason for this is the fact that what separates regular writers
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from the rest is the ability to build a whole world inside one's mind.
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This world is then transported through the hands down on paper.
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Inexperienced writers cannot perfectly build this world in their minds, and
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must therefore check every word to see if it is in correspondence with the
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world they are trying to build.
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When the writer is not in a state of block, the process of writing is
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simple. She gets an idea, and types it down. That is all, actually. In
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fact, the fictional world is constructed in her mind the very second she
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gets the idea. She just has to sit down and let her hands do the work. When
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a writer claims that she does not know what constitutes the writing
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process, this only means that she works without knowing that she knows what
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constitutes the writing process.
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Then one day the writer will notice that the writing process is not all
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that easy anymore. She has to actually think of how to write. This is the
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first stage of the block. When she gets an idea, she cannot just sit down
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and type. She has to actively create the world she is about to deal with.
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It does not build itself anymore. The tempo slows down. If the writer was
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able to fill ten pages every day, she will now notice that she is unable to
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fill more than five. The ideas are still there, and she wants to be able to
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write ten, but it is just impossible. And she does not really know why.
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Time will pass, and the amount of written material will decline. The
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writer will despair as she suddenly is unable to write a single sentence.
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Still, she's got all the fine ideas, but they will just not write
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themselves anymore. The final stage of the block is when the ideas leave
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her. No ideas, no writing, nothing. She just sits by the wordprocessor,
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typewriter or pen and wait. And this she must do. A fully developed block
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cannot be forced away. After a while, the ideas come back, but not the
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writing. When some more time has passed, the writing comes back, slowly at
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first, then back to a normal pace again. The block has passed. Until next
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time.
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How long does a block last? It depends on the person. Personally, I have
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discovered that mine comes once a year, and it lasts for about one to two
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months. I really hate this period, as I always believe that I will not be
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able to write again. Other writers I have discussed this matter with say
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the same thing. I no longer believe that I will not be able to write again
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when I am in a state of block; but I am tormented by the ideas that pop
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into my mind. They are good, and I love them, but I cannot write them down.
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I just have to accept that they will never be written. It is no use to take
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notes for the future, because the ideas must be written down the very
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moment they appear, otherwise they lose their substance.
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The moment I feel that my block is on its way to pass, I rush to the
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computer and type, type, type. The more I type, the better I feel. I would
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not claim that I actually WRITE anything, I just type. This file was not
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written, it was typed for pure therapeutic reasons - something the quality
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and content probably reveal.
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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uXu #411 Underground eXperts United 1998 uXu #411
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ftp://ftp.lysator.liu.se/pub/texts/uxu
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