charles barrow's writing

Pantser -  "A NaNoWriMo *  term that means that you 'fly by the seat of your pants' when you are writing your novel. You have nothing but the absolute basics  planned out for your novel.  This outlook towards writing is often opposed by the 'planner', who knows exactly what is going to happen, when it will happen, and where it will happen. There is often enmity  between the two types of writers." The above quote is lifted directly from the online  Urban Dictionary **  and I post it here because the whole debate of plotting versus pantsing (I might have just invented that word) is very much exercising my mind at the moment. Back in September I wrote about the struggle I'd been having with doing any kind of writing at all, and how I'd employed one of my trusty old tricks for demolishing writer's block; namely writing for just eight minutes every morning. Well, as usual, the trick had worked for me and I found myself turning up at the blank page every...

Comic Sans to the rescue - be gone writer’s block. I read a post on FB, from a writer, saying that she'd discovered a really helpful tip for anyone suffering from writer's block: change the font you usually write in, preferably to Comic Sans, and the problem will almost magically evaporate, as if that particular font has some kind of healing power for the suffering wordsmith. She wrote, quite lovingly, about the soft, rounded quality of the letters, and how this helped to stimulate creative thoughts. Quite frankly, I was sold. Also, as soon as she posted this revelation, other writer's who had discovered the same (or a similar) trick, weighed into the conversation saying that it actually didn't matter which font you chose, because the mere fact of switching up the font, almost always had the desired affect of shaking loose a stream of words/sentences/plot twists and other desirable weapons in the war against the blank page. Changing the colour of the font was a popular ...

I've lost my way a little recently, with my writing I mean. I finished my last writing project, John Mann - At Day's End, and published it over 18 months ago, and I've struggled to find a project to focus on since then. I've had plenty of story ideas, and that's probably the problem, I've had too many ideas. It seems like a good problem to have in many ways, too many ideas, but a problem is a problem no matter how it presents itself. I've followed each of those ideas for a distance, a period of time, be it a matter of hours, days or weeks. I've outlined the whole story of one, written a couple of chapters of another, noted detailed dialogue from a scene for a different one altogether. I'm a bit like a dog whose attention keeps getting sidetracked from the stick, to a scent, to a butterfly, to the ball. I focus intently, for a time, and then something else catches my attention and I move on. Is this a personality disorder, a form of writer's block...

Work on my next book, John Mann - At Day's End, came to a juddering halt a few months ago because my day job became so stressful that I was no longer able to be creative, or concentrate on it. It seemed ironic to me that the very time I needed an escape mechanism, a release valve, I was unable to run away to the fictional world I have created. It was a frustrating time. General feelings of lethargy and distraction were joined by a burden of guilt at time passing and no writing or editing being done. Things were getting bad and there was a feeling of desperation that led me to decide to give up on my writing; just stop, without the third installment of John Mann's story being finished and published. Things really got that bad. Then, last week, I heard in passing about someone who works on their writing for just eight minutes a day, and recommends it as a habit. Just eight minutes? For a fraction of a second I scoffed at the idea. Eight minutes of effort could hardly be worthwh...

Is it possible to get Editor's block, as opposed to Writer's block? An anxiety about taking words off of the page as opposed to putting them on? If so then I am suffering from it at the moment. I know what needs to be done (I'm sure I do), I know what needs smoothing out (or think I do), what needs close attention (or maybe not), and slimming down (or leaving well alone).