I’m going through a patch of writer’s block. Nothing I write seems to be interesting (including this post, no doubt). I have fifty pages that I like and I know where I want to go; I just can’t seem to write the bridge to take me across the literary chasm. My characters have grown impatient and restless and have started to move off to other pursuits.
So to help me I listened last week to Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. I recommend it to all wannabe writers. One of the things he talks about is his near death experience when in 1999 a reckless driver struck him while he walked along the right shoulder of Route 5 in Maine. On 19 June 1999, Brian Smith hit Stephen King with his van because Smith was distracted by his rotweiller nosing into a cooler filled with meat. You can’t make this stuff up.
I’ve thought about writing a scenario for my protagonist where he has to do some undercover work. Some reviewers on YouWriteOn.com have told me that a forester carrying a gun sounds far-fetched. California State Park Rangers started carrying guns about 30 years ago (if memory serves). I had one issued to me for about that long. If you wear a uniform and have to enforce laws in remote places where people are and dope is grown or cooked. … Well, let’s just say it goes with the territory.
Still, I don’t think I could write an undercover scenario as odd as Takin’ Bacon that Lee Lofland wrote on the Lipstick Chronicles.
Nullius in Verba 
Norm,
Who was it who said something along the lines of “When things are slowin down, bring in a fellow with a gun.”? Raymond Chandler? Mickey Spillane? Or was it Barbara Cartland?
My preference has always been the less violent “Bring on the naked lady” device, but I know that is not to everyone’s taste. That is fine, it leaves more for me.
I really like the Stephen King book too. The only thing that keeps it from really connecting with me is he understandably doesn’t address the time issue. It has been eons since King has had to deal with the reality of not currently making a living as a writer and that does put him a bit out of touch with a major issue most of his readers deal with. For me I don’t necessarily get writer’s block as much as have to slog through extended periods of time when I just can’t devote any decent time to writing and when I can the flow has been diverted and must be relocated, which takes time itself.
About the only thing that works for me when the “What the Hell Happens Next?” question just won’t go away is to either jump way out on a limb and have something outrageous occur, which even if it doesn’t work can sometimes be scaled back to work quite nicely, or skip ahead to another exciting section nearer the end and leave the troublesome bit to fend for itself. Sometimes the answer to what happens in between comes whilst writing the later bit.
The Chandler line is a good one: “[T]he demand was for constant action; if you stopped to think you were lost. When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand.” – “The Simple Art of Murder”
So I try to do “when in doubt have a guy with a chainsaw cut down a tree.”
I’ve just read the Stephen King book, and it’s a good read with some acute perceptions.
Would I like his fiction? I’ve never read any.
Alan, you’re right of course. Publishing has changed a lot over the last few decades. (I love the dachschund sketch).
Lexi,
I’m completely amazed that anyone would actually recognize that the sketch is supposed to be of a dachshund!
I haven’t been able to get into any of King’s fiction. Just not my taste.
My favorite book on writing is still Brenda Ueland’s “If You Want to Write”. A close second is any well written book. We all know the best way to learn is to immerse yourself in what has already been done well.
My day off! Just got back from first round of chores. Time to head out for second round!
Norm,
How about having a dachshund come through the door with a gun in his mouth?
It’s an idea, anyway.
I could not get into Ueland’s book, same with John Gardner’s “The Art of Fiction.” But I loved Anne Lamott’s “Bird by Bird” and the audio book “Word by Word.”
Having married a dachshund owner and thereby became one myself, I know that is the sort of thing Frankie would have done, saying, “Damn, I wish I had disposable thumbs.”
I recommend King’s “The Stand.” Or watch the miniseries done in the mid-nineties. Mary says she liked “Salem’s Lot” and “Carrie.”
Come to think of it, the dog downstairs (workshop) is a long-haired dachshund. He is called Charlie, and is quite sweet, but howls when left alone.
I don’t know how he manages the stairs with such short legs, though of course I’ve seen him do it.
Off on a tangent. My before bed reading is now “Fellowship of the Ring”. My very worn hardback being exercised for the first time in probably a decade. I am very much enjoying it, but can’t help but notice that Tolkien would have probably been taken to task by most YWOer’s, including me, for excessive use of exclamation points and a real overuse of the word “suddenly”.
Makes me wonder if I discounted some really fine story on YWO because the wordsmithing wasn’t the finest.
“When in doubt, have a Black Rider burst into the scene.”
Tastes change, do they not?
I find if I get stuck and I can’t move forward with my writing I start somewhere different. I.E. If I’ve stopped in a middle of a chapter and can’t move on, I don’t know what to do next. I take the two characters and have them talking about anything or put them in a different situation. Get them to ask each other the How, why and where questions and let them answer them. Then all you have to do is write the part which led up to the new part of the book even if you write over the new part you’ve made up. It just an exercise to kick start your writing.
I hope you could understand and found it helpful.
Best wishes Timberbeast & family for Christmas,
Annie