There oughta' be a Surgeon General's Warning branded onto the brain of any writer with a hyper, warped, creative mind. If your mind's anything like this (mine is), it's full of so many goddamned ideas that you sometimes wonder if you're sane. The creative tornado in my skull's one of the reasons I must write. If I could draw beyond stick figures, I'd do art. If I could carry a tune, I'd do songs (and make millions doing hard-core gangster polka). Had I been trained to be master thief, I'd probably plan schemes by the dozens.
But thankfully, my Muse happens to involve writing.
Now, we've all heard of "writer's block". That's when you sit down and try to write something and nothing comes out. The torturous process of squeezing a story out of your brain's like trying to wring out a mostly-dried towel. Know what I think of you folks with this dilemma? I envy you. Me? I'm the opposite. I've thought of five good blog topics in the last half-hour and was so annoyed with myself that I decided to write this one. It's like having a swarm of garbage flies in my head and I'm unable to get anything done, due to their distracting nature.
Maybe there's a scientific/literary term for this. Maybe not. I'm gonna go in an odd direction and call this phenomenon "Creative Paralysis". The most devastating thing about Creative Paralysis is that it's made me waste so much time trying to figure out which idea to run with that . . . I end up doing nothing. Ever have that happen? You've got 10 ideas for a story and none of them jump to the front of the line, so you end up writing zilch? It's why I do short stories better than books or screenplays. I can "swat" these ideas in my head - one-by-one - much faster with shorter tales.
It's annoying, believe you me!
So, how do you get past Creative Paralysis and get something done?
Here are 2 suggestions:
#1 - Set yourself a span of time (say, having a new short story/chapter/poem done every 4 days). Then go about your day and see what mad ideas scream out at you. Have a scrap piece of paper and a pen handy. Give each idea a story title. And before you go to bed on Day 1, pick one. No matter what "better" ideas assault you over the next 4 days, (try to) stick with that one. No matter how crappy that chosen idea is, finish it off by the 4th day. You can always tweak it later. One idea on paper beats nineteen concepts in your head. If a newer, better, idea hits you like a school bus . . . jot it down and use it on the next 4-day cycle.
#2 - Go with your gut and wait for an idea to jump to the front of the line. If you have nothing but time and inclination, just wait. Don't pick up a pen or paper. Let the ideas compete for your attention. Some will stick (because they're that good). Some you'll actually forget (which is kind of embarrassing at times). But when a great idea jumps out of the murky depths, you must strike! Work on it like the world's at stake. Don't mess with any other project 'til that one's done. Devote yourself to it like a new lover.
I've done both, with satisfying results. Before I published "Unheroic", I used Suggestion #2. I'd jump on a story idea with a lusty smile, finish her off, and move on to the next one. If you can keep your life reasonably uncluttered, you could create dozens of strong-concept stories within a year. Don't force it. Stop whenever you feel burned out. But don't stray away from it or you'll lose that flow.
But now that I'm a "writer-businessman", I've gotta wear a lot of hats. So, while I'm selling "Unheroic", I've also gotta write up X amount of new pieces for future works. That requires me to use Suggestion #1. Between my editor and I, any crappy first draft I make can be turned into a masterpiece: given time and rewriting.
Which one do I prefer? Suggestion #2, of course. That's how I whipped up over 1,000 pages worth of short stories in about 3 years. But now, I'm no longer just a writer with an open schedule, a laptop, and a comfy couch. I've got a teensy little company to run and dozens of books to set up. Planning requires Suggestion #1.
Sorry this post is so long. But Creative Paralysis bothers me.
Hope it helps any sufferers out there.
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