Inspiration needed, please, thank you.

No way has it been nine days since I've posted. Those dates are wrong. Typepad is lying to you. Which is something I would never do. Also, butterflies taste like candy. No kidding. If you don't believe me, I guess you can lick one and find out for yourself, scientist.

It's Limbo Week here at Chez Finslippy, the week between the ending of school and the beginning of gloriously exhausting summer camp. Right now Henry has two friends over; they're in the next room, loudly re-enacting various scenes from Kung Fu Panda. Until they start kung fu-ing each other and blood spatters the walls, I'll just stay in here, quietly typing, hoping they don't realize it's lunch time and Food-Giving Woman has not yet supplied them with sustenance.

So I'm struggling with a creative block right now, or not so much a block as the feeling that the creative part of me has shriveled up. There's nothing blocking it, it's just a raisin. How do you go to a raisin for ideas? See, even my metaphors aren't working.

I find one good way of getting past these periods is to talk about them, so here I am, revealing my block to the world. I'm not too surprised, frankly. I got out of my daily writing routine when the miscarriage happened and my daily routine became sleeping and crying. It sounds about right that that part of me has atrophied a bit. And I know that these periods eventually end and are replaced by increased brilliance. (Or maybe that's only true for me.) Unfortunately my work demands more than me patiently waiting for my mojo to return. So I ask you, readers: how do you kickstart your creative energy? Just don't tell me to buy a Sark book, because Scott would never let me live it down.

Comments

[Robin]

A neighbor just returned a Sark book that I had lent her about 8 years ago. I never missed it. Do you want it? I'll totally send it to you.

[Lori]

I think of a way to improve myself (like reading the classics) or a project I would like to do (like converting a room into a Walden-esque escape) and then become lost in that. It gives me something to write about and I get to being introspective and have some good material. Or I pick a crusade, usually something that ticks me off, and write mercilessly about that.

Good luck!

[kate]

Sark. Oh jesus, I could have gone all day without being reminded of those books.

Inspriation seems to be a blogospheric issue right now. I say get outside: go for a hike, a walk, to the park whatever. It will make you feel better, I promise.

And if that doesn't work, just listen to John McCain for awhile; that'll piss you off and give you something to write about. :)

[Xumca]

Writing things down on paper always works for me. Flows better somehow.

[Elise]

Plotting vengence works for me. I start by deciding to write a murder mystery based on whatever situation is causing me frustration. Then I outline the plot, work on character profiles, how and where the victim will die, who will be wrongly accused of the murder but deserve to go to jail anyway etc. Eventually I have to research something that I want to use and before I know it I have veered off target and happened upon a half dozen more interesting to think about and can't decide what to work on.

[Elizabeth]

Write everyday. On here. About anything. Getting back into the habit of writing will help kickstart things.

To me, some of the best stuff you write (and Dooce too) is just the everyday stuff. The mundane seems funny when you guys write about it. I think most of your readers would agree, we don't care what you write about... JUST WRITE!!!

[Chookooloonks]

Travel, baby. Damn the price of oil, pack a carry-on and go somewhere. Anywhere. Just change the scene.

But don't come to Houston. It's like the bowels of hell down here, with its humidity and heat indexes. Go north, young woman!

[HeyJoe]

Dearest Alice,

I fear just READING about your creative dust bowl will turn my own vine ideas into a Sun Maiden’s dream. I’m superstitious that way.

However, unlike you, I don’t’ always write about personal matters, which tends to widen the playing field a bit. Yahoo News and the like are great fodder resources. For the mentally twisted that is.

Raisiny,
Joe

[George]

You know that saying about how you are not a human being, you are a human DOING? I hate that saying. This is usually because I am too busy being to do. But in this case it's not bad advice. Last year I heard humor writer Dave Barry speak, and his advice was to get out. Go out. Do things. See things. Grand opening at the Petsmart? Lame, but go. It may spark something. New water treatment facility is now offering tours? Go.

And so on. I'm a humor writer, and I do a lot of navel-gazing for topics, but I've found that my best stuff is usually the stuff I came across outside my comfortable little domain. Yes, it's harder with kids home for the summer, but not impossible. Gotta start somewhere. :-)

[amy]

I posted about inspiration here
http://tinyurl.com/4auhhu
I think that you have to dig down and look all around and allow it to find you :)

[Miss Grace]

I would do something away from my computer that I've been meaning to do (gardening perhaps). And then come back to the whole computer business later. Perhaps with a valium and glass of wine.

Also change of settings is often good. Pack up the laptop and venture somewheres else.

[Erin at Unclutterer]

When I have writer's block (a lot), I get on the phone. I tell my friends/family/misdialed strangers that I have writer's block and need them to be creative for me. Thankfully, my friends are weird, and put up with my nonsense. Usually, one of them will say something ridiculous/helpful/complain about a personal problem/scream at me and it will spark an idea.

[She Likes Purple]

I went through such a Sark phase in college---which, wow, no wonder no-one invited me to parties---and I just remembered it thanks to you. I even underlined in the books. UNDERLINED. With a colored pen, of course.

[Kizz]

I agree with the write every day suggestion. What about SanDiegoMomma (dot com)'s PromptTuesdays? She's got little inspirational writing exercises every Tuesday and she demands that you use no more than 10 minutes and 250 words so it's pretty painless and might throw you into the fray in the right way.

[Stephanie]

Exercise a different part of your creative brain. Do you paint? Sculpt? Scrapbook? Crochet? Decorate clothing with puffy paint?
Whatever! Make something that is not made of words.

[kim]

I just got unstuck this morning, but I had a guilt and avoidance issue going on. I had started a Fathers' Day post, and never got around to finishing it, and hadn't gotten my wonderful dad anything except the card that my husband actually got him.

Once I decided to delete the lame-ass first effort and let myself off the hook, I was able to post about why I was blogged down, and ended up able to write a little something about my dad.

So that was a long-winded way of saying that if your blockage is due to guilt and avoidance about something you promised yourself you'd write, or that you wanted to write reallllllly well, just back off, let yourself off the hook, and write whatever comes to mind. Like you just did. Hey, I think you already had your answer.

And yeah, I totally agree with Elizabeth up there--write ANYTHING on here! Every day! Because we check! And we get all happy when there's something new!

[aubrey cece]

i just write dumb stuff. anything that spews OUT Of MY brain (sorry, ari's trying to typE WITH me) eventuAlLY I WiLL HIT SOmeTHING THAT sparks something. aLTHOUGH I `HAVEN'T Q`1 written anything in a long time either. maybe because mY typing is being interrupted so6...you could also just try to start stuff and leave it out and keep going and looking at it and guilting yourself to do it ( i do that with my other creative works, and chores)

[sarah]

hm.. maybe just do more stuff than you usually do? go to a museum, see a movie, take a walk in the evening when things cool down.. i find that when i "do" more, i think better.

[Jim]

I've been lurking for a while, haven't commented, figured now was as good a time as any. First off - very sorry to have read about your recent miscarriage, and glad to read that life is returning (somewhat?) to normal, whatever that is. At least time is passing, and I guess that's something. Anyway, I hope that things are getting better and just know there's another person out here in Web-land who was thinking about you and pulling for you and feeling saddened by your loss back when you first posted on it, and who didn't say anything at the time.

As far as the "block," it's clearly something we all go through, and my (comparatively brief) experience with this has been that when you stop looking for a post, one comes and finds you. I know that sounds trite and simplistic and very much like the old universal "truth" that used to be assigned to trying to find a spouse, or a date, or even a decent pizza, but I think it's true. Droughts like this are usually followed by periods of inspiration and productivity, posts that come out of nowhere, and basically write themselves.

They're in there... and out there... and they will find their way to the publish button. And thanks, very much, for your blog.

[Alexandra]

Sounds like you probably need to get outside of yourself for a bit and have an experience. If you go around and around in your head (especially when you are still a little depressed) you will just dwell in your creative block and make yourself more and more despondent. Exercise is good too.

Then look for something to kickstart your creativity, sort of like a crutch. Like lift a section from another writer and finish it yourself. Or write your version of an article or story or topic. Open a magazine and put your finger on a word and you have to use that word as a topic. Stuff like that.

[Laura]

Wow, people still read Sark? And why? My only experience of her was, in my novice days as a publishing sprat, sending her galleys to blurb - she sent back a blurb with the proviso that it could be used on the jacket only if it could be PRINTED IN HER OWN HANDWRITING. What a megalomaniac.

And we’re glad to have you back, whatever you write.

[french panic]

Sark. Sark. oh my. I know someone who thinks Sark is THE MOST AWESOME THING EVER. I don't hang out with her too often, and am in fact avoiding returning a phone call from her right now as I type this and am thinking bad thoughts about freaky Sarkians.

Though getting out and doing something is often a good idea, as others here have noted, my latest way to get going is to do some random clicking on ye olde internete. Read some crap, get angry over the crap that's getting published, know that you can do better, then do better.

[sizzle]

It's no wonder it's a raisin...crying is very dehydrating. You need fluid injections into your shriveled up creativity. It's there, just needs plumping. All hope is not lost!

[Karen]

You should go have lunch with your agent. That will definitely help! ;-)

[Zip n Tizzy]

Cancel your plane ticket for Blogher... pack two weeks in advance, and hop on the greyhound. Better yet, the green tortoise (assuming they still run the thing.) Then once you get out here, spend a few days riding our MUNI. Not the beautifully restored streetcars, go for the grit. Ride the haight street bus, and you will have material to last a lifetime. I guarantee it!

[Velma]

There is a lot of great advice up there. I tend to go with "doing" something, usually some project I've been putting off. Painting a room in my house, following through on visiting a place I keep meaning to, or reading a book outside my usual mystery/thriller fiction favorites.

I kind of like Elise's "plotting vengeance" idea, though.

[Rebecca]

I like this writing exercise: describing what's outside your window - everyday, for a week. Courtesy of Natalie Goldberg...actually, I don't think that came from her. But her, "Writing Down The Bones" is nonetheless a classic!

You so make me laugh about the SARK book. I was given one, and filled in two pages. Now it sits in my parents' home collecting dust, but I can't throw it away, 'cause somehow I think I might want to use it to get inspired one day! AHHHHH.

And just think how much pleasure you have given us all -- your writer's block blog! Writers to writers. We all get it.

[Jocelyne]

Whenever I feel like a raisin, I go for a drive. At night. With iTunes, loud, loud, iTunes. And the windows down. Preferably on a mid speed road, not in the city.

And after about 10 minutes, I'm humming, and a while after that I'm singing at the top of my lungs and drumming on the steering wheel. And when I get home to my everyday responsible life, I feel like a teenager again.

[kim]

I just looked in my spam folder--lots of material there that I'd love to hear an Alice slant on...

I'm also very fond of your fake correspondence posts, and your take on politics is always right on. Here's some fodder: they voted to send the impeachment stuff to the judiciary for review. Kind of exciting even though it won't happen soon enough. Still, I'd love one of your fake correspondence posts between an imaginary President Cheney (*shudder* can't believe I typed those words) and our nation's poor and downtrodden.

[mfk]

Wow. I had forgotten about SARK... my mom had one of her books when I was younger, and at the time I thought it was so cool and liberated and creative... not so much anymore. Mainly just hokey and over-the-top.

I strongly agree that forcing yourself to write is the best way out of a sticky raisin situation, by the way.

[Mocha]

Awww. What's wrong with SARK? My mom adores her. She's enough inspiration for her so she can't be bad.

But my mom is a tattoo-having, nose-pierced, drum circle practicing Buddhist. She's great inspiration.

Want me to ship her to you?

You need to go out with some friends. Get passionate. Feed the homeless. Do something for underpriveleged kids.

My other idea is to turn on disco music and let loose.

[Joy]

I would say journal, if you don't already; you can start by writing down your thoughts about how terrible it is that we now use "journal" as a verb. Writing down all the garbage and then tossing those pages each day helps me. Also do something entertaining just for you that seems decadent, like go to a matinee or play with clay or browse the aquarium store or something. Works for me.

[tixie]

oh wait - i don't HAVE to like Sark? what a revelation...

[Ellen]

I don't know what a Sark is, and I'm afraid to look. Here's a comment from my mom that might provoke a few thoughts: "It's the speculators that are driving the cost of gas up! The oil companies make hardly anything! They reinvest all their money into exploration and more drilling!" I added the exclamation points because I can hardly believe she said that. And if she's right, please don't tell me.

[junewell]

Stand on your head! I've heard that works well although I don't like the crunched-up neck feeling. Anyway, your post about having a writer's block was very entertaining. You could spin that out to about eight posts, larded with cute Henry anecdotes, and your loyal readership will not complain.

[Jenn]

Do something out of the ordinary for you. It doesn't have to be totally outrageous like sky diving but break free and do something different. I also feel best when I'm active and outdoors. Sometimes its hard to make the effort but I never regret it. Good luck. You deserve it!

[Jen]

Here's a riddle, if you soak a raisin in water, does it eventually return to it's grape form?
How about a swim? But then your fingers will be raisins.
How about looking at the stuff on your desk and writing about that? (I look at my in box and then get inspired to write about OTHER things non work related.)
How about listening to that voice in your head? The one with the running commentary you tend to ignore as you go about your day? And then you realize you're thinking about something way left of field and try to retrace your mental steps as to how you got there. (That would be a great post. I may write that one myself!)

[Jennifer (Et Tu?)]

"So I ask you, readers: how do you kickstart your creative energy?"

I drink.

Ha, ha. Kidding. Well, sort of kidding. Depends on the day.

For a tip that doesn't involve cheap boxed wine or gin and tonic that I've found immensely helpful: don't discount the obvious.

Here's what I mean by that: one time when I was stuck for content I wrote about something that seemed ridiculously obvious. I thought it was like writing a post about the sky being blue (I think the topic was how I've found that life is easier when I don't try to control EVERY. THING. ALL. THE. TIME.) Turns out, it really resonated with people and ended up being a popular post. After that lesson, I follow this formula when I feel a writer's block, and it works like a charm:

1. Make a list of things that you know now that you did not know at some point in your life (say, ten years ago).

2. Pick out whatever seems most interesting from that list.

3. Blog about how you learned that lesson, the impact it's had on your life, etc. -- *even if* if seems "too obvious."

Presto!

[Yvie]

Butterflies are sweet? That's pretty interesting, but I wouldn't eat them. I'd cry if I would they're just so beautiful.

I did however, ate flowers. Yep. Flowers as a salad. They're very delicious too. But you gotta know which ones to eat.

I do hope that you feel better soon. *hug*

[braine]

I just start typing. If I have to, I'll pick up a piece of junk mail and start typing every single word on it, starting with the envelope. Pretty soon my brain takes over, writes something that has a little something to it, and I go back and remove the first 200-or-whatever words that were warmup, edit the piece with the little spark in it, and we're good to go, my brain and me.

Or I just post transcribed junkmail, which who cares? it's only the Internet.

[The Cheap Chick]

Is there something you do everyday, during which you come up with your best plans? For me, it's blow-drying my hair (hey, I got a lot of hair, and I need to kill the time). Try doing that trigger activity and let your mind go.

If nothing else, you'll have very pretty hair at the end.

And remember, even your mindless ramblings are 2,000 times more interesting than most of what's out there.

[Micah]

I've never read your blog before this afternoon, but I just read the last few posts, and I want you to know that I am terribly sorry for your loss. Honestly, I think that it's right for you to be as devastated as you have been. Your baby was a precious human being, and you knew him or her more intimately than anyone else had the chance to. That is a loss that deserves to be grieved! My prayers are with you.

[Joey]

Whiskey!

[Gray Matter Matters]

Hey, first of all we, your loyal readers, love even the faintest dust mites of your writing. Second, the internet. Specifically the entertainment sector. It never fails to provide me with some sort of rant or juicy snark-inducing material. And, as Dr. Phil, or Oprah, or someone says, "Fake it 'til you make it."

[MeL]

I find that re-watching "Zero Effect" does wonders for my creative energies. IF that doesn't work, I take a long walk someplace incredibly peaceful. My brain launches a revolution against ALL THAT PEACE AND QUIET and suddenly gets very noisy with creative chatter. Apparently punishing my senses with quiet is a masochistic Brain Pill.

If that STILL doesn't do it, I watch "The Life Aquatic" or another, equivalent Wes Anderson picture. He never fails to send my brain off the rails and back into fertile creative territory.

[Leslie]

I kickstart my creative energy by writing haiku.

[HouseofJules]

Would Scott give you a hard time if you were reading the SARK book called EAT MANGOES NAKED? :)

I can usually find inspiration by changing the view. If I've been around the house too long, I take a little roadtrip. Not across the country or anything, just a little... jaunt. It changes things up!
Jules
House of Jules

[Liz]

I'm not much of a writer, but sometimes when I am out of blog ideas, I just start typing and it turns into a post. Who cares, really what you write? Obviously you have enough of a following and you are creative no matter what you write.

As far as getting other creative stuff going, when my best friend was diagnosed with ovarian cancer back in 2003 (and died 6 months later), I found that taking long walks and talking out loud, sort of a stream of consciousness, helped me a lot.

[Frankie]

Well.

I am a musician and when I get a block, I just start playing the guitar. I will alos look for a line from a favorite poem and then create my song around that line. Of course, my music is really REALLY dark, so, you know, maybe you don't so much want to go with that...

I agree the commenter who said we laugh at anything you write. I mean seriously, you could document the waxing of your bikini line and we would think it's genius. Describe the goop that comes out when you sneeze and we are enamoured. Blog about your obsession with "Flovor of Love" and we will tune in.

So, I would say just write and then read how much we enjoy it. That should call back your muse.

[Frankie]

That's FLAVOR of love.. not flover... nice..