Each time I think of writing a new story it feels to me like I’m beginning all over again. I’m not of course, I’ve learned a lot through writing a lot, but I still get that feeling that maybe I have nothing more to say, that I won’t have an idea or I won’t find another story to tell. Some writers call this writers’ block or fear of the blank page. I’m not sure it’s either. I think it’s more like the between books phase that Danni Shapiro describes here in Still Writing
‘When I’m between books, I feel as if I will never have another story to tell. The last book has wiped me out, has taken everything from me, everything I understand and feel and know and remember, and…that’s it. There’s nothing left. A low level depression sets in. The world hides its gifts from me…’
Shapiro goes on to say that she now recognises this feeling as that of, ‘the well being empty.’ We are depleted, everything is spent and so we must re-group and wait. All we can do is show up to the notebook and the page and wait for the toe-hold; the way into something new. In the meantime we need to find ways of filling our well. Here are 8 ideas that just might help:
- Go on a Julia Cameron style ‘Artist’s Date,’ – romance yourself, spend the day somewhere inspiring, visit galleries, exhibitions, go listen to music, take a day trip out, haunt cafes, gardens – go with your notebook and just enjoy and observe.
2. Read – read the books you love, the books that inspire you, the books you’ve been meaning to read- and don’t feel guilty.
3. Read poetry – it’s full of images and ideas to latch on to.
4. Walk – play around with ideas – let them float in and out of your head as you wander by the river or through the town.
5. Take a workshop – new ideas always crop up in workshops. There are plenty online if you can’t find any near you.
6. Better still offer to run a workshop and remember to write alongside everyone else – I guarantee this will get your ideas and juices flowing.
7.Listen to the radio – voices will come at you.
8. Begin to write and remember you can’t know if it’s going to work. Don’t worry if it’s good – allow it to be bad, don’t think too much, don’t overload it with expectations of this competition or that prize. Just write but only write what truly inspires you, what you know you feel excited about. You’ve got to want to write it, whatever it is – it must always feel inspiring in the beginning.
How do you meet that blank page – what inspires you when you feel done in? I’d love to hear from you
