I didn’t post yesterday, and it was starting to look like I wouldn’t post today, either. Then I realized that I could fall back on a post about not posting. Ha!

More specifically, I could write about what i do when writing seems to bog down under its own weight.

Which my writing has done, these past few days. Bogged down, I mean, sinking into a pool of quicksand and punctuation.

Sometimes I know what I need to write, but it just won’t come together. The workload gets heavier and heavier. Each phrase, each word, each keystroke seems to take me further away from the point I’m trying to make. I can’t find the right presentation, the right tone, the right connection, and there is no flow. I find myself wandering off on tangents again and again, until finally the whole thing stalls. Thud. Crunch. Creak. Silence. I’m ready to declare defeat, and — Stop!

Yes, you. You with the bogged down post. You with the tangent.

You who are about to dramatically declare that you have Writers Block, and use it as an excuse to flop in front of the TV and break out the Twinkies.

Just… stop. I mean it. Put down the pen, step away from the keyboard. And for gawds sake get away from those Hostess snack cakes.

Ok, so you’re stuck.

You’ve lost the original point you were making, and your words keep going off on a tangent. But look at that tangent. Really look at it.

Most likely, you’ve got a good point, with that tangent. Most likely, it’s something worth pursuing, and that’s WHY it wants to be written.

Maybe the tangent even deserves to be written.

But ask yourself (and it) if that tangent part of your article, or is it really a separate thought, worthy of it’s own article?

(or scene, or painting, or whatever)?

I thought so.

You’re trying to do too much at once.

Now listen up, ’cause I’m going to give you one of the secrets of creation.

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Most creative blocks don’t come from “not having enough ideas,”
but from having *TOO MANY* ideas.

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Did you get that?

Here, I’ll say it again.

Most creative blocks don’t come from not having enough ideas — but from having too many.

Creativity begets creativity. The more you write (or paint, or dance, or photograph) the more ideas you will have. Sometimes, the ideas get all muddled up. They tangled each other up in a gordian knot, until you can’t sort them out, and you trip over the wealth of ideas.

What you need to do is to step far enough back to see just how many story lines, ideas, concepts and points you’re working with here. You need to figure out if they work together, if they depend on each other, or if they’re actually separate concepts that can (and should) stand on their own.

Take a look at that article you’re stuck on. Think about that last paragraph you wrote. I know I know.. you deleted it. That’s what undo is for. So hit undelete, and read over it.

Now, does it actually develop your original article, or is it a separate idea? Are you trying to cram too many ideas into that one little space?

Take out those separate ideas. Plonk them onto a new document. If they haven’t been written out yet, write them out. If one of them is just screaming at you for further development, go for it. Follow through on any of the ideas that simply won’t shut up and be still. Give them a voice, get them down in a rough form.

Then, and only then, go back to your original point in your original article. Chances are, it will cooperate with you now.

Oh, and… no more Twinkies until you’ve finished.

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MindTWEAK: You know the hazards of trying to do too much at once. Now learn to recognize when you’re doing it.

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