Oh the joys of editing! So annoying yet so necessary. I like the rest of you quite often write faster than my brain can correct, so there are misspelled words, missing words and in some cases words that are just completely wrong (Like I'll mean to write something like 'chair' and it'll come out 'stand'. It's bizarre). Of course since my stories tend to be pretty long and wordy, picking errors out is often akin to finding a needle in a haystack. Especially since the mind knows the story and what the content of every sentence is supposed to be and automatically fills in the word gaps, meaning you don't notice them. Which is why I usually wait a day or two before I proof read so I'll have fresh eyes. Though quite often I'll still miss plenty!
chloroformmeplease wrote:If you ever suffer from this what do you do to get back to writing and rid yourself of the block?
Haha, there's no easy way out of this one man. In my case, if I get bad writers block on a particular story, I'll generally have to stop and ask myself if I really love the idea. If I don't love the idea and really want to put it to paper passionately, generally it'll come out sloppy and dull or not at all. But if I'm totally sold on the idea but I just can't find the words, generally I do one of two things:
1. Wait for a completely new idea (a new story) to pop into your mind and start writing it down. Once the creative juices start flowing in your mind, you can go back to your original story and it should come more naturally than it was.
2. Take a book by an author you enjoy and make sure its one that you don't mind emulating to some degree. Read the book for around an hour or so and try to be somewhat analytical. Think about what the author is doing and let yourself think about how you can apply that to your own writing. Once you've read for a solid while (An hour or two at least), go back to your story and start writing as if you were the author of what you've just been reading. It's amazing how much you'll emulate their style and in my experience the block will loosen up and you can keep going.
That's what I do anyway, I have no idea if that'll work for everyone.
There's a permanent tension in music isn't there? On one hand you have three chords, you know, four four and three chords. Then there's the people like me, who say "Well, why don't we add a fourth chord and put it in five four?" - Bill Bruford