One of those days...

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Published by: stephenterry on 28th Nov 2010 | View all blogs by stephenterry

Have you ever sat down at your computer and your mind goes blank?
I have spent the last two days writing a 'horror' chapter. 1,000 words. How difficult is that?

I got stuck several times - my dialogue hit brick walls, or my characters wouldn't have said what I had written - the list goes on. I wrote - I erased, and I re-wrote. It still didn't come out right.

How do you kill someone? What is it I need to reveal to increase the suspense? Do I drag it out - or do I suddenly finish it?

I suppose you want to know what happened? How I got myself out of the black hole I'd dug?

I went swimming; I let my mind think it through without me being there. When I got back I placed my hands on the keyboard and typed...

...now I have a chapter ready for critique - and that's when I find out it wasn't so good anyway!

Boo Hoo xx

Comments

11 Comments

by mike 1 year ago

I'm envious. 500 words a day was acheived by Graham Greene and Anthony Trollope, though they both achieved this output on a regular basis before going onto their day jobs; presumably spying and inventing the post box! My mind is blank most of the time and it takes me ages to write one sentence and then it takes me ages to work out all the possible variations of that sentence. I wrote a 'blog' this morning but it is really information only.
by Eddytip 1 year ago

I had a WW author read my first attempt at writing a few months ago. There were many comments, all useful. But when it came to the bit about my killings, she was quite adamant that I had to make it more gory. My killings were too quiet - you have to appeal to the voyeur in every reader. I hope my re-writes do just that. My wife is starting to look at me a little strangely lately.
Looking forward to seeing your gore.
Eddy
by maryluv 1 year ago

That's an interesting comment from Eddytip about treating your reader as a voyeur. I wonder if that's one of the differences between lit fic and commercial fiction? Lit fic tends to leave all the gore as something implicit rather than explicit, commercial fiction paints the picture in full technicolour. Or so it seems to me. Any thoughts anyone?
by stephenterry 1 year ago

Very interesting. I first started to reveal all the glory details - which, for shock effect, works well the first time. But it soon becomes old hat, and on subesquent murders I now prefer the implicit horror - the unsaid has much more impact.

and the difference betwwen commercial and literary fiction -and here I am going out on a limb - quite unlike me ha ha - in that readers of the latter have more imagination...
by stephenterry 1 year ago

I can spell - honest
by Gerilyn 1 year ago

If I decided to read a crime thriller or horror story then I would want it gory. If I was reading a different type of book, that happened to also have a murder in it then i probably wouldn't expect any gore.

Also if I get a touch of writer's block- I shut my computer down and get my notebook and pens out, then I randomly make notes on the scene I'm trying to write and more often than not the words start to flow.

I'll look forward to reading your new chapters, Stephen when I finally get the new router that I've been waiting for the last month- trying to do much using my phone is useless.
by Ron Blanco 1 year ago

Swimming is one way, stephen. Sleeping is another. I have been experimenting with the concept of 'working from bed' recently. When I have a difficult work decision to be made, I rarely get anywhere by sitting in front of a computer. Instead I ponder it in bed, have a snooze, then have a bit more of a think, until the solution is clear. The same applies to writing I think. This morning, instead of getting out of bed I lay there allowing myself to drift in and out of sleep. During a dream I had an interesting idea for a horror scene. I was a little girl incarcerated in an attic with just a tiny peephole to peek through. Through it I saw Clint Eastwood inspecting the hole, and I thought I was going to be rescued. But then Richard Kiel appeared behind him wielding an axe! I'm sure I wouldn't have come up with that sat in front of a computer. The bath is another good place to think creatively.
by stephenterry 1 year ago

I've also bought this voice activated recorder - ha ha - but I haven't really used it. Would be useful in bed huh?
by Ron Blanco 1 year ago

Yes, dictating from bed sounds good. All these people who get up early to get their quota of words done will probably end up writing drivel. If you can overcome the guilt, then bed is a good place to do your writing, or your work for that matter (though old-fashioned bosses may still get a bit paranoid when you tell them you are 'working from bed').
by Wrathnar the Unreasonable 1 year ago

I tend to write in bursts of approx 2000 words. In between, I do what I call 'applied daydreaming': I sit in the quiet bit of the pub ( or the pub garden if it's not raining ), put some Death Metal on my headphones and stare out of the window while 'watching' a DVD of my story in my mind's eye. I'm then ready to write another 2000word burst.
by stephenterry 1 year ago

yeah - good idea wrath. I've now used the snow to complete one chapter. Whether I'll have the stamina for another depends on the weather. This one has been extremely difficult - I will post.