Pardon me for just jumping in, but I've a question about shelf life?

[tigersilver.livejournal.com]

This is an informal, 'What do you do in this particular circumstance?' sort of question, so please jump in and say whatever.
Lay down thy gathered wisdom on me, please. [grin] Especially all of you wonderful Longevity Writers, those who've been in the fandom for, er, Quite a While.
What do you do when you feel your creative shelf life has expired?

Or, more precisely, when you are in a slough of utter despondment over your inability to write anything at all that contains the faintest spark? When you simply are bored to copious weeping by your own words, what do you do?

Mods, my luvs, may I request a tag for Advice?

EDIT: Hours later, Tiger!Time. My very dears, thank you. Ahem, THANK YOU! That's all sound advice, and many excellent directions to pursue and ponder, and I very much appreciate all of you taking the time to help me. I am struggling where I should be finding joy; that's not a good thing. Emotions bleed through, always, and that's not what I'd like to give back to either myself or the fandom I adore. So...thank you. You've done me a good turn, this day, and I am very much grateful. May Luck Dragons and all fortunate beings smile upon you and yours! Glomps from Tiger!

Comments

[vaysh]

Stop writing. Listen to music. Go take a walk. Talk to people who have nothing to do with writing and fandom. Watch a movie. Listen to The New Yorker Fiction Podcasts. The write something that is entirely different (at least in your head) than what you usually write. ♥

[tigersilver.livejournal.com]

Thank you, dear one! I shall engage in (am actively working on) all these mentally relieving ideas. Walking has become a very heavy bout of gardening; the films are a stroll through my youth and thus fondly nostalgic:> And it shall be (to quote the immortal Pythons) 'something completely different', next! I don't doubt you've noticed I am flagging, lately. It's not where I wish to be, so the advice was very much appreciated.

[starlitshore.livejournal.com]

I'm a bad person to ask. I went on a two year long hiatus to Supernatural fandom. lol

I used to co-write, though. And chats were always helpful for brainstorming!

[tigersilver.livejournal.com]

That's exactly what I've done, numerous times, elsewhere: taken a vacay of long duration from a fandom. This fandom, tho', is very dear to my heart; I suppose I'm working on staying in the water, whilst also treading it, yeah? I love the concept of chats and co-writing; I'd like to jump into more of that. Brainstorming and bouncing ideas is very much a rejuvenation exercise. I thank you so much for that!

[starlitshore.livejournal.com]

Very understandable. I decided I'd missed H/D fandom way too much and had to come back. I'm like you now -- trying to keep afloat here rather than giving up and getting out. :) You should join us in chat! I've been in there a lot lately and everyone's great.

[tigersilver.livejournal.com]

Oh! Sorry! Was off being the filling in a shite-sandwich this week; am woefully behind in all things!
I shall join in on Chat; sounds like a blast, and thank you for thinking of me! I've just these few pressing things I must deal with first, tho'...ick. RL has this idiot habit of snowballing on one, doesn't it? Silly thing!

[starlitshore.livejournal.com]

RL is just ridiculous. I wish I could make a living off the internet. ;)

I'll join chat later today. Hopefully I'll see you there! Right now I have chores to do and errands to run!

[faithwood.livejournal.com]

Read. Read all the things. Fics and books, and things I normally read and things I don't normally read. Reading is what first made me want to write and I always expect it to inspire me again. And, for the most part, it does.

[tigersilver.livejournal.com]

Oh, absolutely! I agree, and I'm working up my strength to read again. That's an odd thing to say, yes, when I adore H/D fic as I adore chocolate and breathing, but this is why: when I read H/D right now, the better and more appealing and more excellent the fic is, the worse I feel. As a writer. It's not so much green-eyed envy for other's skill and talent as it is the awareness for my own current lack. Now, I'm not normally a person who sags and collapses, stomped flat under the weight of mine own shrinking self esteem (like a lead balloon, that, at the moment) and usually I've no problem feeling both enthusiastic and incredibly inspired by the writings of others. My Muses in this fandom are many and they do sustain...but I can barely handle reading much of anything fandom at the moment.
So...I think my spin on this--because reading is my first love, my drug of choice, my eternal prop--is to read something entirely different. Elsewhere, elsewise, as you've suggested. I've a to-do list a mile long for outside reading; problem has been that I've been such a binge reader here, in H/D, and so much into immersion, I've not taken the time. Effectively, I've done myself in, yeah? Hoist in personal petard & all that. Thank you, my dear, for the reminder and the advice. I'll be taking it, forthwith!

[emansil-08.livejournal.com]

*****That's an odd thing to say, yes, when I adore H/D fic as I adore chocolate and breathing, but this is why: when I read H/D right now, the better and more appealing and more excellent the fic is, the worse I feel. As a writer. It's not so much green-eyed envy for other's skill and talent as it is the awareness for my own current lack****

Exactly!

[deirdre-aithne.livejournal.com]

I think we've all been there at some point, and sometimes the biggest thing you need is time away to just recharge. If the Muse is overworked, she won't be a happy camper, ne?

Put down your pen, close your Word program, turn on some music and shut off everything else; give your mind a chance to wander and see what it comes up with.

Or, take a few days away from writing and enjoy the other side of fandom: read! Read like mad; everything from your old favourites to new stuff you haven't gotten to yet or weren't sure about. Maybe all you need is a little push to test out the waters in a new pairing or a new genre that you don't normally work in.

[tigersilver.livejournal.com]

All sage and sagacious ideas and, yes, absolutely! I shall be following through, as you've kindly suggested! I've a lot of RL files open (I've devised a flow chart recently, just to keep them straight) and I need some closure, elsewhere, and a different sort of distraction, so yes! I agree, I appreciate it, and thank you!

[tari_sue]

I find fresh air can blow out the cobwebs – go for a walk somewhere pretty and forget about your fic so you can come back with a clear head and open mind. Sometimes you can come back to a fic and realise that you were looking at it from the wrong direction when really it wanted to be written in a slightly different way but you were too close to it to realise.

I hope your shelf life never expires :)

[tigersilver.livejournal.com]

Forgive me, luv! I wanted to thank you for this, oh, last week, but Life grabbed me by the short hairs and shook me all about!
That is all excellent and sound advice; I thank you and, believe me, I'm following it now. I've been in a self-induced rut lately and needed to be coaxed, shoved or manhandled out of it. Too many things were dreary; too many things were far beyond my control, and I was feeling very grey and flat and smushed to the pavement, like a mental pancake.
A walk does do wonders. I breathe again, feel my chest inflate, and remember my love for the insects and the green-and-brown things and the way the branches interlace and gleam with life-light. And you are absolutely correct: one sometimes only needs to change one's perspective and then it does work out the way it should. Thank you for reminding me; I was forgetting.
Hugz and glomps, from a grateful Tiger

[eerised-da.livejournal.com]

I've had this problem quite a lot in recent months due to my depression. Sometimes the best thing to do is take a break, sometimes you just need to step back and find something to inspire you.

Maybe even, this is for fandom stuff, rereading the series that you love so much. I've felt so distant from Harry Potter lately, but I'm re-reading the series now. I still love it, I just haven't been as excited about it or the fandom lately. So going back to the original is a nice way to refresh.

It's different for everyone, just as the root is different, but if you feel like your creativity has run dry it's really just a matter of finding a way to make it rain. Whether that is taking a break or working on something new for a bit depends on you. Heck, maybe even just try some creative writing exercises.

Good luck!

[tigersilver.livejournal.com]

Hullo, dear! I am horribly, terriblly belated responding to this (RL walloped me sideways and all ways, really) but I wanted to let you know how much I appreciated the empathy and the suggestion. That's very sound--returning to the roots of it, the so-familia and dear canon that inspires. I am an inveterate re-reader in any case, so that's exactly in my comfort zone, going back to the novels. I could use the refresher, too. Things are slipping; little details and larger items, too, and I need to re-read them for fresh inspiration. There is so much that pleased me; I'd like to taste it again.
Depression for me is chemically induced. I've Grave's Disease and that's the endocrine system, so I decline in happiness levels over the course of the day, every day. On days that are awful to begin with, it's so difficult to keep swimming, you know? Add to that the cold and the short days and I'm sunk, even before I paddle out into the current. Sometimes the very act of donning the necessary armour it seems is so necessary to deal with RL depresses me; I wonder why I bother, yeah?
But...then. Something happens that changes: serendipity! Someone is kind, someone takes a moment; there's something hilarious on the Nets or amusement-inducing in RL or it's simply the Hut!Lions I live with, being silly kittehs, and I'm all better again and can soldier on.
So... thank you! That's an excellent suggestion and one I'll take! May your days be sunnier, too, yeah? GLOMPs & HUGz, Tiger

[melusinahp.livejournal.com]

Seeing as I am so just there at the moment, my answer is... not write. :( If I have something due and have to write, then I tend to do train of thought writing without the intention of ever showing it to anyone. Sometimes it turns into something postable. At the very least it tends to get my writing neurons firing enough to shake me out of my stupor.

[tigersilver.livejournal.com]

I am a horrendous correspondent and horribly belated in my thanks; please, please forgive me! RL is doing it's coke on crack on speed thing at the moment and I am wrung dry of any real creativity, sadly. But your advice is sound and I shall attempt to follow it, dear~~and you have my utter empathy, as well, if you're where I am, currently. I'd like to be over this rut and moving on, so very much so, but I think I just need to keep on slogging thru:<
Thanks! And HUGS! I appreciate it, very much so. Tiger

[pir8fancier.livejournal.com]

I would take a ridiculous premise and then try to make it work. Don't put a value on it, don't put it in the context of fandom, just make it ridiculous enough so that it makes you smile when you write it. Be as silly as possible. I think that the issue of not being able to write is when we start to take the process too seriously. When it's no longer fun, it's like it's a frigging assignment. And if it doesn't work, no sweat. It's just something to get you smile again and like these characters.

[tigersilver.livejournal.com]

Excellent idea~~silly for the sake of silliness:> I love it! When I write crack (as I so often do; it seems ingrained) I wonder often what in the hell I was on, later, that I managed it. It's like an out-of-mind experience, that, and I think you're absolutely correct: I need to be elsewhere, having a bit of a mental vacation from looming deadlines (such a depressing term, 'deadlines'; not very inviting, is it?)
Thanks very much for that and please forgive me for being so very horribly late in giving thanks: I am victim of RL at the moment and it's got the upper hand and is cracking down like a bloody sumo wrestler:<
Take very good care and thanks again, Tiger

[pir8fancier.livejournal.com]

No worries!

[thisgirl-is.livejournal.com]

Looks like you've got some awesome advice going on, and I'd second it. Sometimes you just don't feel the writing. It's not necessarily that you're done, just that you need a break. Maybe a few hours, maybe a few days. Just don't push it. Good luck!

[tigersilver.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much, darlin'! Pardon my lateness in replying; I am a tad beleaguered momentarily:<

[kitty_fic]

Your tag is added! Thx for posting here!

[tigersilver.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much, dear! Appreciate it♥!

[emansil-08.livejournal.com]

I know exactly what you're speaking of here. Sometimes my love of fandom waxes and wans like the phase of the moon. Somedays I relax and allow it to happen, and other times I fight it. Fighting it usually has a horrible effect, so i try to just let it flow.

I've also found that if I try to read fic when I'm trying to force myself to write, that it has a devestating effect on my ability to write. The horribly evil Potions Professor of the early years moves in to my brain and tells me repeatedly that I am not nor will I ever be good enough to be part of such talented people. Needless to say I try to avoid the fic reading at those times.

Yet at the same time it is fic I want to read when feeling down, and it is fic I want to read when feeling stressed. It is also the reading of fic that makes me want to get pen and paper out and return to the unfinished tales.

So it's all a balancing act. I do quite often find myself falling off the wire, and have to climb back to the top again.

[tigersilver.livejournal.com]

Exactly, exactly, exactly! Couldn't have put it better myself; I am damned glad you did so for me! That is precisely the contradictory mood I'm in, you know? I can't bear to read; I wish to read; I fear to read and, above all, I squirm away from actually writing. Too much of a good thing does do that to one, I find; you're completely spot-on.
In any case, it's nice to know I'm not alone here, on my isla de torpitude, and thank you! I hope you'll forgive the belatedness of my reply; Life is completely galloped off the tracks with my mental carriage!
Tiger

[emansil-08.livejournal.com]

I'm glad what i said made sense, I'm never sure if it does or it doesn't but, yeah it is a quandry we get ourselves into.

I noticed you had recced a lot of stuff this past weekend, so apparantly you decided to go for the reading now. The rec's looked good.

I'm trying to focus on getting word count for hd_bigbang, so am putting reading off for a while. Fingers crossed it works.

[tigersilver.livejournal.com]

Kick arse, take names!
[Offers chocolates, pets and lavender sachets for soothing purposes:>]