Tuesday, January 31, 2012

writing: I'm stuck


Problem:  During the early stages of a writing project, I grow discouraged with my lack of finesse.
My solution:  Give up—at least for a while—and move on to another project.
Roy Peter Clark (in Help) writes:
‘Lower your standards at the beginning of the process. Raise them later.’ He continues by quoting poet William Stafford. ‘I believe that the so-called “writing block” is a product of some kind of disproportion between your standards and your performance… One should lower his standards until there is no felt threshold to go over in writing. It’s easy to write. You just shouldn’t have standards that inhibit you from writing.’
Good advice. Words I should heed.