MARCH 01, 2008
Looked up information on overcoming writer's block and, while the suggestions weren't anything I hadn't heard before, the refresher on how to unclog a stopped up brain was good and did help. In fact, I was even able to write a full entry and was pleased as punch about that but then my laptop crashed and took the entry with it. Grrr!
In any case, one piece of advice I found about coping with writer's block was the suggestion to write down five random words. Then write five more. And then try writing a sentence, about anything. And the point of the exercise is that a block ends when you start putting words down on paper, and allowing yourself to start with just a few random words and then move on from there is supposed to help jump start the writing process.
It's an easy exercise and, while the suggestion in and of itself wasn't one that got me blazing a writing trail, it did give me an idea. The idea of writing five words immediately made me think of haiku because haiku consist of seventeen syllables broken down into three lines of 5-7-5 syllables. And as soon as I got to thinking about haiku, I couldn't help but write a few. And then a few more.
Pretty soon I was putting everything into haiku and having fun with it, which is where my idea of trying to overcome my writer's block via haiku came from. Mind you, I don't want every entry from now on to be haiku but, at this point, after enduring such a long bout of writer's block and more often than not feeling frustrated and daunted by writing, haiku seems a good way to get verbal again.
Because seventeen syllables a day? Even my constipated brain can handle that and my hope is that once I start posting and having fun with writing again then maybe my verbal drought will end and I can get back to doing regular entries.
So this will be an experiment of sorts. I'm going to try to post everyday, or at least a few times a week, and I'll do haiku when writer's block is kicking my arse and regular entries when I'm able to and see where things go from there. But it's worth noting that this semantic adventure is for therapeutic purposes and the goal is to write and have fun with it, so haiku purists and the anal retentive may want to avert their eyes because this will be freestyle haiku, not the kind that follows every formal haiku rule.
HOME | ARCHIVES
|