So how do you write when your brain is mush?

[hecate]

Have ground to a halt with my writing!

I open the page and stare at it and everything I put down is crap. I can't get my act together.

Anyone else find this and how do you deal with it?

coffee

that sounds like a very good idea!

It's so frustrating when I feel I have a head full of stuff waiting to pour out, but it's like it's locked in a box inside my head and I can't get to it!

or do something else for a while to warm your brain up and come back to it later

I find sitting staring at a blank page just makes me feel blank!

Maybe have a little walk to get some fresh air, might blow the cobwebs away

you mean tear myself away from MN?

Mumsnet has been the worst thing ever for my writing!

Yes, staring at a blank page is very depressing!

I know what you mean

Hope you find some inspiration soon!

hiya, you need to do Morning Pages! In a writing book (name of which has run away), she says to spend 20 minutes each morning writing "Morning pages" -- stream of consciousness, non-stop ramblings about ANYTHING, to get your brain working. No editing, no stopping, and write in longhand (no computer) to get your right-brain geared up.

Also, exercise. Do you walk the school run? That always perks me up.Plus a hot shower with some "wake-up" type shower gel. And put shoes on (like FlyLady).

AND, don't try to write all day. Find your most alert time of day (mine is 11-1pm), and only write thenm, unless you get MASSIVE flow going.

AND, stop writing mid-sentence. That apparently makaes it much easier to pick it up again when you come back to it the next day.

Right - must stop being hypocritical and do MY writing now! Good luck!!

great tips from you both. Thank you both so much. Helps to know others are in same boat!

Morning pages book is called 'The Artist's Way' I think. I have it but due to mush taking over have done nothing for ages. It mentions god type inspiration a bit much for my liking but you can ignore that and interpret god to be whatever works for you. Have written more on this website than anywhere else. That wasn't the plan!

I find that if you've got a blockage you keep writing anything til something comes, you'll write streams of rubbish but once it gets flowing something good will come from it. For me its like pushing something up hill, but you will get to the top and coming back down is a lot easier and a lot of fun

Do a retrospective with your characters, ie make them have a 'do you remember?' conversation with each other.

Or make them write each other a letter.

(Staring at the bills also helps).

You don't write, I think, otherwise you just have a load of rubbish that a 5 y-o could have written and then you've got more wood than trees and you might make bad decisions.

You sit at your desk and read. You read six or seven pages by someone who writes beautifully and brilliantly. You pay attention to their craft, you look carefully at the sentences, at what the writer is doing, how they've worked the structure. You find a particularly good sentence and you re-read it again, out loud.

Then suddenly your brain isn't quite so mushy. And you start.

Oh, I so need to get started! Ive just done my chapter synopsis though after two years of 'research' into subjects, age groups, word length etc...haven't got as far as writing let alone being mushy! I think going to get fresh air works actually.

The 'write 20 mins a day even if it's rubbish' doesn't work for me. Find it easier to have a concrete task to do, e.g. one scene.

I find fresh air is good for thinking things out, esp when e.g. on errand so time is limited & I'm not thinking "Oh, blimey what should I think about then?"

Ditto time pressure in writing. Could sit at desk all day and write nothing (but have tidy drawers/filed school stuff/filed nails...) but if I take a pad of paper to the kitchen and only have time till the food's ready, I find I can write.

Having MN on laptop in kitchen is thus v bad.

I'm currently learning about freewriting, where you basically write something without thinking, not much, just a few lines. It's quite refreshing to see what you can come up with.

Good suggestions. I find that if I'm really run down, it's best not to force it, but it helps to have a routine.

I write now whenever DD naps, which is not at the same time every day and usually not at my best writing time, either, but my brain is really and truly mush by the time she's asleep at night, so I only read then.

It helps to have a routine. My current one is to nurse DD to sleep (she's 10 months old) then make a fresh pot of tea and/or lie down on the sofa for 10 minutes. Then I get a bite to eat (ideally a small piece of really good chocolate) and get to work. My current goal is to spend at least an hour a day actually writing.

The other thing is to start from zero every day. Suppose your goal is a thousand words per day, and yesterday you had a cold and didn't even open the computer, or only wrote 50 words. Today's goal would still be 1000 words. Likewise if you had 10 shots of espresso and wrote 5000 words at a go, your goal is still 1000 words.

So, my answers to the original question are: catnaps, caffeine, and chocolate. A change of location can also help, like going to a cafe or the library.

I haven't written a thing since June.
Mush brain every day.

My advice would be to write anyway.
Just get it down - crapola or not - then you can polish afterwards.