when you talk to me in circles take your foot out of your mouth

[truepenny]

Thank you to everyone who has commented on my last couple posts about being stuck with sympathy and support. I appreciate it very very much, and it does help--if not exactly with the problem at hand, then definitely with my attitude toward it.

A couple people have suggested externalizing the voices (which, I should add in case you are becoming concerned about my sanity, are not literal voices; they're sock puppets for the dialogues I have with myself, which is a pretty much constant feature of the inside of my head), and I thought I should point out, for those who are interested, that I already do that, from time to time. And it is helpful, if only because it lets me make fun of myself. But this suggestion also reminded me--as apparently I needed--that I do better as a writer with a certain amount of ongoing meta-dialogue, and that's been pretty much shut down for the past few months.

It feels like the punchline to a joke: "The good news is, I've started talking to myself again." But hey. Whatever works. And I may have figured out how to fix one of the stories that has been most frustrating for me, because I finally asked myself the right question about the split between the main character and the protagonist.

Socratic dialogue is not my favorite pedagogical technique, but sometimes it really is the only game in town.

Comments

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

fyi, I talk to myself all the time in a kind of meta dialogue. If I didn't, I would . . . well, actually, I can't imagine not.

Plus I have much of the same cycle in my own head: this is stupid, I will make this stupid, I don't know where this is going.

Strangely, I have a huge case of "I don't know enough" and it wasn't until reading your post just now that I realized it is part of the same cycle. So: thanks. It *is* part of the same cycle.

Hang in there.

[zelda888.livejournal.com]

"The good news is, I've started talking to myself again."

It is definitely worse not to be on speaking terms.

[heresluck]

I'm glad you're feeling less stuck, or at least feeling like you can see Less Stuck from here. Yay for asking the right questions!

And I know you know this, but: my guest room's always available if you need a change of scenery. Time it right and you could end up with fresh tomatoes into the bargain. Even if you don't need it right now (or ever again!), just remember that you've got options.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Your epiphany helped me have one of my own -- not so much that I need more meta-dialogue, but that I need to spend more time just sitting in the midst of the story-bits in my head and getting familiar with them. I used to do that a lot, but I think some combination of the general stress that comes with doing this professionally, and the specific burnout of too much time spent on English history, has meant my "downtime" brain cycles automatically flee to any story but the novel I'm writing. With detrimental effects on my ability to plan where said novel is going.

So I guess the point of this rambling comment is to thank you for talking about your own issues, because they've helped me work through my own. (Now, if only I could find a solution around here somewhere . . . .)

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

I'm glad that my flailing has helped with your flailing. *g*

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Depending on what the edit letter for the goblin book looks like (when I get it), I may be keeping that VERY STRONGLY in mind.

(Also, oooh. Tomatoes.)

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

I post about this kind of stuff about 50% because it actually does help me to put it in writing and then look at it for a while, and about 50% because, whenever I make this kind of post, I get comments telling me that it's been helpful to my readers in one way or another. Which means that, even if I'm so locked up in my own angst that I can't believe it will ever help me, I can still convince myself to do it on the grounds that it might help somebody else. And then it goes ahead and helps me after all.

Which is a rambling way of saying you're welcome. *g*

[torrilin.livejournal.com]

I have no useful suggestions. But I am peering anxiously at the goblin book, because I want to read it.

I am weird. I like goblins. And kobolds.

[finnyb.livejournal.com]

Stuckness is annoying. Talking-to-self-ness is good. (If I'm not talking to my assorted plushies, I'm talking to myself. This tends to confuse the husband, who thinks I'm talking to him. I tell him he just happens to be in the way.)

[inizitu.livejournal.com]

Looking forward to the Goblins!

[pameladean]

Your post about various forms of being stuck was so acutely familiar that I couldn't even say anything, but I'm glad you are on speaking terms with yourself again.

P.

[marycatelli]

And after all, it's not talking to yourself that the problem.

It's not even talking back to yourself.

It's getting into arguments with yourself -- and losing.

[difrancis.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it would help at all, but one book I find inspiring and also that she knows what I'm going through is Annie Dillard's The Writing Life. When I'm bogged, it helps sometimes. Good luck. Glad you're finding your way through.

[nathreee.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you're the type for roleplay, but a session of tabletop roleplay always unsticks me. It's like externalising those voices even further. But it requires some work, and that work is therapeutic too. If you want the players to roleplay those characters that are talking in your head, you might need to write down their perspective on it. It's a very refreshing experience to see your friends play out those voices. And even if they do it completely different from what you feel they should be doing, it gives you insight into what you feel they should be doing.

I'm sorry, I may not be making a lot of sense. But roleplaying was such a big help to me, I thought I'd recommend it.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Im _Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance_ there's a bit about how the scientific method is a great big machine you don't need most of the time, but when you're stuck it can help to come up with a formal hypothesis and start grinding away testing it.

Similarly the Socratic method.