bookwormchocaholic asked:

Elemental Writer Asks: Rock, Spirit, Summer? 🙂

Rock: How do you deal with writer’s block?
Same way I deal with everything else – avoidance.

Honestly it depends how you define ‘writers block’. I mean you could say I have it now because when I sit down to write, I can’t focus for 10 seconds, no words are forthcoming and anything that I do scribble is just drek. It’s a bad time. BUT that has nothing really to do with writing and everything to do with depression deciding to do a comeback tour and drown me again.

However, I have always thought of the definition of writers block more being “I don’t know what to write” and that has never been the case in my life. I have always had more ideas than spoons to write with.

Anyway, when I can’t write I bang my head against the brick wall of “sitting there, trying and failing” for as long as I can without crying and then I run away. Then I repeat the process the next day.

Spirit: What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received on your writing?
Answered here 🙂

Summer: How do you know when you need a break from writing?
Why would I need a break? I ask, as I also think of that line about “you take a break or your body takes a break for you” – stares into the camera like I’m on the Office.

I don’t recall ever thinking “I need a break” and then taking one. I have taken ‘breaks’ from writing but it’s always either been involuntary and driven by health issues, or on a rare happier occasion it’s because I’ve had to prioritise another task, and I haven’t had the time/spoons for both. But no I don’t ever know that I need a break, it’s not ever been a thought that has crossed my mind like that.

Fall: Have you ever completely abandoned a WIP?  What led to that decision.
(as Spirit had been answered already have a bonus)

Yes a handful of times. I have 2 abandoned fanfics on AO3. One was a Lachbelle fic that I just ran out of steam on. It’s not that I didn’t have the ideas but I got tired, it went a long time, and then I couldn’t muster the energy to make myself finish. It was going to be a long one and at that time in my life I didn’t have it in me.

The other fanfic is of course Painting Layers of Love which I still feel a bit of guilt over. This was a prompt fic that lived because it was loved. It actually won a TEA. For someone like me that has always felt like an outsider in any community that really meant a lot. The problem is I accidentally wound up pouring too much of myself into Belle’s characterisation, and then I wanted to write a happy ending and didn’t know how – as I don’t know how to fix myself. Since then personally I’ve only got more agoraphobic, and if I knew how to fix that I would. So I really have zero clue how to write Belle out of it, and honestly I don’t know if I would. I’m ace, with no IRL friends, so I’m not really all that bothered about not being able to go outside. I think if I continued the fic I would be tempted for Belle to be like “I don’t need to be fixed. I’m content as I am”, which I doubt would work long-term with a relationship of any kind. Other people want to do things, go places, and not just hang out at home all the time. Guilt, resentment, frustration would build (at least I theorise it would), so not the ‘happy ending’ anyone wanted I’m sure, so perhaps for the best it stays unfinished potential.

I have also abandoned novels. Lots at various stages. However, the novel that got the furthest was a time travel series. I wrote book one and then book two. I then totally scrapped all of book two and tried writing it again. No matter what I tried I could not make it work, so I wound up binning the entire series.