A reader-writer here on The Unschool sent me a thought-provoking question just before the holidays.
His words:
I'm bouncing around different writing projects and am giving [one] time to breathe before I come back to it and make some edits… I revisited… old [work]… and it’s still not coming together. I started writing some[thing else], but then I grew frustrated because I found I was writing about the same things. I want to explore some new territory. I’ve relied on the same old things in the same old way because...I don’t know...maybe because its comfortable and I’m used to it? Not sure.
How can I break out of this pattern… and explore new territory and inject some more imagination into my stories…? When I try to incorporate what I’m doing in my comic book writing into my fiction writing, it feels so...juvenile. That I should be writing serious fiction that touches upon the truths of life. But when I think in that way, I rely on the methods I’m used to and write the same sorts of stories.
I realize I’m just rambling here. Sorry about that.
~~~
First, don’t apologize—any of you—for sharing thoughts as they come. (And I so appreciate permission to share this note with all.)
I suspect all writers experience this at some point, even if short-lived. For others, the feeling might find a home in us for too long, or come and go. Or create an unhealthy sense of unrest with our work (not to mention a wandery mind and path), or a sense of being static, or useless boredom. (Boredom can be useful, but not if it hangs out longer than the fish for Benjamin Franklin’s three days.)
Part I
Somewhere other than home — my first thought!
There’s something about this that makes me feel that urge to just go, somewhere, anywhere!