7. What have you learned from your struggles with writer's block? Why do you tend to get stuck? How do you tend to get unstuck? Notice any patterns?
Writers block has the unique ability to be both an amazing thing as well as a horrible thing. Nobody likes it because, in order to get through it, you have to work to the absolute best of your ability. When you end up getting through it though, you'll find that you've greatly improved. It's troublesome to say the least, sometimes infuriating, but it can be just the roadblock that you need. When someone has a writer's block they tend to search wherever they can in order to find something to write about; they ask friends, go on the internet, whatever it takes. At times they could even be in the middle of an essay when they suddenly have no idea how to continue it. An example of this would be if they're assigned something to write about; when I get essays from teachers, a lot of the time I have no idea how to start it. It's not that I don't know what to write though, it's that I don't know how to write it. Without these blocks, however, how would we get any better at what we like to do? When I get stuck in my writings or my art, I can work weeks on end to get rid of it. When it's gone though, I feel as if I've improved so much that it's worth the time I spent working on it.
When I get stuck on my writing, it's usually because I'm unsure what I should write about in the first place. My mind wanders endlessly in circles to think of something and most of the time it hits a dead end. When I ask people what I should write about, their suggestions aren't of any interest to me. That's not the whole thing though, sometimes I know what I want to write but when I write it I can't get my specific idea across. This connects a lot back with the way I draw; I get art blocks a lot more than I get writers blocks, but they're of the same nature. I know what I want to do in my head and it sounds really nice but when I actually write, or draw, it on paper then it isn't what I imagined it would be. During a writers block, I always just keep writing; I find some random prompt and just write about it without thinking. Eventually I find something really interesting to me and then my writer's block just vanishes in thin air; it's then that the wave of relief and happiness flow through me.
A pattern is definitely there when I get an art block; it generally consists of me being okay, getting the block, writing a lot of bad essays, and getting through it. A good example of this is when I was writing about 'Copyright or Copyleft?' It was pretty close to being my first blog post, so I was still a little new at it. At first I knew exactly what I was going to write about, I had everything nice and fresh in my mind. When I started writing though, what I said sounded so different typed than it did in my head. Eventually I just started rambling as though I was actually talking to someone and it worked perfectly. I treated it as though it were a quick write actually, I pretended that something bad was going to happen if I stopped typing and eventually the whole blog post had turned to make 2 pages.
10. Where do you get your ideas for blog post topics? What inspires you ro write?
Inspiration is something that I can derive from almost anything. When I'm walking down the street, in the classroom, or even in my own room, I can write about pretty much anything if I'm compelled to. The fact that I can do that, however, is actually what inspires me. When I'm in a rush I usually do something that just pops into my head; it ends up being media related, like the first blog post I made, or some type of problem I'm having. I like venting quite a bit and I've found that I can write a lot about things that frustrate me. I tend to think of my mind as a fire, and when the fire is burning brightly I can write in a more vigorous manner. There are a few examples of this; 'Theory of Evolution?' 'Copyright or Copyleft?' and there is a bit in my article about 'Careers'. It's just that when I'm angry I have so much more material to work with.
When I do blog posts I like to work on my own ideas, such is why I don't use 'quick writes' on my blog; I like things to be original rather than get my ideas from someone else. It's also the reason that I'd rather have a blog than be assigned something by a teacher, there's a lot more freedom and I can test different writing styles more frequently. I relate my writing to my art all the time. When I draw I just close my eyes and let the ideas flow in, I draw based on how I think and what mood I'm in. When I'm happy I'll write something uplifting and when I'm sad or angry then I'll write something of the same caliber. Everything depends on my own mood and what has been going on around me. Generally I keep my blog posts realistic and relative to what is going on in real life, I leave the fantasy and fiction to my art or my personal writing.
I've also tried doing reviews in addition to my normal blog posts. For my first blog post I reviewed a pretty good game titled [Prototype]. Writing a review was very different and it was both nice and frustrating. When I write, I like it to be very free and without a pattern; with a review, things had to be in a specific order. Writing in my own paragraph style is a lot easier for me than writing an average '5 paragraph essay' or a 'compare & contrast' essay. It's not that I'm bad at writing those, it's just very uncomfortable for me.
All in all I love freeform writing, not being controlled by a format. I love writing about what ever topic I can think of and enjoying doing so. I suppose that's why I like fiction so much, because you don't need to base anything on statistics or weather it's real or not; with fiction you can just write whatever. The same goes when I write my opinions down, of course I can be judged by them but I don't mind it. When I get blocks, I work through them and excel to make my writing better than it was before.
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