Blaugust has me thinking about dealing with the things that stop me from blogging (i.e., writer's block), and one of the tools I use is a stressbox. It’s a mashup of two lifehacks that I found on the internet:
- When you write down what’s bothering you, putting physical distance between yourself and the list can be like leaving your problems behind.
- When your inner critic is particularly fierce, you can invite a second inner critic to point out shortcomings in the first critic’s attacks. (This was a joke* about tricking the two critics into arguing with each other so you could sneak off to do some real work.)
When I can’t make any progress on a project, I create a stressbox by opening up a disposable notepad.txt file and writing out all my objections.
A
few things can happen from here.
Maybe I’ll identify an underlying issue that’s stopping me from making progress. Or I could wear out my inner critic by venting until there’s nothing left to criticize. Sometimes, it’s McDonald’s Theory in action — I lay out my worst possible ideas, and then it’s much easier to improve from there.
I also get the fun mental image of trapping my inner critic(s) in that two-dimensional prison from Superman II.
The stressbox can sound like a waste of time, but I normally bring it out when I’ve already wasted a lot of time procrastinating with things like gaming or household chores.
It’s no less constructive than any other form of procrastination, and it gets me closer to a place where I'm doing actual work. (I’m already seated at the computer and typing in complete sentences; it’s a minor change to start typing in a different window.)
The main drawback is that the comments from the stressbox are never part of the finished work — the file is never saved, because who wants a record of their most obnoxious self-criticism?
I end up forgetting that it can be an important part of my creative process. Every time I sit down in front of a new project, I have to remember how it works all over again.
*Update 11/27/23: I FOUND THE JOKE!
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. wrote, “Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.” In his case, his one person was his sister, who died young, and he ended up raising his nephew. Think of the one person who you want to talk to, and write to them as if they were with you in the room. I don't know if it will help, but it might.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Have you read Stephen King's "On Writing"? He made a similar point, but I think he said that his "audience of one" was his wife, Tabitha.
DeleteI like the Phantom Zone analogy. Do whatever you have to do to keep writing. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteOh the above comment was me. I wasn't logged into my Google account. Oh and I like the McDonald's theory. I shall use that in future, if that's okay with you.
ReplyDeleteLOL, you absolutely have my permission to use McDonald's Theory, because I stole it from Jon Bell: https://jonbell.medium.com/mcdonalds-theory-9216e1c9da7d
DeleteI feel like any time I do domestic chores instead of blogging that's the absolute opposite of procrastination! Not infrequently I have to force myself to stop writing just so I can get other things done.
ReplyDeleteThese days, even managing to log into a game feels like something of an achievement for me. I'd usually rather be writing about playing games than actually playing them but if I never play any that could get tricky after a while....
That sounds like a nice problem to have! But what about solo journaling games? Something like that would let you play a game and keep writing at the same time...
DeleteThe stress box reminds me of the little boxes or chests in teh movie The Village in which people kept their past haunts to remind them, from a distance, of what to avoid and thus what to pursue instead.
ReplyDeleteAlso, cool to see a current blogger on Blogger! I started here looooong ago, then last year returned (temp). I'm back on WordPress now, but I'll always have a place in my heart for Blogger. My site is still up BTW:
https://fullyrendered.blogspot.com
My current longstanding blog is jasonjournals.com