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A Few Olde Tricks for Combating Writer's BlockApr 19 '01 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Writer's Block Not Necessarily Bad
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Writer's block was never something that bothered me much, since I was never the world's most prolific songwriter anyway. Then when I started encountering it more often, I stumbled across various solutions. There are a few different categories of writer's block. Let's look at them separately: Category 1: Musical When I can't seem to come up with any ideas at all, I just start taping everything I play during practice. No noodling or aimless riffage is too stupid to overlook. You don't need any fancy equipment. Just a boombox with a mike will do. If you find yourself repeating a lot of themes, you can edit them into melodies or chord changes. If I get totally stuck in mid-song, I'll switch instruments. I tend to write on guitar. Just looking at a piano can help you see the possibilities a little bit differently. Category 2: Lyrical I subscribe to the Brian Eno theory of lyric writing. When you get stuck, stop worrying about having "something to say", and think instead of just babbling nonsensically along to the music. I tend to gravitate toward vowel sounds that seem to support the melody and consonants that reinforce the rhythm. Sometimes the babbling is brilliant enough to keep, but more often I pretend I'm deciphering a poor translation and try to steer the words towards some kind of sense, even if it's only impressionistic. Category 3: Total Don't stop writing! Write something else. Write in your journal, write letters to friends, families, or The Editor, write an epinion or twelve, etc. Heck, thanks to this method, I'm writing a novel!!! It's the first decent fiction I've ever written, and it it began as a way to escape songwriter's block. So don't view writer's block as your Enemy. Perhaps it's the whisper of the Muse saying, "You're in a rut--why not go get a life?"  |
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