11 Comments

Are you a fan of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey?

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Try not to put too much pressure on yourself. As writers we are always learning and the more we write the better our writing gets (hopefully). Just need to put stuff out there and some people will like it and others won't. Writing along with other art forms is subjective. A story will land where it will. You need to learn to let go and let your stories fly free.

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Writing slumps are so hard!! Are the books you are reading filling your creative bucket? I find nature and music help me, but I will still find myself jumping between projects until I figure out what's the right one to work on in any moment...

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I had those books by Michelle Paver, along with another gothic book of hers called something like 'Wakenhyrst' I read the latter and didn't really like it so I sold the other two lol

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That's too bad. Dark Matter is really good!

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You can't force creativity. When I'm in a slump, I always think of those old Orson Welles ads saying, "We will sell no wine before its time. . . " I feel the same way about writing and think it's good to be patient with the process. Having said that, I also give myself permission to have fun and put out some trash now and then ;-) It takes the pressure off!

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Very true. It might not be a coincidence that this all started to happen when I tried to make myself write faster. I can probably speed up a bit more, but I doubt I'll ever be as prolific as most other writers here on Substack.

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That's an interesting idea! I have a document called "Where Unused Story Bits Go To Die" that I've been adding to for years. I'd be willing to share some of the ideas from it if there's enough interest.

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May 1Liked by Leigh Parrish

2001 is a MAGNIFICENT read, I like it better than the movie honestly, and it makes the movie make a little more sense too. I got a real kick out of the fact that they thought gas giants were rocky planets just below the clouds!!

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It's amazing how far our understanding of space has come since then. 😉

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create a "horror graveyard" and put these things there (CC BY) so that others can pick them up and run with them

https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/cclicenses/

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