Block

Wednesday 6 February 2008

I haven't been writing much recently. At first I thought it was because of exams, but then my exams finished and... I still haven't been writing much. And I don't just mean poetry - I mean blog posts, as well, although I managed to write a list for Sugar & Noise. Lists aren't really all that inspiring, though (I do like them).

I don't know if I really agree with the concept of writers' block or whatever, it seems such a pretentious thing, claimed by people that like posing more than actually writing. In a way I think it must exist, though, although with me it's not so much that I couldn't write as that I just had no ideas at all. At all. The only thing I've sort of wondered about writing about is weather and the environment, which is nice but not something that can be handled lightly or too heavily. I wrote a slightly flippant poem that's sort of about it (but not really) and I'm hoping to do something else... but it's just so vast!

I'm really currently trying to write something for Christopher Tower. Why? Well, partly because I quite like working from prompts sometimes, and also because the prize is massive and something that I could really do with for university. This prompt is infuriating me, though; it's Change. What can you do for that? Surely it covers everything?! It's as if it's too broad. I had the same problem with Flight last year, although at least I managed something for it in the end, something that managed to be one of the final 40 according to a letter I got from the people afterwards. In 2006 I was one of the three runners up, though, and I got a prize and I got to go to the awards and everything. The theme was A Building, which I remember a lot of people moaning about or saying was too narrow. I thought it was pretty good, though, as there's less to do, less choice. I guess it's just now I'm faced with an almost blank template I just have no idea where to even start. But after posting this I'm going to watch Torchwood for 50 minutes, then hammer away at wordpad until I have at least the start of something. I've been languishing in a slightly pathetic way for a bit too long.

2 comments:

Annie said...

Don't worry Charly, Arvon will hopefully break the block. xxx

a said...

I'm having problems with 'Change' as well- it's about the broadest theme they could have come up with. Annie is probably right about Arvon, though.