“Writer’s Funk”

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Credit: Ellie Maloney

This is how my brain feels when I start my morning from TV or Facebook. Writing becomes impossible. What litters your brain?

4 Comments

  1. The internet in general can eat away hours uncounted. I know several writers who unplug when they write. I often do it now, and I turn my phone off.

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  2. I definitely find most TV uninspiring, in the sense that all inspiration is actively obliterated by it’s influence. I also feel this way reading a book written in a style I don’t enjoy, or a book that is written badly. My ability to write is like a tool I’m constantly sharpening. All input I receive from the media around me is passed over the blade to hone it. If it makes it sharper, I keep absorbing things from that media source. If it makes it dull, I avoid it like the plague. Because to me, it feels like a plague. I can just feel my ability getting dulled, my perception getting warped.

    Yeah ok, I’m a nutcase, but it’s how I get through the day! lol

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    1. Nicely put, Grace. I think the TV has an interesting ability, that is irrelevant to the content of what’s on the air. It makes our brains into passive learners/absorbers of everything we are seeing. When we research something in books or even in the Internet, we use various filtering processes, which keeps our brains active. I think this is why we experience this numbing sensation with TV that leads to difficulty in creative writing. If you think about it, creative writing requires 100% active and present brain because you are literally making stuff up from the thin air.

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      1. True. Although occasionally I do see a movie or a show that has a very complex and interesting plot line, and that does inspire me a little, but not as much as a book would have, and not if I watch it for very long. 20-30 minutes, and then if I don’t shut it off, I’ll start to vegetate, just like you said lol

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