Dora Reads: Nerd Church - The Writer Diaries: When the Words Won't Go Where They're Supposed To

Sunday 9 April 2023

Nerd Church - The Writer Diaries: When the Words Won't Go Where They're Supposed To

You know when you're trying to write something specific, but things just won't quite click?

Like, the thing you're trying to say refuses to come together - you might get close, but you won't get there. You can't quite manage to get the concept across, to communicate what it is you're trying to communicate.

Like... you can feel the thing, lurking in a corner of your brain, trying to free itself. But it just can't quite make that leap.

Title: When the Words Won't Go Where They're Supposed To. Background: lined paper

...That's one of the most irritating feelings you can have when writing.

Or at least, that's what it feels like to me.

There's a special kind of frustration - as a writer - when the words WON'T GO WHERE THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO!

So, what to do about that?

Well, the way I see it, dearest nerdlets, we have two choices - hack it out, or let it wait.

'Hack it out' is where you force your way through.

You make the words happen, through brute-writing-force, even if they're not quite the words you were aiming for.

Sometimes, by some happy accident, you will land on either what you were trying to say to begin with, or else something better. (And then the Awen is truly smiling upon you - don't waste it.)

Hacking it out is about as painful and frustrating as it sounds, in my opinion. It's like willing something into existence which doesn't want to exist.

But sometimes it's necessary, because the relief you feel when you finally Have. The. Thing. will be worth it.

A lot of the time though, it's not the way to go. And that's when you let it wait.

Sometimes, when something's not coming together the way you want it to, it's because it's not ready to.

Or else you were mistaken over where things were 'supposed' to go in the first place, and need to come to that realisation by yourself.

Then you have to take a step back, maybe do something else entirely for a while - like writing a blogpost about the feeling of not being able to articulate things the way you want to in your writing 😅 - and let it just... wait.

Let it roll around in your brain, in the universe, in wherever ideas go when they're not being worked on.

And go back to it when it's ready. You may very well find that it's a lot easier, when you go back to it - that there's more clarity to it.

And if there isn't? Well you can always try hacking it out 😉

Do you find it irritating when the words won't go where they're supposed to?

Do you hack it out, or let it wait? Or something else entirely?

Talk to me! 😊💬