Response to Boice - Hypomania and Blocking

I must say that the technical difficulties and the late hour are giving me a sense of hypomania in writing this response to the Boice article, trying to get something in "on time."

Admittedly I am skeptical of any advice regarding the writing process. This isn't because I think it is mysterious. I'm not going to say it isn't, but because I think people are so individual about the way they write it is hard to pin-down any universal tendencies. That is why I am so glad Boice cited co many students. This use of citation gave me more confidence in his claims.

Issues of forcing and blocking come up a lot. I think forcing is perhaps the most proliferous of the negative tendencies that affect the writing process.

One thing I think was very resonant with me, in Boice's chapter, was cultivating a habit of writing:

"what might have begun as forcing became an effortless habit" (pp15).

And Justin's comment above, about the conversation, is rather interesting as well. (side note: The Conversation, 70's movie, Palme d'or winner is good... we never know quite where a conversation's border's are). But being a part of a conversation I think also entails having something to add to it... having a stake in the points to be made and the opinions circulated therein.

Admittedly though, I think Kafka wrote The Trial in one sitting, staying up all night (I might be wrong). So if you are really on a roll and can't stop make sure its a darn good roll. The problem however, is that when I feel I've written something intense, something with a lot of momentum to it, I return to it later and realize it was junk. Part of this realization is that my mind was clouded by the hypomania of the writing process, the moment.

Now, I am always skeptical about throwing around psychological jargon, but I think hypomania is legit. Horace, the Roman poet, I think said he'd wait 10 years before returning to a work so he could see it fresh. Donald Hall, former U.S. Poet Laureate, would wait 2 years. I think if you resist hypomanic urgencies and pace yourself you can compose (or just "write") with more skill, more craft. That being said inspiration will always factor, at least I think so.

I knew a playwright who lit a candle everyday and wrote by that. Well, I didn't know him that well, but he was a writing teacher of mine whose opinion I valued. I think this cultivation of habitual writing, pacing oneself in the process, and relaxing seems good advice to me as a writer.

-Ryan