Lowering perceived stakes can trick a stalled writer back into serious work
Evidence
PhD work bullies one into the idea that you can’t say anything about any subject until you’ve read every possible authority on it. But blogging seemed a more informal space, without that kind of pressure. Blogging was a way of tricking myself back into doing serious writing. I was able to con myself, thinking, “it doesn’t matter, it’s only a blog post, it’s not an academic paper”. But now I take the blog rather more seriously than writing academic papers. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2052
Categorization
- APHORISMS: A genuine piece of working advice: deliberately lowering the stakes of an act can trick oneself back into doing it seriously.
- XREF: connects to: Writer’s block is really a fear of committing to one narrative path — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 44; Deliberate sideways projects let writers sidestep a blocked main work — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 42; Writers can treat unfinished drafts as pending work rather than failures. — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 65 (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- Writer’s block is really a fear of committing to one narrative path
#expands(0.88) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 44 - High ambition creates creative block while low standards enable writing.
#corroborates(0.88) — Janet Burroway; Elizabeth Stuckey-French; Ned Stuckey-French, Writing Fiction, Tenth Edition, 80 - Deliberate sideways projects let writers sidestep a blocked main work
#exemplifies(0.82) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 42 - Writers can treat unfinished drafts as pending work rather than failures.
#exemplifies(0.80) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 65