And when I look at a blank page, I have no idea what to write, where to start.
Reposting myself, originally about procrastination but I find this strategy also useful in your situation:
For creative work my favorite strategy is a variation on what is sometimes called the vomit draft in screenwriting circles—intentionally create the laziest, worst version of what you are working on. The original vomit draft strategy is more about writing without stopping to revise or reflect or worry about the quality, but even that doesn’t go far enough to penetrate my procrastination. So I make it my goal to create a bad version of whatever I’m working on. The laziest tropes in writing, the worst programming practices in technical work.
The principal is the same: anything that gets you moving gets you headed in the right direction, even though it may not seem like it at first. But sure enough, at some point I can’t help myself and feel compelled to fix or improve my terrible work.
…
My other primary strategy is kind of boring, just biking and exercise. Mentally I feel a lot different after a lot of cardio.
I’ve seen the “write something purposefully dreadful” before, and tried it a few times, but never made it a practice. I think one problem I have is that in non-inspired states of mind, even the attempt to brain vomit doesn’t work; nothing shows up to talk about or mention. This could be due to the subconscious strain of knowing that I am writing for a reason, as when I get up and walk in circles I often eventually end up daydreaming about explaining something to somebody. Then, of course, the bottleneck is noticing I am doing so and actually bothering to write it down.
There is one thing that is always available to you as a topic for writing even if you are completely lacking in introspective access: the current physical sensations of your body. When journaling, this is typically where I start. I find it easy to write a sentence or two about the sensation of heat coming from the laptop on my thighs, the breeze coming in through the window on my feet, the disgruntlement in my stomach from chugging a mug of coffee, or the ache in my back. I put something on the page and then more interesting thoughts sometimes come. Sometimes they don’t, and I write about nonsense for a few minutes before getting up and doing something else.
Good idea, thanks! Something I did earlier is just try to list everything I’ve thought about recently. I got a rather long list out of it, actually. It’s a starting point for further thinking, much less scary than a blank page. I should do that more often.
Reposting myself, originally about procrastination but I find this strategy also useful in your situation:
For creative work my favorite strategy is a variation on what is sometimes called the vomit draft in screenwriting circles—intentionally create the laziest, worst version of what you are working on. The original vomit draft strategy is more about writing without stopping to revise or reflect or worry about the quality, but even that doesn’t go far enough to penetrate my procrastination. So I make it my goal to create a bad version of whatever I’m working on. The laziest tropes in writing, the worst programming practices in technical work.
The principal is the same: anything that gets you moving gets you headed in the right direction, even though it may not seem like it at first. But sure enough, at some point I can’t help myself and feel compelled to fix or improve my terrible work.
…
My other primary strategy is kind of boring, just biking and exercise. Mentally I feel a lot different after a lot of cardio.
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/2mH7v5doDqoCZSn6z/not-useless-advice-for-dealing-with-things-you-don-t-want-to?commentId=SuEEMuRoXTgfjkhhD
I’ve seen the “write something purposefully dreadful” before, and tried it a few times, but never made it a practice. I think one problem I have is that in non-inspired states of mind, even the attempt to brain vomit doesn’t work; nothing shows up to talk about or mention. This could be due to the subconscious strain of knowing that I am writing for a reason, as when I get up and walk in circles I often eventually end up daydreaming about explaining something to somebody. Then, of course, the bottleneck is noticing I am doing so and actually bothering to write it down.
There is one thing that is always available to you as a topic for writing even if you are completely lacking in introspective access: the current physical sensations of your body. When journaling, this is typically where I start. I find it easy to write a sentence or two about the sensation of heat coming from the laptop on my thighs, the breeze coming in through the window on my feet, the disgruntlement in my stomach from chugging a mug of coffee, or the ache in my back. I put something on the page and then more interesting thoughts sometimes come. Sometimes they don’t, and I write about nonsense for a few minutes before getting up and doing something else.
Good idea, thanks! Something I did earlier is just try to list everything I’ve thought about recently. I got a rather long list out of it, actually. It’s a starting point for further thinking, much less scary than a blank page. I should do that more often.