Board 8 > I'm looking for some Board 8 advice or discussion.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Right now, the word of the day for me is "gun-shy".

Some of you know that I've had my ups and downs in terms of my career path over the last couple years, and while the circumstances surrounding my misfortunes have had little to do with the quality of my work, I've become apprehensive about it nonetheless. At my job, I had opportunity to demonstrate a creative capacity for storytelling and video-making. I was involved in production as well as writing and it was, quite honestly, a fantastic experience.

I've spent far too long since I lost my job unable to write or edit. And I don't want to play a victim or blame anything else for what happened. I want to blame myself and find a way to dig myself out of the hole in which I find myself. Consistently, I have strong initial ideas; I come up with unique avenues to pursue a creative path which I think could prove successful. But as I began to plan how to execute these ideas, I discover that I lack the abilities or the wherewithal to complete the necessary work involved.

Or at least, I think I lack those skills. It's almost as if I've taken a step back, receded in the progress of my abilities. At one point, I wrote well. I could verbally communicate my ideas in a more compelling way. Even my colleagues would express that I was constantly improving and impressing. But now, whenever I put my hands on a keyboard to write, I find myself in a panic of sorts. I immediately lose all confidence and my mind locks. A million words and ideas inundate me and I can't make sense of what I want to actually say. I ramble. I hedge. I generalize. Ultimately, I think this is evident everywhere I leave my mark, from my botched attempts to write something interesting or funny or compelling to even my sadly bland text messages. And, as a result, I've transformed into a sad, self-loathing shell of a man, an easily hurt, easily defeated husk.

I don't know if any of this makes any sense. I'm not even sure exactly what I'm looking for in terms of advice. I think, to some extent, I just wanted to go to an open forum where I'm anonymous enough that I'm able to work up the necessary courage to say what I need to say. I know there are some users, like @DoomTheGyarados for example, who might relate or have some advice. Mostly I think I just need to open a dialogue about where I'm at. Maybe, just maybe, someone will listen.
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Taking time from GameFAQs is always healthy advice.
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Corrik posted...

Taking time from GameFAQs is always healthy advice.

It has absolutely nothing to do with GameFAQs. Trust me. While the effects of this bizarre slump manifest on GameFAQs, my obstacle is an internal one.
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scarletspeed7 posted...

Corrik posted...

Taking time from GameFAQs is always healthy advice.

It has absolutely nothing to do with GameFAQs. Trust me. While the effects of this bizarre slump manifest on GameFAQs, my obstacle is an internal one.

Just saying that GameFAQs isn't a healthy environment to those who are not sound internally. It can even feed it or make it worse.
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Corrik posted...

Just saying that GameFAQs isn't a healthy environment to those who are not sound internally. It can even feed it or make it worse.

There's no doubt about it, and that's why I took a month off after I went off-the-rails over someone's silly, cowardly alt. But there's also a lot of good towards Board 8 (which is the only board I visit anymore). There are lots of users here who really contribute something positive and turn it into a true community. It outweighs the bad.
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Every so often I go through a phase where every sentence and every paragraph I write is just sludge. It's actually one of my lowkey fears, whenever I'm in a writing slump, that it won't end and I'm never going to be able to figure out how to say what I need/want to say. So I don't have too much to offer in the way of actual advice, but yeah it's rough and I hope things pick up for you soon.
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Hey, it's nice to at least know someone gets it.
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When you started there were no expectations to be had but now that you're a bit more established the expectations hold you back.

My advice is to write for other things. You need to fill up a pool of work so that you don't just have the one good or bad work, but a sea of them. So that when the time comes that you know how to write a really good one, the curve will be more significant.

Write for fun, for the self, for critique anything. Actually it doesn't have to be writing per se just any creative output you can muster.
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