how to I ctrl+alt+delete my brain?

[orangerful]

I have a writing assignment I'm working on, like a thing I will actually get paid for doing. It's only 800 words but I have now thought TOO hard about it and need to just scrap everything and start over and get my head in a better spot. I got the job pitching an idea and using my blog posts as examples of my writing. It's an opinion piece, I can write in my own voice...but my brain keeps making me write it like a term paper and that is BORING.

Any of you professional writers have any tricks for just resetting your mind? Or should I just buy a bottle of wine and write my rough draft after a drink or two? Because right now, that is the best idea I have.

It's due February 15 but I want to get it done by next week in case I do it all wrong and the editor sends me notes back to tweak anything.

Yes, I'm being coy about all of this...I don't want to jinx it. If/when I get it done and it is published, you know I'm going to spam you with the link but right now...I'm just trying to focus.

Comments

[rhoda_rants]

Oooof. I know this brain thing well. I tend to rely on restrictions like the word count or style guide. Also, I brainstorm out loud while I'm in my car. That helps a lot. Thinking while not staring at a screen does something to my thought process that's useful.

I'd say send it away and let the editor tell you if you need to tweak it. They will probably do that anyway, and if you've done the best you can and you're still stuck--get it off your desk.

[beccadg]

Any of you professional writers have any tricks for just resetting your mind?

I have two that might work for you--

1) Watch the stupidest funniest guilty pleasure you have. Turn your brain right off. No analyzing what you're watching. No getting scared or angry. Just sit there with your brain off having a good laugh. Then turn your brain back on, rebooting it from a happy place, and give writing another try.

2) Write as far from your own voice as you can get. Write like it's Talk Like a Pirate Day. Write like you're an Elizabethan playwright working on a play. Whatever gets you faaar away from your own voice. Push yourself away from it and your brain might be happy to get back to writing in your own voice.

[jerusha]

Honestly, a couple of glasses of wine to get the juices flowing is not the worst idea. I think Ernest Hemingway said, "Write drunk, revise sober."