conquering writer's block

[Formeruser012523]

The dreaded "Block" has consumed me once again. I'm VERY tired of staring at the screen/paper in front of me & finding no words.

Working on a new novel & can't get past page 3!! :eusa_doh:

What do you writers out there do to get past this & move on to finish what you've started?

 

[Derek WC]

I know how you feel, the blanks page of paper can be quite intimidating. unfortunately I've yet to find a cure. Perhaps simply not thinking ahead of what you are writing would help - or maybe a glass of cold water or coffee.
Or, perhaps, an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

I myself just go do something 'till it comes to me, I also write on paper than type it out and find it much easier when using a pencil - I tend to think of what I am writing better.

Welcome to the Lounge.

 

[AmateisGal]

Hi Mae!

Oh, writer's block. Yuck.

Here's what I do. I open up a blank word document and just start venting onscreen. No one is going to see it but me, and I just let loose. Sometimes we need to clear out the garbage in our brain before the words can come, and you might find that getting rid of the junk will help the words come.

Good luck!

 

[Formeruser012523]

Hi, thanks! And thanks for the tips!

Yeah, I used to hand write things, but found it took much longer to get my thoughts out. I've started to type, but with the computer it's much easier to get distracted. Thinking ahead is a culprit for much of my block. Keeping a separate book just for ideas helps.

My journal is the place I usually vent & get all the junk out...good idea AmateisGal! I'll still hand write in that for some reason...hmm...I have had a LOT of junk rattling around in my mind latley. Maybe I'll try the word doc instead!

Coffee is generally my go-to for when I want to sit & write, but find that to make me jumpy. When I'm like that it's hard to sit still & I end up working on some project around the house.

Hitchcock? Unfortunately not a fan. Now the theme music is ringing in my head. lol

 

[AmateisGal]

What is your novel about? I'm always interested to know what others are writing about...

I actually only write on my laptop, which is not connected to the Internet. In fact, my office is on the second floor of our house and our computer (with the Internet connection) is in our basement. So if I want to jump on the 'Net, I have to go down two flights of stairs to do it. LOL! Keeps me from procrastinating, that's for sure!

 

[Pompidou]

I write only for myself, so there are no time constraints. When I've got writer's block, I don't write. Sometimes I shelve a project for a month or more. I only write when it's fun and productive.

 

[davidraphael]

Give yourself permission to write crap - stuff that you will ultimately throw away. Write for writing's sake. When you're under pressure to write something good you clam up.

Try writing something completely different. I always get my best ideas for project A when I'm working on project B. I have a chronic aversion to working on the thing I'm supposed to be working on.

 

[AmateisGal]

Give yourself permission to write crap - stuff that you will ultimately throw away. Write for writing's sake. When you're under pressure to write something good you clam up.

Try writing something completely different. I always get my best ideas for project A when I'm working on project B. I have a chronic aversion to working on the thing I'm supposed to be working on.

Excellent advice. Write the first draft from your heart, the second from your head.

 

[Formeruser012523]

Excellent advice. Write the first draft from your heart, the second from your head.

It's always hard for me to do that. I'm forever trying to edit as I go along. When I first started it was easier to just write & not worry. I know...I worry too much about what others will think while their reading it.

 

[Benzadmiral]

I'm currently going through a "I dunno which project to work on!" phase, so it's a kind of writer's block. What I do when I'm in a project, though, is something I picked up in a book about Hemingway. Don't stop your day's writing at the end of a scene or a chapter. Keep going and do a line or two in the next part -- and stop in the middle of a sentence. This way, tomorrow, you'll have the urge to finish that sentence, and then the next has a better chance of coming along.

Seems to

 

[Benzadmiral]

work for me. (Heh, heh, heh.)

 

[Undertow]

In the movie Pi, Max's friend Sol attempts to help Max calm down by relating the story of Archimedes and the bathtub. I've found this same principle always helps me with writers block.

Just when I'm most frustrated and clouded about a story, or when I hit a big block, I forget everything about it and take a "vacation". Sometimes that's a walk around the neighborhood, sometimes it's a weekend camping in the woods, or often, it's a week or two reading a book entirely different than what I'm writing.

Then nature brings what I need back to me.

 

[Formeruser012523]

Don't stop your day's writing at the end of a scene or a chapter. Keep going and do a line or two in the next part -- and stop in the middle of a sentence.

Yeesh! That's a big no-no for me. Writing comes pretty randomly anyway, but stopping mid-stream is almost too difficult.

Just when I'm most frustrated and clouded about a story, or when I hit a big block, I forget everything about it and take a "vacation".

My "vacation" consists of small spurts of me leaving my chair & walking around the small house I live in. Whether I return to that chair or not either ends in more writing due to coffee, music, or sudden inspiration, OR being distracted by said vacation...& ending up here. lol

 

[Tux Toledo]

Have you written an outline for you story? If not, start jotting it down. It doesn't have to be detailed, just something to give the story structure. Then start filling it in. Soon your story will be writing itself (well, not quite, but you get the idea...).

 

[Tomasso]

conquering writer's block

Alcohol.

Hey, it worked for Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Joyce, etc.........[huh]

 

[davidraphael]

Alcohol.

Hey, it worked for Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Joyce, etc.........[huh]

Booze pretty much ended Hem's and Fitz's writer's blocks. Permanently.

That aside, I can thoroughly recommend several tipples that may aid the writing process.

 

[Shangas]

Writer's block is a pain in the butt. Sometimes I go weeks and in rare cases, months between starting and finishing something. I've heard stories of people who have had it for decades.

My personal strategies are...

- To handwrite everything with a fountain pen. If you must write - it must at least be an enjoyable exercise (even moreso if you hate or are bored about what you're writing).
- To take one's time. This is your own work and your own pace should be used in its completion.
- To remember WHY you're writing it and what you hope to get out of it.
- To remember who you're writing it for and what you want people to get out of it.
- To not overdo things and stress yourself out.

Sometimes, you just need to take a break from things. I have a blog (see my signature) and sometimes I feel damn guilty if I haven't written anything in a while. But then I remind myself that I have other things to do. Or I don't have anything to write about. You just need to wait for the right moment when something truly interesting or fun or stimulating pops up. Forcing yourself to write doesn't work for everyone. If you're doing it and your heart's not in it, it won't work.

Another strategy, linked to handwriting, is to brainstorm things. I've got notebooks - hundreds of pages of paper covered in ink of stuff I wrote out by hand thinking things over. On occasion, I write out entire story-chapters, entire blog-posts, entire fictional conversations, introductions or conclusions by hand before I ever type them up, and I edit them as I go.

I find it helps to write when I'm totally bored.

I mean BORED. Brain-melting-out-of-my-ears-BORED. When your mind has nothing on it, it floats away like a feather with nothing to weigh it down. It will go anywhere and do anything and there's nothing to control it. Use this freedom of thought and turn it to your writing and all kinds of things will come to you. I write some of my best stuff when I'm stone-bored because I have nothing else to do and writing becomes the only thing that I concentrate on. As a result, I think I produce better work.

 

[Undertow]

Alcohol.

Hey, it worked for Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Joyce, etc.........[huh]

I've considered this precisely because it helped those guys. It doesn't help me! :eusa_doh: (darnit)

 

[AmateisGal]

i've considered this precisely because it helped those guys. It doesn't help me! :eusa_doh: (darnit)

lol!!!

 

[Pompidou]

Opium seemed to work for Lewis Carroll. Legally, I think the only cure for writer's block is time. Illegally, there's a medicine for every ill, even temporary creative deficiencies.