Severe writers block

SydneyBlake said:

It took you four months to think of that comeback? That explains the expression on your face.

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Shit! Four months was my express lane! But to fess up, youre not exactly on my honeydew list of shit to get wild and crazy about.

Kitkat103 said:

I had no idea where to post this. The how to section only seems to be for women with the stank crotch or sexless marriages.

I was wondering if anyone knows how to get over writers block. A couple months ago I was churning out a new story each day. Then I went to New York and I was just adding snippets to each stories or just editing them. Now I open a document and just stare or watch my kitten lurk around the keyboard.

Any ideas for me to work this out? SERIOUS RESPONSES ONLY!"

Thanks for looking!

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OK, this is a serious response. Seriously.

No, really, I would recommend two things.

1. Spend some time away from the computer, if possible, and do other things. Reading, go have coffee, talk with friends. Anything to get you away from the computer and away from writing. I know, it sounds counter-intuitive to say the least, but while you are off doing other things you will get a vacation.

2. Go to a very excellent website called [spam/advertising prohibited per our forum guidelines] and at least get their free recordings. They also have recordings for sale at a very reasonable price. There's one I swear by, its a meditation bell being struck every few seconds, helps me focus.

Hope this helps.

Writers Landslide

I've seemingly got the reverse of writers blocks. I can make a solid start into a story get a page or two done, have a rough idea of the plot and sequence. And then my mind takes off without me. I just can't keep up with with what it churns out grabbing bits and pieces of plot. Once the dust settles I'm stuck trying to remember where I was going and how to get from A to B.

A good metaphor would be that writers block is when you have no letters and the mailbox is empty. writers landslide is that the mailbox is so full of letters you can't pull a single one out.

Stuck on the cusp

I've been writing fiction for personal pleasure off and on for years and recently started getting into erotica to try and have some fun and create an outlet to get away from the BS i have to deal with at work.

I doubt if i could ever get published for my fiction, but what i write is mostly for my pleasure anyway. Plus the anonymity of this site means others can (hopefully) enjoy my imagination without friends just trying to be nice if my stories suck.

Problem is, most of my writing now ( for work) is all technical details and reports.

I have been so wrapped up in details that i am having issues with the dialog and descriptive sex. I can imagine it, even see it my minds eye but when it comes to putting it into digits it starts to read like a report.

There is no life to what i write anymore and i want that back.

Some advice

JonB1969 and FrostyZen and others have some great points on writer's block. I don't have much to add other than to second the points that stand out to me and give my experience on the subject.

* Write a shitty draft, embrace the shitty draft, and take advice from Hemingway and Lamott on this front. Send your inner editor on vacation for a while.

* Be receptive to inspiration: this means quieting down, not pressuring yourself to write, and also being ready to write down a thought at 2 a.m.

* Write every day. I disagree that folks who say that it will "just come." I think you have to have a level of discipline where the inspiration can find safe space to visit. I think you need to establish a discipline of producing words daily. That said, this writing doesn't have to be a quota of 1,000 words; it doesn't even have to be 200 words.

* Don't get hung up on form: you don't have to set out to write a poem a day, a story a week, a novel a year. Just produce daily - that might simply involve writing a thoughtful letter (Mark Strand's advice).

* Participate in art, even if you're not creating it at the moment.

- Sev

Be descriptive

Never state what is.
Describe it.
Don't say your character is depressed.
Describe depression! Posture, looks, skin, eyes, diet, drugs, insomnia. inertia, apathy, mismatched clothing, unwashed, agoraphobic, nonproductive..Lack of friends, family member interactions, job loss, filthy messy apartment. Maybe on the booze now.
See?
Lots to write about. You could go on for pages describing this person's day.
Unbrushed teeth, foul breath. Shunned by strangers...missed doctor appts, psychiatrist appts, drugs and their effects..
On and On and On and...
The reader will figure it out...

Yup yup .

And on this note, I recommend Charles Baxter's "The Art of Subtext." It reads like your favorite adviser in college chatting away with you for a couple hours.

QuantumJumping said:

Never state what is.
Describe it.
Don't say your character is depressed.
Describe depression! Posture, looks, skin, eyes, diet, drugs, insomnia. inertia, apathy, mismatched clothing, unwashed, agoraphobic, nonproductive..Lack of friends, family member interactions, job loss, filthy messy apartment. Maybe on the booze now.
See?
Lots to write about. You could go on for pages describing this person's day.
Unbrushed teeth, foul breath. Shunned by strangers...missed doctor appts, psychiatrist appts, drugs and their effects..
On and On and On and...
The reader will figure it out...

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Getting better

I started writing years ago for a paper as a photojurnalist. (military ) One of the 1st things my boss told me was to just write. Stop trying to be the next (insert name here) and just get the damn words on paper. Or the computer screen nowadays lol.

Then after your have more than you think you need, you can go back and edit yourself, or better yet, get someone that doesn't know what you meant to say read it. I find that I am a poor self editor, I miss entire words/thoughts/sentances because I know what I meant to say rather than what actually gets typed.

I constantly find myself doing more editing than writing on my own projects. Consequently, I am not nearly as productive as I could be.

Have a reasonble level of discipline, write when you can and let the words out.

An imagination is terrible thing to waste!

Best of Luck!

I've never visited this part of the site before, so I don't know if I'm doin' it right. That said, the answer that most caught my attention was something to the effect that the writer simply start writing and let the story take them along for the ride. The reply, I think from the original thread poster, was something along the lines of "...obviously don't know what a plot is..." I would opine, IMNSHO, that there seems to be confusion between 'plot' and 'outline'. If I am even close to correct, then the 'writer's block' is not to 'writing' per se, but to the 'writing' of an 'outline'. I guess, if I were attempting to write a novel, I might try to use an outline, though I'm not sure of even that. My only 'device' for 'writing' is to choose a couple of characters and introduce them, i.e.,"Hi, I'm Dick and my girl is Jane." After this I can go. "We have a dog named Spot...", etc. Subject to my own proclivities, I will then have Dick and Jane "...see Spot run...", or whatever. For instance, "...I decided long ago that I wanted Jane to spank me and had always been too embarrassed to ask her...", etc. I don't know if my rambling makes any sense but, I thought I'd give it a try. But, alas, I'm developing an acute case of Writer's Block!! Smile.

Go visit someone.

It has been my personal experience that there exists a biological / physical block to creativity that can affect some persons. It certainly affected me.

Correct neurological conditions for the strange blend of creativity and logical sequencing and then expression through language that is writing, occur when we are at our healthiest and most relaxed. Unfortunately, the authors curse is that to write one must usually sit on ones arse for long periods of time. This can be pretty unhealthy and work against you.

1. Health generally. Take your vitamins and eat well. Too much alcohol/stress/etc can rob your body of vitamins and nutrients important for brain function, expecially b group vitamins. A good multivitamin for your age and activity level will help and anything that is not needed simply becomes expensive yellow piss.

2. Exercise. A gentle walk is most beneficial for getting the lymph system moving. Likewise something about the monotonous movement has a physical unblocking affect on things that may have been stuck in your mind. When you are active, circulation improves, providing more oxygen to your body and most importantly your brain. Regular activity and daylight also stimulates proper hormone production. (Get up from your keyboard, go for a walk, get some sun.)

3. Mental health. Stress, anxiety, depression, and disorders have a profound affect on your ability to order your thoughts, be creative and to communicate. Not simply in that they pre-occupy your existence but moreso that they actually pose physical barriers at a neurological level and interfere with brain function. If, like myself you suffer from diagnosed mental health concerns, the medication you take may also pose a block as it changes the biology of your brain. Some mental injuries and circumstantial stressors, can pose temporary hurdles. In any case, your mental health may need attention before your writing is able to flow naturally again.

Personally, I endured a period of about 15 years where creative writing was completely blocked due to traumatic stress. I could write factually however even speaking was occasionally difficult for me.

Time, general health and personal insight has been very helpful in taming my mental health blocks. It has only been during the last two years as I weaned off medication that my creative writing has started to trickle again. The flow is still easily interrupted by low periods.

4. Inspiration. They say writing is experience viewed through a character. Stand up, leave the computer and go and make some experiences. Sometimes it's that passionate spark of personal investment in a remembered experience which brings the bones to a story. How well could you communicate a rose having never held one? Don't take this as licence to behave poorly, vicarious experience is still inspiring. Get out there and make some stories to tell. Sometimes it's a stray thought during an adventure which becomes the basis for a wonderful tale.

5. Read. If one wishes to dance, one watches dancers. Sometimes the cadence of a well written story is all that is required to open old pathways for creative thought. Lose yourself in someone elses story for a while, study their prose, their structure their characters. After all, we write for others to read. We must know how reading feels. Like cooking, we must taste many things to learn to make our own flavours.

6. Chip away. Don't give up but don't be hard on yourself. Make a story plan, write a single line, pen a paragraph describing a character or location. Some of it you will use later, some you will discard. Like a person trying to learn to walk again, who in moving their legs sometimes re-establishes those nerve pathways, writing small bits at a time can sometimes unclog those creative pipes.


Sorry for the wall of text. This subject is quite personal to me having written prolifically in my early twenties to then be robbed of it for many years. The thoughts above are simply mine - some small suggestions that may assist.

I LOVE writing. Unfortunately, I also have ADHD. With my particular brand of crazy I have a hard time making decisions. In those times when I want to write but don't have one flowing from me, I ask my boyfriend for a story he'd like to read. He gives me a theme or something to work on and that gets my creative juices flowing. After that, it's all on me to produce something. It helps that he expects to read every word I write. LOL

I'm really glad to find this thread. I've got the problem of having several stories which I have started but I jump between them or leave them hanging and half-finished (I can't count the number of *those* in my files).

Thanks to everyone who posted advice in this thread! I think maybe just joining this community and reading about other people having the same issues will be a big help

1--Some stories need to be abandoned.

I wrote a short story here on Lit in 2002 under my old handle that I always planned to turn into a novel. I tried to write it five or six times. Each time I'd get so far and then it would fall apart or I would go back and try to edit what I'd already written rather than pushing forward. It's been over a dozen years, and I have finally had to accept that that story was my Waterloo and needed to be abandoned.

2. I do other stuff

I sometimes take a month off between stories. In the past I'd take years off, especially when real life was overwhelming for me. A new move and a new city are incredibly overwhelming.

If you want to do something that involves writing, try starting a blog about living in a new city. When I moved to Singapore, the only thing I wrote for two years was a blog about living there.

Moving to NYC can be brutal. I'll be honest that I only lasted about six months before I went back to Boston. So perhaps rather than write, just explore the city. Every experience you have will eventually find its way into a story.

3. New story--Whether it's targeting a submission call (or three) or just looking up a writing prompt, I sit down and write for fifteen minutes.

I'm in the middle of the third novel of a new series and it fizzled a bit. I know where I'm going with it, I'm just stumped on how to cross a certain point to get there.
I came here and did a couple of exercises. The best was to write a story in 6 words. At first, it was only word plays. Now, I'm writing a short story a day.
Get out of your groove.
It works for me.

Oh no. Your natal Mercury must be going retrograde in your 10th house!
Nah. Like how some people said, sometimes its best to leave it, do something else (read something else! To have an output, you must have input as well- and not necessarily erotica!)
When I'm stuck, I see I find inspiration after I go through some difficult event- weird I know, but something about the high and low of emotions opens up my creativity or something.

Take notes on the little things that you find interesting.

A character you saw in the streets

A shop that sold a particular item

A particular car you saw one day

They will serve as interesting writing prompts later.

Kitkat103 said:

I had no idea where to post this. The how to section only seems to be for women with the stank crotch or sexless marriages.

I was wondering if anyone knows how to get over writers block. A couple months ago I was churning out a new story each day. Then I went to New York and I was just adding snippets to each stories or just editing them. Now I open a document and just stare or watch my kitten lurk around the keyboard.

Any ideas for me to work this out? SERIOUS RESPONSES ONLY!"

Thanks for looking!

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It helps to plan out a longer series ahead of time. Make an outline of basic events and plot points you want to work in. That way you know where you're going, and even if you lack inspiration at that specific moment, there's something you can write, and just writing is usually enough to bring the inspiration back.

I have a terrible problem with writers block and getting bored. I fixed it by a) planning out my stories ahead of time, and b) having three of the things running at the same time. If I get bored with one set of characters and plot, I can work on one of the other two instead.

I know the original post was years ago, but I've found one of the best ways for me to kill a writers block is to listen to sound clips from wars, bombs, jets, birds calls, lions...it lets my mind float away to somewhere else and I write on a page with my eyes closed. Words that are basically nonsensical, but where my mind goes during that time always lands somewhere positive for whatever I'm trying to write about.

My solution is always THEME MUSIC!!

I pick music or Pandora stations that remind me of my characters or story and just listen till I start thinking of something.

Kitkat,
I know what you are going through. I have had writers block for a little over 20 years. Figured I would try my hand at erotica to get over it. I can write a little more now.

Kitkat103 said:

I had no idea where to post this. The how to section only seems to be for women with the stank crotch or sexless marriages.

I was wondering if anyone knows how to get over writers block. A couple months ago I was churning out a new story each day. Then I went to New York and I was just adding snippets to each stories or just editing them. Now I open a document and just stare or watch my kitten lurk around the keyboard.

Any ideas for me to work this out? SERIOUS RESPONSES ONLY!"

Thanks for looking!

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Writer's block is a myth created by lazy writers to justify their unproductivity and lack of creativity.

Gemma_0 said:

Writer's block is a myth created by lazy writers to justify their unproductivity and lack of creativity.

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I think there is an element of truth in what Gemma says. Most professional writers I have known have been capable of writing everyday.

I used to start at about 5:30 each morning; now that I am 'getting on' I tend not to start until about 7:30. But I write seven days a week most weeks. My only 'trick' (or 'cheat', if you prefer) is that I usually have two or three different projects on the go at any one time. If I am struggling with one, I put it to one side and move on to another. And, of course, sometimes (although not very often) I spend a whole day writing only to trash what I have written a week or so later.

The point is: if you want to be a writer, you need to write.

Good luck.

Not a myth. The "block" is real, as real as anger, as fear. I'm not talking about my personal experience here, but about the experience of a very close relative.

I once suffered from something similar, and much less severe: I was stuck for months on a story. I had hypnotherapy, which helped a little. Since then, whenever I'm stuck, I pray to Ganesh, which seems to do the trick.

NoJo said:

Not a myth. The "block" is real, as real as anger, as fear. I'm not talking about my personal experience here, but about the experience of a very close relative.

I once suffered from something similar, and much less severe: I was stuck for months on a story. I had hypnotherapy, which helped a little. Since then, whenever I'm stuck, I pray to Ganesh, which seems to do the trick.

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You pray to an elephant?