2.5 Tons of Writer's Block

[unregistered]

 

[_Lynn_]

I’ve been parked in front of my keyboard for nearly an hour now. I have no shortage of ideas for stories; four actually, the few chapters of the novel I’d been hammering away at with significant success until recently and three short stories that have each been sketched out and noted to a point that should allow me to at least progress on them.

Yet I can’t seem to start.

I’ve tried to set the stage for success with the props of a writer’s life. I have cold pizza and warm beer and there’s a guy sitting on my couch playing video games that lives in my house, pays no rent, and is eating my food on a regular basis. So what if he’s ten…

I should be freaking Hemmingway. Yet, I can’t focus on the task at hand despite my most sincere efforts. Not usually a problem.

Any advice?

Do some of the challenges and exercises here. There's no pressure, various word limits, and all genres. And fun.

Or go take a walk.
Find a punching bag.
Bake.
Clean.
Dance.

 

[lance gt]

Sounds like you've already started several times. perhaps it's time to be a finisher, instead of a starter. Clear those and you'll have more time to devote on the next ones. The ideas aren't going anywhere, and neither are your stories right now.

 

[_Lynn_]

Sounds like you've already started several times. perhaps it's time to be a finisher, instead of a starter. Clear those and you'll have more time to devote on the next ones. The ideas aren't going anywhere, and neither are your stories right now.

AH, but that fits with what I mentioned to someone before.

Maybe not all ideas are meant to be stories. That may be why they aren't going anywhere.

Take three or four ideas, mix them up, take the best of all of them, and make one great idea.

 

[lance gt]

AH, but that fits with what I mentioned to someone before.

Maybe not all ideas are meant to be stories. That may be why they aren't going anywhere.

Take three or four ideas, mix them up, take the best of all of them, and make one great idea.

Kind of like, 'One of these things is not like the others, one of these things is not the same.' I'm using several of the challenges I've done to form the basis of my next endeavor, so I highly agree with trying those.
Who was it told me about finishing stories?

 

[_Lynn_]

Kind of like, 'One of these things is not like the others, one of these things is not the same.' I'm using several of the challenges I've done to form the basis of my next endeavor, so I highly agree with trying those.
Who was it told me about finishing stories?

Ummm.

 

[Rubyswallows]

Masturbate. Or at least get your motor running sexually. That's what helps with me - something about being all charged up gets my brain started.

 

[sr71plt]

As ML suggests, get away from the computer and go do something else. Either you will find yourself drawn back to the computer and able to write or you will be getting something else constructive done.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Writers block means you have no story to write, and no story means you havent outlined or plotted anything. Serendipity is nice if you have the luxury of ttime to piss away waiting for the Muses to toss you a bone.

 

[sr71plt]

Writers block means you have no story to write, and no story means you havent outlined or plotted anything. Serendipity is nice if you have the luxury of ttime to piss away waiting for the Muses to toss you a bone.

Different strokes/different folks. I could sit down at the computer with nothing more than a glimmer of a thought and start typing away on a story. I might have to go back and make some changes/additions at the beginning, but I don't require either an outline or a conscious plotline to bang out a story that, when I stop typing, is close enough to a full story to require little change in review.

And I have yet to suffer writer's block (which is not to mean I deny I ever will).

People are all different. This is yet another case where sweeping generalizations do not apply.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Different strokes/different folks. I could sit down at the computer with nothing more than a glimmer of a thought and start typing away on a story. I might have to go back and make some changes/additions at the beginning, but I don't require either an outline or a conscious plotline to bang out a story that, when I stop typing, is close enough to a full story to require little change in review.

And I have yet to suffer writer's block (which is not to mean I deny I ever will).

People are all different. This is yet another case where sweeping generalizations do not apply.

Yes, you intuitively know how to rustle up a story (maybe the process is habituated in your case), but you know how to do it without a cook book. I simply assert that these yahoos are less likely to run into a cow if they know where theyre going when they start.

 

[lesbiaphrodite]

Isaac Asimov writes most brilliantly of the 'eureka phenomenon.' This process, he suggests, is one well-utilized by creative people. Basically, you remove yourself entirely from writing. You do something totally and utterly different...perhaps something physical or creative in another way...like building a small bookcase or a work bench. In the process, you will often find a 'eureka' moment when all that needs to be written comes to you because you allow your mind to 'forget' the creative process of writing altogether.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Isaac Asimov writes most brilliantly of the 'eureka phenomenon.' This process, he suggests, is one well-utilized by creative people. Basically, you remove yourself entirely from writing. You do something totally and utterly different...perhaps something physical or creative in another way...like building a small bookcase or a work bench. In the process, you will often find a 'eureka' moment when all that needs to be written comes to you because you allow your mind to 'forget' the creative process of writing altogether.

Maybe.

I say we carry our ghosts around with us, and when the right house appears they haunt it.

 

[lesbiaphrodite]

Maybe.

I say we carry our ghosts around with us, and when the right house appears they haunt it.

Nice image. I like that.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

In THE ART OF FICTION Ayn Rand said writers block is the result of 2 conditions: YOUR FUND OF INFORMATION IS INADEQUATE TO EXPRESS YOUR PREMISE, or YOURE TRYING TO RECONCILE CONTRADICTORY PREMISES like these contradictory premises: THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT IS TO PROTECT INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY vs THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT IS TO ORGANIZE THE FULFILLMENT OF MAJORITY PREFERENCES. The sheriff cant protect you AND hand you over to the lynch mob.