Completely Blank. (And irratated!)

[EmeraldKitten]

I have writer's block.
I just counted, and I have 18 unfinished stories.
That is unacceptable, lol.

I can't write anything.
Nothing.
I can't write smut, I can't write serious, I can't write anything!
Or if I do, it's a sentence or three.

What is my problem? lol.

My creative juices are definately NOT flowing.

Please tell me I'm not the only one this happens to, lol.
And please tell me it will end eventually.
And if it has happened to you, how did you get past it?

Hell, it's a wonder I was able to write this post at the rate I've been going, hehehe.

Okay, I just needed to vent.
Thank you for your time.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

I have writer's block.
I just counted, and I have 18 unfinished stories.
That is unacceptable, lol.

I can't write anything.
Nothing.
I can't write smut, I can't write serious, I can't write anything!
Or if I do, it's a sentence or three.

What is my problem? lol.

My creative juices are definately NOT flowing.

Please tell me I'm not the only one this happens to, lol.
And please tell me it will end eventually.
And if it has happened to you, how did you get past it?

Hell, it's a wonder I was able to write this post at the rate I've been going, hehehe.

Okay, I just needed to vent.
Thank you for your time.

I haven't finished anything since I fnsihed my novel-thingy. I know the frustration well. No, you aren't the only sufferer.

*HUGS*

 

[McKenna]

Good news EK, you finished something...... your post here!





Just roll with it and trust that your muse will return when the time is right.

 

[rgraham666]

Likewise Kitten.

Just finished my first piece in two months. Stalled on my latest.

It's happened before, I'll get over it.

So will you.

 

[Guest]

I have writer's block.
I just counted, and I have 18 unfinished stories.
That is unacceptable, lol.

I can't write anything.
Nothing.
I can't write smut, I can't write serious, I can't write anything!
Or if I do, it's a sentence or three.

What is my problem? lol.

My creative juices are definately NOT flowing.

Please tell me I'm not the only one this happens to, lol.
And please tell me it will end eventually.
And if it has happened to you, how did you get past it?

Hell, it's a wonder I was able to write this post at the rate I've been going, hehehe.

Okay, I just needed to vent.
Thank you for your time.

Yep, that's where I've just been. I finally finished a piece just by pushing myself through the block after talking plotline and dialogue with my editor for days. Seems I could come up with ideas get so far into them and then BAM! away they went into the file that is like a black hole in my computer.

Smile, there is hope out there. If you can finish something, it will come back.

 

[Guest]

sweetie, it took me nearly a year to break out of my 'block'.
i understand but it only takes a moment of inspiration...
a moment when someone reads your start and says..."what about this...?"
you'll get back in the saddle.
how about you share the beginning of one of your stories with someone and get your kickstart?

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I don't take such a sanguine view of incompletions. Of course it happens that we get stuck and shelve things, and it happens more than we'd like, but if you've got 18 things you haven't finished, you've got a problem that needs addressing.

I say finish something. Just hold your nose and finish it. Force yourself. Writing isn't all fun and joy, and if you keep on waiting for your muse to finish things for you, you're going to wait a long, long time. Discipline is a big part of writing.

If you finish a story and it's crap, you at least have the option of coming back to it and fixing it. If you don't finish it, then you've got nothing but the makings of a bad habit.

Nose to the grindstone. Shoulder to the wheel. Don't make me get my whip. (None of that til you finish! )

 

[dreampilot79]

I haven't had writers block since I quit writing for a living. This is just fun for me. It is hard to be blocked when it's fun. I do have three stories that are unfinished... but that's more because I just decided they were crap not worth persueing...

As for getting through it... you just have to force yourself. I found that even if it was crap, the process of editing it... particularily with dealing with an editor... just got me going again.

To find the end... and then to polish it a touch... at least fix the bad spots.... and see it done.. tends to break the block.

So... just do it.

 

[oggbashan]

Selective

Currently I have lost count of the incomplete stories.

I have three draft Valentine's Day entries stalled.

Then there is last year's NaNoWriMo unfinished epic - and the few dozen other stories.

The Muses decided that my 50 word shorts were worth their attention. Now I think they are on holiday in the Greek Islands - lucky bitches.

I can force myself to write but the results are usually more incomplete stories to clog up my hard drive and make me depressed because there are even more to finish.

Maybe the Muses will come back refreshed. If not I'll have to go looking for them.

Og

 

[impressive]

Collaborative writing helps me a great deal -- 'cause someone else is counting on me.

Similarly, contests are easier due to their deadlines. (No snide NaNo remarks, now! I had a good excuse -- and a note from my mother. So there!)

I have around 15-20 works in progress, some untouched for over a year.

I think journaling is going to (eventually) help me increase my prose output. I've been doing it for a couple weeks, and my entries are getting progressively longer and more richly detailed. *nods*

 

[matriarch]

I haven't finished a story since our collaboration, well over a year ago. Currently I have around a dozen incomplete scripts. Like you say, not good.

Even my current distraction isn't a good enough excuse. I've just got lazy and complacent, and I have no idea how to get out of it.

 

[Boota]

I completely agree with Dr. M. Just hammer something out. Anything. Even something bad is something, and that can lead to good stuff.

Something that helps me in not getting writers block, which I've never had, is that I have a lot of creative outlets. I know there are a lot of people on Lit that do, too. If I don't feel like writing fiction, I'll write a song or a poem. Yeah, it's writing, but it's really a totally different animal. I'll draw a picture. Wing a recipe just from what I find in the fridge and the spice cabinet.

Still, if you aren't writing and you want to there is only on solution. Just write.

 

[EmeraldKitten]

Oh good.. I'm not alone! lol.
Thanks everyonr, for your input.
You're all gems.

I have some time to kill today, so I think I'm going to sit here and force myself, lol.
You guys are right.. if it turns out to be shit, at least I'm writing.


Oh this is gonna be fun!


(Dr. M, that whip idea might be just the thing. )


Okay.. I'm off to write!

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

Oh good.. I'm not alone! lol.
Thanks everyonr, for your input.
You're all gems.

I have some time to kill today, so I think I'm going to sit here and force myself, lol.
You guys are right.. if it turns out to be shit, at least I'm writing.

Oh this is gonna be fun!

(Dr. M, that whip idea might be just the thing. )

Okay.. I'm off to write!

Just in case you're still hanging around.

The "just write something, damn it" approach is usually best, but the opposite can work. Just get the hell away from writing for a week or two. A couple of the folks posting here mentioned they developed "witers block" after finishing major projects. Sometimes writers just need to recharge.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[Black Tulip]

Yup, I'm with Rumple on this one.
I know I was totally off writing after finishing NaNo last year.
Turned to other creative activities for a while.

What can also help, is writing in a different way or place. Pencil instead of pc, things like that.

http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/snowman/cool.gif

 

[Guest]

I have about a dozen unfinished...

I don't take such a sanguine view of incompletions. Of course it happens that we get stuck and shelve things, and it happens more than we'd like, but if you've got 18 things you haven't finished, you've got a problem that needs addressing.

I say finish something. Just hold your nose and finish it. Force yourself. Writing isn't all fun and joy, and if you keep on waiting for your muse to finish things for you, you're going to wait a long, long time. Discipline is a big part of writing.

If you finish a story and it's crap, you at least have the option of coming back to it and fixing it. If you don't finish it, then you've got nothing but the makings of a bad habit.

Nose to the grindstone. Shoulder to the wheel. Don't make me get my whip. (None of that til you finish! )

Can't we just delete all those unfinished stories instead of completing them?


I'm just kidding...kinda.

 

[Purple Sage]

I'm really a painter rather than a writer, so my view may not really be that helpful, but painters get blocked too. As for incomplete work- I have nearly a hundred pieces that just need some of this or a little of that before they're done... and countless things that have gone horribly wrong and will never be finished, but are kept around as a kind of note to go back and do it right some time. Sometimes (mostly) there's a technical problem that I don't know quite how to solve- so I start something else to work out the problem and come back to the piece when I know what I'm doing. (In some cases that has taken twenty years or more...) Sometimes that 'working out' of technical problems leads me so far off from the original painting that I'm just not interested in finishing it. Until one day, years later, I am.
The times when I can't finish anything at all are generally because there's something else that is demanding all my attention. I hate those times (have been in one for quite awhile now), but usually the thing to do is just deal with whatever it is, get it out of the way, and then go back to the good stuff. You can't expect yourself to be brilliant when reality is grinding you down.

 

[TxRad]

Lately I don't have writers block as much as boredom... I get bored with stories and just quit working on them....

I do have a new series... I gave myself 10 days... to write it... 60k words later I have 4 parts... 2 more in my head.. you just have to find the right incentive....

 

[3113]

Forcing it works for some writers--not for others. Some writers can plot out a story and write it non-stop, some can get into the "writing daily" mode and make it work. Others can't. They start and stop--they get blocks.

Blocks can mean a lot of different things: Sometimes a story needs to go in a drawer for a while so the writer can come back to it with fresh eyes and say, "Oh! of course!"

A lot of time a writer needs to get out of the friggin' house (office). They need to read, talk, do, discuss, exercise--rather than being isolated. They may need to talk to another writer. The world is where we get our ideas and if we cut ourselves off from it, we kill ideas.

But what absolutely positively works the best...if a story is stalled, time to change direction. Change the location. Change the action. Raymond Chandler (I think it was) always said that if his story stalled, it was time to drop in a man with a gun. So. It's time to drop in a man with a gun. Or an alien from outer space. Or something to knock the story off it's track and onto another road...and get you, the writer, interested in it again.

Best advice I know.

 

[Bizkit_Writer]

I've had writers block myself and it will end! Just give it time, take a break from writing and do other things and slowly but surely ideas will come....

 

[oggbashan]

Thanks

This thread made me start work again on two Valentine's Day entries.

I've added about 1000 words to each before stalling again. Maybe tomorrow?

Oh ****! It is tomorrow.

Og