How do I get back into writing?

keyan88

Virgin
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Nov 28, 2012
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So I started a story on here, got three solid chapters in, and then real life happened. I wasn't able to work on it for the past year and a half, but I think I want to try to start it back up again. The problem is I have really bad writers block. Does anyone have any tips on this?
 
As with any personal transformation, YA GOTTA REALLY WANNA. IF YA DON'T WANNA, YA AIN'T GONNA. That's how I see it.

People will suggest all sorts of tricks. Treat writing like a job; assign yourself X hours daily to the task. Or treat it like a game with rewards for achievement and punishment for indolence. Or get drunk or stoned and let the ideas flow. Or whatever. But it still boils down to motivating yourself to sit at the keyboard and bleed, as Hemingway said.
 
Bottomline: Yuh gotta have something to say that interests you and the rest of us.
 
One thing that works for me:

I retype the original story, or at least the last three pages of it. Somehow it "primes the pump" and helps to put me in the space where I was when I wrote the story originally. There's a difference between processing your original story through reading and actually typing it. I don't know why, but it often works.
 
Write anything...

Or write an entry for the forthcoming Valentine's Day Contest.
 
Timely thread for me. I have been writing for a few years, but boring non fiction, eking out a few bucks here and there on some assignments.

I decided too try my hand at fiction, well erotic fiction, a few months back and I have a half dozen things started anywhere from 1-5k, but keep fizzling out.

Stopped trying a couple of months ago, but trying to get going again. Maybe I should write a damn ending then try to work up to it.
 
damppanties wrote and essay about defeating writers block. You should read it. It's helped me more than once. When all else fails I try to just write, anything. This last time it didn't work so well but I'm working on it.

http://www.literotica.com/s/cure-for-writers-block

Wow, thanks that looks fantastic. I haven't had writers block…. yet. but I've book marked that for when I do, and I'm sure I will have.
 
Timely thread for me. I have been writing for a few years, but boring non fiction, eking out a few bucks here and there on some assignments.

I decided too try my hand at fiction, well erotic fiction, a few months back and I have a half dozen things started anywhere from 1-5k, but keep fizzling out.

Stopped trying a couple of months ago, but trying to get going again. Maybe I should write a damn ending then try to work up to it.

I've done that once or twice, write the ending out and then work my way up to it. Sometimes it takes so long to write the story that the ending just comes to me and it makes more sense to get it down. Tends to help to have a goal to get the characters towards.
 
Read

I find that when my inspiration gets low, I can pump it back up by reading. I read Tolkien, Jordan, Goodkind, Heinlein, or some good stories here. Really anything that I find interesting. All of it starts my imagination going. And once my imagination starts moving then so does my writing.
 
Huh, whadayaknow, that's it. That is really it.


I recently learned to recognize where writing fails, now its obvious.

What I see is: When pros run outta steam with their plot they navel gaze or become dozents and tour-guides until inspiration returns. Like the book I'm now reading. The principal character is hot on the trail of a Nazi killer in Paris then abruptly stops to blabber about French and German cuisine for the better part of a chapter.

I tested my hypothesis on John Grisham. His first novel is a roller coaster ride, down the road its mostly psychoanalysis and museum tours.
 
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