I'm stuck...

[azrael13]

How do you guys break your writer's block?

I pretty much have my entire story, "Sweet November", outlined but over the last couple months I have had a hard time finishing it. I wrote a large portion of it all at once in the late fall/early winter, but lately I don't have the will to write.
I do find myself thinking about the upcoming chapters on a regular basis, but I struggle to find the motivation to finish it as well as the perfect words.

What do you do when you feel like you have a good, well received story that you just can seem to finish?

Here's a link to my stories if you care to look before you comment.
http://www.literotica.com:81/stories/memberpage.php?uid=761668&page=submissions

 

[Nasha]

Hi azrael13,

I know how dreadful it can be, having poured yourself into a story that then seems to refuse to be finished. Most of my first novel-length thing poured out of me almost effortlessly, and then it took me about a year to wrap up the final couple chapters.

To write at all well, I have to somehow get my head into the world of my story, where I feel the character's emotions. When I hit a dry spell, I'm only able to think about plot and dialogue and setting from a distant, rational perspective, and that just doesn't work. That is, personally, I can force the writing out, if I feel I have to, but I can see the difference in the writing when I do that. The same feeling just isn't there.

To get back into that space where my head's really in the story, it usually helps to read over what I've already written. I get caught up almost at a reader level, as opposed to a writer leve. Then, when I'm sucked back into the story, I can connect to the characters and what's happening to them, again.

Good luck getting back in it.

Nasha

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Get drunk. Get laid. It works

 

[TxRad]

Blocks happen to me all the time.... That's probably why I have over a hundred stories in three or four different folders. Like was mentioned before, I lose the feel for the story. I find going to something else helps get my mind off the first story. Then after a while I can come back and read it and get the feeling back....

Of course then you have another story the same way and it goes on and on....

Welcome btw and good luck...

Tx

 

[writelove]

I think the best solution is just to write. It may be crap, but do it. I think if it requires marvelous inspiration all the time, nothing will be written.

I have read a good bit of what published writers have said about this. That was their suggestion - write. Uninspired at the beginning, let the words hit the page. The other suggestion they made was - read.

I can't say that I am a great writer. That is not the point. When I write, I try not to think of how unispired I am, how I am simply not into the story. As I write, I begin to lose myself into my words. I am no longer writing some listless sentences, but the words and the story have melded somehow.

I know this sounds a bit crazy, but it does happen.

So what if some of it seems like junk later. If a person can't write unless it is this marvelous artistic creation then little will be written. That's what editing is for anyway. The forgetful immersion is where brilliance occurs.

And drinking doesn't hurt.

Here is another way of looking at it. Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn. When they play their music they don't sit pondering about the need for inspiration before they start a concert. They just start playing. The inspiration comes later as they fall into the music.

I also believe one other thing. I do not believe that there is this one group of gifted people who are able to spin a tale, turn a phrase, mesmerize with a metaphor. Everyone has the Right to Write.

I have already gone far off topic -- sorry. I will shut up now.

 

[azrael13]

Thanks for the help... I will try it all and see what works.

Thanks again!

 

[tickledkitty]

I don't have a lot of experience with this, but something struck me as I read your post. November. You said you wrote the bulk of it during late fall/early winter. Do you think the weather and general feeling of this time of year have something to do with it? Maybe you need to take yourself back to what fall feels like. The smells, the cool crispness of the air, pumpkin pie, falling leaves, the holidays approaching. It's all magic for me. Maybe something as easy as burning a pumpkin pie candle while you write will do it for you. Anyway...just a thought.