On Writer's Block

[PennLady]

I stumbled across a Twitter Q&A with Phil Robinson, a screenwriter (Field of Dreams, among other credits. The entire Q&A looks interesting, but here's his thoughts on writer's block. (Hope the link works.)

Q: As I writer myself I find it hard to stay committed to finishing a script. Do you have any tips for beating writer's block and maintaining a passion for the story?

A: My first advice is to not call it "writer's block". Once we give a syndrome a name, it's almost an excuse not to write. What I believe happens when we think we're "blocked" is that we simply don't know what comes next. So when that happens to me, I just get very simple: what does the character want to do? What does he need to do? What's stopping him? If I can't answer that question, then I need to go deeper into the character and make their situation more complicated - come up with deeper needs and more difficult obstacles. And here's the thing to remember: if you know what comes next, nothing can stop you from writing all day and all night. So make it easier on yourself. Know that you don't have a psychological condition stopping you - you simply have what we all have: the need to know what comes next. And good luck. /p

 

[cfnmchap]

I stumbled across a Twitter Q&A with Phil Robinson, a screenwriter (Field of Dreams, among other credits. The entire Q&A looks interesting, but here's his thoughts on writer's block. (Hope the link works.)

I think of writers block as a pause in writing that can be used to do research, to rejuvenate, reflect and edit or simply to use as a time to rest. So I don't have a problem if I stop writing for a while (sometimes life and work take over and I do not have the energy to focus on my writing) and I think that helps me not to get unecessarily stressed.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I've said it many times, writers block is having nothing to say. And the cure for it is experience.

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

I've got millionaire's block. The last time I made a million bucks was 2004, I think from memory. Before that was 1988.

But I can't think of a single thing I would throw myself into right now or over the last several years ever since the crook Bernanke went the peculiar way on interest rates. I can't even say his move was kinky or gay or even bi. It was probably transgendered with a self-involved and self-important twist.

I don't have 'anything financial to say.' As it were.

Making big money is like fucking with money, that's for sure.

But right now the Money Supply is the lowest it's ever been, the Velocity circulation is the slowest its ever been, and the PE for equities is the highest its ever been.

Even if you wanted to fuck with some money, you would get a disease and die from it.

And what I just said ought to appear on the front page of the New York Times tomorrow but it won't because all they know is from bullshit artists.

Well fuck me, I didn't have writer's block for the last few sentences now, did I.

Signed,

Alfred Damon Runyon

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I have a 100% guaranteed method to fix writers block. It works all the time, every time. Anyone can do it, and if anyone thought about writers block they'd discover the fix, too.

That said, most of the time the fix works in minutes, sometimes it takes days, and on one occasion the fix came 5 years later.

At the moment the fix is working on 3 stories for me. I need clever endings, and the shelves are bare.

 

[sr71plt]

Hmm. I wrote a response on this and it didn't take.

I don't think I have writers' block in general--only on specific writing projects. I could always go off and work on something else with a good output flow, and I often do. Always, though, have to come back to the other project and sometimes sit on my hands for a while or otherwise procrastinate before starting writing on it again. But I always have come back. I haven't abandoned a writing project once started yet (yet).

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JAMESBJOHNSON, 6/26/15: I've been bombing the shit outta your stories just for the fuck of it. Youll never see a 3 again!
http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=1197987, post #26

 

[49greg]

I like the OP, in one sense it's just changing the description, but, since I'm a weak brained senile old man, it makes me feel better about being too lazy to exercise my brain.

 

[SamScribble]

I think if you look at writing as an art, writer's block is an occasional inevitability. If you regard writing as a craft, it's something that happens once in a blue moon - at worst. I think the last time that I had writers block was probably in 1926. Or maybe it was 1927. I probably should have made a note. But I didn't think it was that important.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I posted 23 stories thru June and got squat today. Its no mental disorder, the cupboard is bare for now. So I'm using the down time to study and think. Like....I sent a hypothesis about lesbians to a lesbian pal of mine. she read it and replied, BY GOLLY I THINK YOU NAILED IT. When I write again I'll take another break from here and maybe my wares will improve.