The dreaded writer's block....

[Aurora_s_Flame]

I had been a roll! The words were flowing from my finger tips almost faster than I could type them. Then I slowed down, thought my story through, and re-wrote bits and pieces. Then I started getting overly critical...and I haven't even gotten to the point of writing the "heart" of the story. It still feels like the beginning to me...a good beginning (I think) though now I think it's too cheesey/too sappy/too something, or maybe not enough of something else! *grumble*

I just want to get the words moving again, at least in my head, if not on paper.

What do you do when you're "stuck"? How do you get your creative juices flowing again? Any suggestions?

~ Rora :blahwriterblah:

 

[Wills]

I wait up until I am too tired to think, for some reason that is when the words start flowing.

Is there a scientific explanation for this, I am at my most creative in the hours of darkness?

Just write, anything, post to every thread here, one or two you actually have to think about - no offence intended to anyone, you know how much I love pointless banter - that may just kick in the action.

Will's

PS have a bunch of roses to cheer you up

 

[oggbashan]

Do something else.

Sometimes this advice works: Go out of the room, come back in and sit down to write what you look like to someone who saw you come in.

Or this: stop writing that story and start another. Look at the first story in a week's time.

Og

 

[Guest]

 

[wildsweetone]

some ideas.

*Try thinking ahead... Start at another scene that piques your interest and gets your fingertips flying over the keyboard again. Just write and leave the editing until after the writing is finished.


*Switch to using pen and paper for a while.


*Go on an Artist's date. Take yourself out for an exciting trip somewhere you've never been or to look at something you've not seen for a while. Open your eyes and really look at all the interesting details about you. Then go back and write your heart out. Creative people give so much that often we forget to replenish our stores.

 

[pop_54]

Yeppers

I'm with Oggie on this one, do something else and fall back on it, the more I try to force myself to write or carry on writing a certain piece that's gone flat, the worse it gets, this is just me though, maybe one or more of the other methods will work for you.

Don't leave it too long if you do take a break though or it'll go completely.

 

[gauchecritic]

I take what used to be in Perdita's sig. line as a reasonable course. Can't remember exactly.

Try. Fail. Try again. Fail better. (Beckett?)

Gauche

 

[Guest]

From Samuel Beckett's last 'novel', Worstward Ho (1983):

Ever tried. Ever failed. No Matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

Sorry, Aurora, I have no advice re. writer's block.

regards, Perdita


p.s. for no good reason, another SB quote:

His plan therefore was not to refuse admission to the idea, but to keep it at bay until his mind was ready to receive it. Then let it in and pulverise it. Obliterate the bastard.

--More Pricks Than Kicks

 

[The_Fool]

I'm going to take this to another thread, but one thing I often do for a story is write an outline. The longer and more elaborate the story, the more detailed the outline. When I start my outline, it is often just that, a order to the actions I want to take place. I then go back and elaborate on the actions, placing key phrases or observations. When I finally get around to writing, I have the flow of the story in place and often write the story right on top of the outline.

The reason I brought this up is maybe you can't see the forest for the trees. By charting out where you want to go, you get beyond the more detailed activity of writing a specific scene.

Hope this helps.

Fool

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I don't like the term "Writers' block" because it doesn't give you any clue as to what the problem is. All it means is that you're not writing. It's like saying someone's 'sick'. Sick how?

Maybe you're out of ideas. Maybe you've lost interest. Maybe you've hit a plot impasse. Maybe you can't think of the right words or suddenly don't like the sound of your prose; you've written yourself into a dead end or maybe you just can't think of anything to write about. In all these cases we shrug and say it's writer's block.

In your case, it was smooth sailing and then it got rough. You got overly critical and then tired of it. Now it seems trite and maybe sappy.

I don't know. You might try showing what you have to someone and getting their opinion. Outside encourgement is the greatest motivator I know. They might tell you to just toss it. They might tell you toss it and that'll motivate you to finish it just to prove them wrong.

I just finished taking two weeks to write two pages. Discouraged, depressed, disinterested, burned out, whatever. It was Chapter 7 of a longer piece, so the work was well underway and I wanted to finish it. I had a lot of information I had to present in this chapter and I just didn't know how to do it; it just seemed beyond me, and everything I tried just stunk.

Finally I just snapped. If you want to stink, then come out and stink where I can see you, I thought. I held my nose and wrote it on the theory that it's easier to revise something than it is to write it in the first place, and it worked. This time, at least. And it didn't stink all that much either. Just part of it.

---dr.M.

 

[reohoko]

Hey!!! I remember we had this coversation like last spring before I had to have a whole summer to suffer.

It was a good conversation then too.

I know if I am having an unusually lot of work to do I am very unproductive.

If I decide I am not doing anything ever again, I am very productive.

But, I am warped.

I agree with the first three posts! Ogg's and um, I forget, dang it.

HUGS HUGS HUGS HUGS HUGS

 

[raphy]

I don't like the term "Writers' block" because it doesn't give you any clue as to what the problem is. All it means is that you're not writing. It's like saying someone's 'sick'. Sick how?

Maybe you're out of ideas. Maybe you've lost interest. Maybe you've hit a plot impasse. Maybe you can't think of the right words or suddenly don't like the sound of your prose; you've written yourself into a dead end or maybe you just can't think of anything to write about. In all these cases we shrug and say it's writer's block.

In your case, it was smooth sailing and then it got rough. You got overly critical and then tired of it. Now it seems trite and maybe sappy.

I don't know. You might try showing what you have to someone and getting their opinion. Outside encourgement is the greatest motivator I know. They might tell you to just toss it. They might tell you toss it and that'll motivate you to finish it just to prove them wrong.

I just finished taking two weeks to write two pages. Discouraged, depressed, disinterested, burned out, whatever. It was Chapter 7 of a longer piece, so the work was well underway and I wanted to finish it. I had a lot of information I had to present in this chapter and I just didn't know how to do it; it just seemed beyond me, and everything I tried just stunk.

Finally I just snapped. If you want to stink, then come out and stink where I can see you, I thought. I held my nose and wrote it on the theory that it's easier to revise something than it is to write it in the first place, and it worked. This time, at least. And it didn't stink all that much either. Just part of it.

---dr.M.

Dr M. is a wise, wise man.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Dr M. is a wise, wise man.

*L* Right, Raph.

Fabulously wealthy too.

---dr.M.

 

[Dirt Man]

Everything you have seen thus far on this thread is good advice. It may not be good for you, but you can do the trial and error thing to find out. The question you should be asking yourself though is why do I write? Is it for the money, the prestige at your locale cocktail party, or do you really want to say something? If it is the latter, then keep that in mind, and start where you left off with that. Continue until you have finished. Set the work aside for a while, and I mean days, not hours, then come back and do the editing. Then edit it again, and again until you have what you wanted in the first place.

As Always
I Am the
Dirt Man

 

[whispering_surrender]

*L* Right, Raph.

Fabulously wealthy too.

---dr.M.

And well hung if you believe the rumors. *wink*

Whisper

 

[TheEarl]

Listen to something emotive while you write. For some reason, Nickleback seems to get my creative juices flowing, especially Never Again.

Off-topic: Did anyone else go see Nickleback in London this week? Weren't they fantastic?

On topic: Good luck with the story. Hope it works out.

The Earl