Tips for Writer's Block

[scheherazade_79]

I'm stumped. Any suggestions, anyone?

 

[SummerMorning]

Help me too!

 

[impressive]

I'm stumped. Any suggestions, anyone?

Are you stuck on a scene? Blocked for ideas? What kind of stumped?

 

[carsonshepherd]

I've been stranded for 10 days and only this morning had the urge to write again. I was in back pain, mad at my boyfriend, and disgusted with life in general...i thought these reasons were why I wasn't writing, but it turned out I was miserable because I wasn't writing.

I couldn't get past one scene, because I hadn't fully explained the reasons behind it. Once I figured out why a certain character did what he did, I sailed on through.

My advice: take it back to where it stopped working, tear it down and start from there. Sometimes it means deleting a paragraph, sometimes a page, sometimes a whole chapter. But for me, it always works.

 

[scheherazade_79]

Are you stuck on a scene? Blocked for ideas? What kind of stumped?

Feeling restless and antsy... I just can't seem to get myself in that escape-from-reality frame of mind, and it's been going on for weeks.

 

[scheherazade_79]

Thanks for the advice, Carson. And good luck with your writing, Summer.

 

[impressive]

Feeling restless and antsy... I just can't seem to get myself in that escape-from-reality frame of mind, and it's been going on for weeks.

Hmmm ...

When I can't make the words flow, I work on outlines or character profiles (for longer works).

When I don't have ideas, I do some editing.

As for escape-from-reality ... a vibrator works well.

 

[TheEarl]

Find makework.

Sit down and set yourself a challenge. I've got one from my friend which I'm happy to share with you - "Write a sex scene in which something (or lots of things) goes very very wrong."

Work on somehting that's completely meaningless, to get your stride going.

The Earl

 

[Quiet_Cool]

Just write something. Whether or not it's any good makes no difference. The process of placing words down can have the valuable effect of spurring some thought and creativity. If that doesn't work by itself, try going back and finding something you've already written, but had a point where uncertainty in direction crept in. Go to that point, or possibly a bit before it, and start writing again, this time going in a direction other than the one you originally decided upon. The familiarity of the old story can help get the juices flowing again, the feeling of already moving forward and having direction can be effective.

But sit down and write, no matter what.

Q_C

 

[Guest]

I'm stumped. Any suggestions, anyone?

I can get tips? Shit! That might have paid some bills. 10%would be good but I'll take what I can get.

 

[TxRad]

I had a bad block going on a while back and someone in another thread advised me to put a picture that caught my interest on the monitor as background....

I thought it sounded silly but within several hours I had ideas for three stories and have now finished two of them....

Got to get the brain in the mood....

 

[elsol]

Work on something else...

I've been 'blocked' on a story for six months... so I just keep writing other stories while things work themselves out.

Sincerely,
ElSol

 

[SummerMorning]

Thanks for the advice, Carson. And good luck with your writing, Summer.

Tx... yesterday after about five doses of slightly illegal substance I had a *flash* breaktrough on a topic (a board game) utterly unrelated to my writing (a thesis on religious violence) and that has helped...

 

[scheherazade_79]

I actually wrote something today - at work. This is a worrying new development, because while I'm at work I should be... ermm... working. Summer, I tried the illegal approach, but not even that was working for me. I ended up just playing video games and eating ice cream. It was a very enjoyable afternoon, though

 

[SummerMorning]

Today I wrote two stunningly interesting parts, on Durkheim and Freud. Whoopee.