Writer’s Block

[TarnishedPenny]

Arghhhh! Two stories 3/4 finished and now absolutely going absolutely nowhere. And looking at how well they started and what I managed to write in the past day or two, it’s like I’ve had a freaking stroke.

What do real writers do for this? (Multiple doses of single malt already considered.)

 

[KeithD]

I don't every just sit and stare at the screen for lack of what to write next (although I'll sit for a minute or two in search for the elusive word I want to use). I disengage and do something else. My mind will work the problem while I'm doing something else and invariably I'll be ready to continue when I get back to the computer again.

 

[Canchon]

I argue with the S.O. on her shopping habits, and my wish to brew a good ale. Then, talk to one of the many muses I'm using to create the story. That usually helps. If that fails, I'll go and fetch a hammer and beat myself over the head repeatedly until I find the correct inspiration.

 

[CuteSlaveLisa]

You just need more crap in your life. Job responsibilities, family responsibilities, etc. If you only have a half hour to write your brain will provide ninety minutes of content.

Lisa Ann

 

[SamScribble]

I have spent most of the past 58 years writing for a living. If you don't write, you don't eat. From time to time I remind my brain of the pleasure that comes with a good meal and a decent glass of wine. That seems to banish writers' block.

 

[Hypoxia]

Those of us who will eat whether or not we write or paint or sculpt or record may enjoy the luxury of creative blockage. Nothing FORCES me to write an April Fool bit, so I haven't. I have reams of contest/project setups with nowhere to go. Woe is me. Sniffle.

Now, if my next meal depended on producing something desirable, my ass would be in gear, for sure. If the voices in my head demanded their due, I'd be writing or singing or carving or whatever. But I get time off. Whew.

 

[ElectricBlue]

TP, you have my sympathy, but I don't have a solution. I might be slow into writing a next part, but that's usually because my subconscious says, "Nope, still mulling this bit over, not ready yet."

I go do something else - swimming is good, drawing (left brain/right brain shift), mow the lawn, sit and read (although that's a cruel suggestion, because THAT writer didn't have your problem), go for a walk, do something else. It can be several days break, and then, whoa, where did those words come from?

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I have dozens of stories I started and then... blah... nothing. So when I run into a roadblock on a current one, I go to one of the older ones and take a look. I may read it from the beginning or just from the last chapter start. After reading, one of four things happens...

1. I add to that story
2. I go on to the next one
3. I start a new story
4. I go back to the one I'm blocked on with an idea I got from the old one

Yeah, yeah, there are probably a couple of other things that could happen...

Like giving up for the day and watching TV
Giving up and watching Porn
Blah, blah, blah, yada, yada, yada.

 

[blozo]

I go play golf.
But golf is expensive and hard to master, so I'd recommend you engage in your favorite outdoor activities for a few hours.
There's just something good for the mind about time outdoors.

 

[FEELINGLUCKYPUNK]

People with weiters block got nutin to say. I never suffer from WB. Get a life.

 

[CuteSlaveLisa]

I go play golf.
But golf is expensive and hard to master, so I'd recommend you engage in your favorite outdoor activities for a few hours.
There's just something good for the mind about time outdoors.

Golf: a pastime where people walk around dropping money in holes in the ground.

 

[KeithD]

Golf: a pastime where people walk around dropping money in holes in the ground.

Sometimes it's even worse. Sometimes they are driving around doing that, not walking.

 

[blozo]

Sometimes it's even worse. Sometimes they are driving around doing that, not walking.

That would be me!

 

[TxRad]

Sometimes it's even worse. Sometimes they are driving around doing that, not walking.

Lots of golf carts around here but only one golf course on the other side of town.

As for writers block, I hear lots of sex helps. It doesn't make you write more but you're too exhausted to care.

 

[WoolyWorm]

I'm not a real writer, but what often works for me is to get away from my computer screen and write with pen and paper, preferably while sitting outside.

Since I live in a northerly region, I'm kind of screwed if I get writer's block during the winter.

 

[Hypoxia]

We live a quarter-mile up a steep, narrow, twisty, rutted dirt road from a modest, sleazy mountain golf course. Members living uphill from us bitch that we don't maintain the mud track for their powered carts. Well, they did complain, until swallowed by giant potholes.

ObTopic writer's block: Do something different but convince yourself that productivity is important. Rotsa ruck.

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

I don't think it's correct 'you' have nothing to say.

'Writer's block' may one of several quite different things.

And one of them, is that the 'human mind' (a complicate subject that few can agree upon, I'll grant) contains passages (IE doorways) - which are, effectively, also walls - to perspectives and forms of 'understanding' that our immediate consciousness will not recognize very fluently. There's where your 'block' lies... ...or can be, sometimes.

So someone can take off writing thoughts from what is essentially a conscious region of the mind and of memory, but somewhere along the line, the ACTUAL mind has maneuvered things towards one of these 'passageways.'

And THEN you're stuck while you try to find the access-way into/through the passageway itself, to whatever is on the other side, and which you do not consciously know about.

You can certainly try structured meditation, but bear in mind the need to 'let go' of the command consciousness and let your inner vision take you to where it wants to take you.

From my own recollection of what happens with me, even when I myself write something concerning a real factual thing or event that I was personally involved with, the stories are always coming from some angle or perspective I never saw before - and they come from deep dark UNconsciousness/sleep. I sleep a lot, before the 'words' that will end up onto paper, as it were, appear in my brain.

 

[Hypoxia]

'Writer's block' may one of several quite different things.

I usually interpret it as "can't think of what to write next". Several aspects of 'why' may exist, and various games and tricks can be tried, but it come down to, "words won't come when I want them." So maybe I don't "want them" hard enough. It's all my fault. I'm so weak. Shoot me now.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

There are time when my character write me into a corner that I have to back out of. It might even be sometime before I figure that out and I'll blame it on writers block.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I mentioned the "island-hopping" strategy in another thread (a hat tip to General MacArthur in the Pacific War).

This might work if you're stuck at a point but you do have a general idea where you want to go. Skip over a difficult paragraph or even a whole scene and try to write the next thing beyond it. You might even get all the way to the end - it helps to have an end in mind - before you have to go back and fill in the gap(s).

Not recommended by Dorothy Parker or most MFA programs, but it is a hack worth trying.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Step back and outline. What’s your end point? How are they going to get there? Take where you are now and go “what’s the worst thing that could happen to my character right now” and make it happen.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Thanks for the viewpoints and suggestions.

 

[Hypoxia]

Thanks for the viewpoints and suggestions.

I dunno if this will help, but back in the day, I always carried a small Sony reporter's cassette recorder, slightly larger than a king cigaret pack.

When I drove or hiked, I got ideas, and dictated whole essays and game designs onto tape, later transcribed at the keyboard. When I pedaled a bike, the rhythm forced songs from me, and I sang those fresh words onto tape. Later I switched to digital audio recorders that I can't find now. I occasionally dictate to my phone but transcribing is more of a pain. Cassette decks were best, and left archives of tapes, with some sounds suitable to mix in audio productions.

Motion drove all that. I must sit solidly to keyboard, but motion makes me talk and think and sing. Brainstorming often has me pacing the house. Stomp around whilst trying to devise what to write next. Get moving.

 

[SimonDoom]

I don't every just sit and stare at the screen for lack of what to write next (although I'll sit for a minute or two in search for the elusive word I want to use). I disengage and do something else. My mind will work the problem while I'm doing something else and invariably I'll be ready to continue when I get back to the computer again.

I'm curious if this is something you've always done or been able to do or if it's a learned behavior from years of experience. I have a working theory (mostly pulled from my ass, so bear with me) that this might be less of a problem for people who take a very practical approach to writing, seeing it as a daily task, as opposed to people, probably will less experience, who take it too seriously as embodying their artistic selves and psyche themselves out when the words don't match their artistic aspirations. I'm sure you take your writing seriously, but you seem to take a level-headed approach to it and I wonder if that makes a difference for writer's block.

I find I don't really have writer's block. If I make myself sit down I can always write something, even if it's crap. My problem is I go through phases of being lazy or distracted by other things, and weeks or months go by without submitting stories.

 

[KeithD]

I can't really say, as I haven't experienced it any other way. As far back as I can remember, my mind was spinning stories no matter what else I did and looking for the story in everything, so it was ahead of my fingers on paper, typewriter, or computer and I almost always was ready to write whenever I sat down. I've been writing on the job since early in my career, though, starting as a news editor in an around-the-clock crisis coverage operation through writing daily-coverage analysis and then editing and writing books, so I guess it's just the job as I was trained to it. I'm a multitasker, so if the writing isn't coming, more emphasis is just put to what else I am doing.