Writer's block. What's your cure?

[eroticstoryspinner]

A lot of good advice here. The big takeaway for me is that one size doesn't fit all. I tend to bounce between my erotic and mainstream stories and let storylines percolate in the back brain.

One thing that you may want to consider if you are having trouble writing is underlying causes. I lost my soulmate and wife of many decades a little over a year ago. Shortly after the one year anniversary I started having trouble with making word count. That has really slowed down my writing process. Not the ideas, but the act of actually putting what is in my head down on "paper" I could not figure out why till I got some good advice that just because you think you have grieved doesn't mean you have finished grieving.

While hopefully that is not a issue for most of the folks in the Hangout, you might want to see if something else is going on that may be impacting your writing.

 

[MColton84]

A lot of good advice here. The big takeaway for me is that one size doesn't fit all. I tend to bounce between my erotic and mainstream stories and let storylines percolate in the back brain.

It's definitely interesting to see how many different ways people can deal with the same problem. As well as, how many people don't have it.

 

[MsNatalie99]

For a forum designed for Authors of erotic fiction, It's kind of surprising that no one has said that they use sex to help with their writer's block. Not a bad thing, I just expected to see that at least three or four times.

 

[KeithD]

Perhaps a lot, like I am, are now living in the past with their writing.

 

[MColton84]

For a forum designed for Authors of erotic fiction, It's kind of surprising that no one has said that they use sex to help with their writer's block. Not a bad thing, I just expected to see that at least three or four times.

Honestly, if I did, it wouldn't be something that I would share in a public forum. I'm actually fairly old fashioned. I can speak crudely about fictional sex, but my personal relationship with my wife is a different story.

 

[SisterJezabel]

Honestly, if I did, it wouldn't be something that I would share in a public forum. I'm actually fairly old fashioned. I can speak crudely about fictional sex, but my personal relationship with my wife is a different story.

Yeah. I occasionally use experience in my writing, but thinking that having sex or even an orgasm might help writer's block, nah, not for me- the endorphins make me sleepy most of the time!

 

[sirhugs]

Yeah. I occasionally use experience in my writing, but thinking that having sex or even an orgasm might help writer's block, nah, not for me- the endorphins make me sleepy most of the time!

and here I thought that blaming my insomnia on lack of sex was just whining...

 

[MaxSebastian]

I don't leave holes. I will fill in more later, but I steam from beginning to end in the first draft.

Sounds like you're a pure pantser. I'm more of a scattergun pantser -- I still can't abide too much planning, it totally kills a story for me, but I can move on to write other parts of the story and come back to finish scenes I've left unfinished.

One possible cause of writer's block, for me, was trying out the planning approach to writing stories. If I sketch out a story plan in much detail, usually I end up losing interest. I seem to prefer to see how the story turns out as I go, perhaps with a few upcoming twists and turns in my head while I get there (which may or may not actually happen, depending on how the story develops).

 

[MaxSebastian]

For a forum designed for Authors of erotic fiction, It's kind of surprising that no one has said that they use sex to help with their writer's block. Not a bad thing, I just expected to see that at least three or four times.

I totally lose my mind when I have sex.

A switched-off brain doesn't help with my writer's block.

 

[8letters]

Writer's block isn't a problem for me. I have more than a dozen stories that I've mapped out, some of which are partial written. My main problem is that I rarely feel like writing. A lot of the time I spend "writing" a story is actually editing, and I'm rarely in the mood to edit. There are so many things I enjoy more than writing.

 

[KeithD]

Sounds like you're a pure pantser. I'm more of a scattergun pantser -- I still can't abide too much planning, it totally kills a story for me, but I can move on to write other parts of the story and come back to finish scenes I've left unfinished.

I think I do a fair amount of planning--but that I've done so much writing for so long that it's organized and has to reach a certain threshold before I recognize it as a story. Most of my planning goes on in my mind, somewhere in the background, and I need that to reach a certain point before I sit down to get it written. I need a hook, a sense of the characters (although, apparently unlike a lot here, characters aren't the most important element for me), a general plot, a setting, an idea of how it's unique from what I've written before or would be another inviting slice of an apple, and a working title before I recognize it as a story to be written. If writer's block is a problem for me, it must occur sometime before the story is coming together in my mind.

 

[MsNatalie99]

I don't get writer's block. Then again, I only write when I feel moved to do so. Also, to be fair, my longest work was 900 words. I'm sure there's more out there like me who doesn't care enough to work through a block, and those who struggle with it.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

Stare at it up to an hour.

Reread it.

Write something else.

Leave it alone for a bit.