%*%#%^**($# Writer's block

[TxRad]

Please write your plot bunny, please, please?

Remind me in a couple of days when I get home.

And thanks for the fun thread. We ain't had one in a while.

 

[Angellica1612]

Remind me in a couple of days when I get home.

And thanks for the fun thread. We ain't had one in a while.

My pleasure...LOL! Oh, man, I crack myself up sometimes, I really do. That was fun!

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I dont have writers block. If you know what to do few things are real problems. That is, almost always writers block is simply a game of self inflicted STUMP THE CHUMP where you try to fake something you know nuthin about.

For example I'm reading a memoir of a soderkommando at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. The SS murdered almost every soderkommando working at the crematoria, and details of the work are rare in the Holocaust literature. But this writer was an MD who spent his time dissecting corpses Mengele was curious about, and he survived. The book is filled with revelations. Like, what circumstances might spare the life of a gassed person?

So writers block is simple ignorance.

 

[PennLady]

One writers block fixed.

That or there are some might busy fingers out there somewhere tonight.

Great thread, once again pointing out how, ah, low-key my life is in comparison...

 

[SamScribble]

I can only write when I'm in the mood. So I make sure that I'm in the mood at around 8:30 each morning.

 

[SusanJillParker]

How do you cope???

Never stare at a blank white page. Ever. Go outside and do something else, anything else.

When you return home, get a big box of crayons and a big piece of paper and draw and/or write whatever comes to mind, anything, words, pictures, lines, even scribble, so long as there is lots of color. It helps if you try to blank your mind and mindlessly write and/or draw. Use as many pages as necessary.

Now that you've made a mess of all the paper, get away from the computer and everything else that reminds you of writing. Take a break. Don't even think about it.

Then, just before you go to bed, just before you close your eyes to sleep for the night, fill your mind with all that you hoped to write, wanted to create, but couldn't.

While sleeping, your brain will percolate your problem and by morning, you'll have an abundance of ideas. It works for me every time and in 5 years, I've written nearly 1,000 stories, 100 poems, and more than 6 million words.

Of course, the other thing that you can do that will work every time is to go to a place where there is no computer, no pens, and no paper and I guarantee you that your brain will be filled with ideas that you will forget, as soon as you come near a computer or find a pen and paper (lol).

Good luck.

 

[sr71plt]

I dont have writers block.

It's easy not to have it when you don't actually write.

 

[kromen]

I go find something menial to do. Believe it or not, I learned it from watching an episode of The Big Bang Theory.

 

[Angellica1612]

Thanks so much for the great advice, everyone. I work nights, so last night in the car I let my mind drift to a story idea I've had for a couple of weeks. I couldn't figure out the motivation for a character to do something I wanted him to do. The solution suddenly came to me while I was driving (and no where near a computer or pen and paper, lol). It isn't the story I was trying to work on when I started this thread, but I'm going with it. Hopefully, it will loosen up something and I'll get that other story's sticky problem solved soon too. Thanks again!

PS - James, light of the AH (ahem), my problem wasn't ignorance. I've been in several relationships in my life, and yes, had sex. Sorry to tell you your theory is wrong, but it is. So, stuff it

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

You dont understand writers block, dear. It aint like misplacing your car keys or inability to recall the right word or forgetting a name. Its being stumped about where things go next. And not knowing is simple ignorance.

Ayn Rand says writers block is an inability to reconcile conflicted plot points. That is, you want your cake and you wanna eat it. Youre at a fork in the road and wanna go both ways.

 

[Angellica1612]

That makes no sense at all James. It isn't ignorance if I have a temporary problem working out dialog in a scene, or figuring out motivation for a character to do a particular thing. Sometimes the words won't flow, sometimes they flow so fast it's hard to keep up. Writer's block doesn't have anything to do with ignorance. It's simply a temporary block to word flow, and all writers have it on occasion. Stress, problems in other areas of life, can affect creativity. As stated above, I figured out one of my 'blocks', all by myself, last night. This didn't involve any kind of research or special learning to solve, therefore it was not ignorance blocking me. The other issue I'm having is a dialog scene, and it's just not coming out the way I want it to. I'll figure out what is wrong, and move on. You're the one who doesn't understand writer's block. Maybe you don't suffer from it because you don't actually care that what you're writing is the best possible story you can produce?

 

[PennLady]

Angellica, you're better off not responding. He's just... well, I don't know, but he sure isn't helping. I keep him on ignore anyway, and only see his posts if someone quotes them.

Glad you solved the writer's block.

 

[Angellica1612]

Thanks, Lady P I just wrote the first two chapters, and after reading them through and making a few minor edits, I am very pleased. It feels good!

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

That makes no sense at all James. It isn't ignorance if I have a temporary problem working out dialog in a scene, or figuring out motivation for a character to do a particular thing. Sometimes the words won't flow, sometimes they flow so fast it's hard to keep up. Writer's block doesn't have anything to do with ignorance. It's simply a temporary block to word flow, and all writers have it on occasion. Stress, problems in other areas of life, can affect creativity. As stated above, I figured out one of my 'blocks', all by myself, last night. This didn't involve any kind of research or special learning to solve, therefore it was not ignorance blocking me. The other issue I'm having is a dialog scene, and it's just not coming out the way I want it to. I'll figure out what is wrong, and move on. You're the one who doesn't understand writer's block. Maybe you don't suffer from it because you don't actually care that what you're writing is the best possible story you can produce?

You cant be more wrong. Here's why.

If you witnessed a school shooting you sure as shit could write up what you saw. Reporters do not have writers block. They arent allowed the luxury of writers block. If you interviewed a nutcase you sure as shit could write up your interview. No one gets away with writers block but the artsy-fartsy dabblers.

I dont have it, cuz I plot what I scribble, so I know where I'm headed and who's gwine with me. I think its cuz I'm so steeped in music. Music has form and architecture, and composers do not slap crap together without design. Beethoven was notorious for revisions, but revisions arent the 1st draft.

LIKE DIS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luQdlGlYU70&feature=related

As for PINHEAD LADY. One gets the sense that her life and writing is a squirrel cage like relentlessness that goes no where.

 

[TxRad]

For someone who talks about writing this and writing that, JBJ still doesn't have a story posted to Lit or anywhere else.

He is full of what he has read but doesn't seem to be able to grasp the pen.

So Jimmy, when ya get your story written what do you do with it? It could be your mattress stuffing for all we know. So come on and lay something on us.

Dazzle us.

 

[Handley_Page]

I think the trick is to write something completely different; not erotic but humorous, perhaps ?.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

For someone who talks about writing this and writing that, JBJ still doesn't have a story posted to Lit or anywhere else.

He is full of what he has read but doesn't seem to be able to grasp the pen.

So Jimmy, when ya get your story written what do you do with it? It could be your mattress stuffing for all we know. So come on and lay something on us.

Dazzle us.

I have stories posted elsewhere.

 

[sr71plt]

Sure you do. *wink, wink*

When you posted something here that you claimed was your own, you were caught plagarizing. Couldn't even produce a paragraph of your own original writing.

You don't write anything but volunteered book reviews on Amazon.

 

[RedMonkeyButt]

As much as y'all seem to not like him (I haven't been here very long, note the 'virgin' over there to the left <<<<<<) I kind of agree with this JBJ person. *hides before I'm beaned with something blunt*

*EDIT* Oh damn, looky there, it changed to experienced. When did that happen?

Almost every time I come on a block it's because my characters want to do one thing while I want to go in a different direction. Yes, my characters are individual voices in my head. Don't judge. I think this is why the "talking to myself" thing works for me. I can work out which way is going to work best for the rest of the story. I can take one path as far as it goes and still cut back to take the other. Generally the one that goes farther is the one I take. I like to have my cake and eat it, too.

It's not ignorance, but a simple inability to beat my subconscious into submission and make the words flow the way I want them to.

You cant be more wrong. Here's why.

If you witnessed a school shooting you sure as shit could write up what you saw. Reporters do not have writers block. They arent allowed the luxury of writers block. If you interviewed a nutcase you sure as shit could write up your interview. No one gets away with writers block but the artsy-fartsy dabblers.

However, I disagree with this shat smear on my screen. Reporters do to have writer's block. They simply have the luxury of someone telling them what to write and when they need to have it done. Any jackwad can write an article when they're given a theme and a timeline. It's a lot harder to sit and write a full story - start to finish - from your own mind. Even if you impose a timeline on yourself, prepare to the nth degree with plots and outlines, you will eventually hit a wall. Either that or you will write something that leaves a cardboard taste in the back of your throat because you know you sacrificed quality to skirt around the wall so you could meet your requirements.

And having interviewed and worked with nutcases, that's not an easy thing to write down. It's why PhDs are paid the big bucks. They're paid to listen to the shit that spews from those minds and then make enough sense of it to write it down. When you next get the opportunity to sit down with a criminal nutcase, you let me know how easy it is to write about it later. Transcribing an interview is easy. Making it interesting to read is a whole other story.

 

[sr71plt]

I think that most of the time someone gets blocked on writing, it's because they are stressed by something. Something is intruding. And only part of the time is the writing that's intruding.

Unless you write for a living and are on a hard deadline, I think the best thing you can do is to break away and go do something else. Get rid of the stress. You don't have to be writing just then (or ever if your muse doesn't send you back to the computer).

And news reporters are following a formula and plugging research they have done into the formula. Although you have to be facile with words, if you're a seasoned reporter, as the previous poster notes, there's not much blocking that could be done on the writing part.

JBJ just regurgitates what he reads and, for posting, just packages that in what he thinks will irritate other posters. He's probably a good, prolific reader. That's quite different from being a writer, though.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

As much as y'all seem to not like him (I haven't been here very long, note the 'virgin' over there to the left <<<<<<) I kind of agree with this JBJ person. *hides before I'm beaned with something blunt*

*EDIT* Oh damn, looky there, it changed to experienced. When did that happen?

Almost every time I come on a block it's because my characters want to do one thing while I want to go in a different direction. Yes, my characters are individual voices in my head. Don't judge. I think this is why the "talking to myself" thing works for me. I can work out which way is going to work best for the rest of the story. I can take one path as far as it goes and still cut back to take the other. Generally the one that goes farther is the one I take. I like to have my cake and eat it, too.

It's not ignorance, but a simple inability to beat my subconscious into submission and make the words flow the way I want them to.



However, I disagree with this shat smear on my screen. Reporters do to have writer's block. They simply have the luxury of someone telling them what to write and when they need to have it done. Any jackwad can write an article when they're given a theme and a timeline. It's a lot harder to sit and write a full story - start to finish - from your own mind. Even if you impose a timeline on yourself, prepare to the nth degree with plots and outlines, you will eventually hit a wall. Either that or you will write something that leaves a cardboard taste in the back of your throat because you know you sacrificed quality to skirt around the wall so you could meet your requirements.

And having interviewed and worked with nutcases, that's not an easy thing to write down. It's why PhDs are paid the big bucks. They're paid to listen to the shit that spews from those minds and then make enough sense of it to write it down. When you next get the opportunity to sit down with a criminal nutcase, you let me know how easy it is to write about it later. Transcribing an interview is easy. Making it interesting to read is a whole other story.

The issue isnt editing and polishing, the issue is cobbling a story together.

As for criminals and nutcases, the stories you craft from your interviews gotta make an impression on judges and state attorneys and panels of medical doctors, cuz the outcomes are important. Your story unleashes action. Someone's ox is gonna get gored.

 

[GinaTina]

I don't have writer's block. I have: I Don't Want to Write, Fuck Off block.

Potato, Potahto... tomato, tomahto...


But seriously, if you ever figure out how to deal with it, let me know.

 

[mikey2much]

Have more then one story in the works

When I hit a blockage, I get up roll me a fat one and take a break.

When I come back to the key board I look over all the stories I have started and sometimes read what I have already written. By that I mean other stories that are still not finished, the scenes of my past blockages.

It is surprising how many times that helps me to see where the story needs to go. I may not get back to the orginal story for days but I am writing, and the stories grow toward completion.

I kind of have a revolver system where when one story bogs down I just click the clyinder and another unfinished story rolls under the hammer.

 

[sr71plt]

As for criminals and nutcases, the stories you craft from your interviews gotta make an impression on judges and state attorneys and panels of medical doctors, cuz the outcomes are important. Your story unleashes action. Someone's ox is gonna get gored.

All a formula on collection--based on your medica vehicle's policies and recast, if necessary, by your media vehicle's editor(s).

It's obvious that you've never done it, JBJ.

 

[lovecraft68]

Another thing that helps is to edit something you have written. It gets the mind working and you're doing something productive as well.