• Our friends from the Johto Times are hosting a favorite Pokémon poll - and we'd love for you to participate! Click here for information on how to vote for your favorites!
  • Welcome to PokéCommunity! Register now and join one of the best fan communities on the 'net to talk Pokémon and more! We are not affiliated with The Pokémon Company or Nintendo.
    Register

Writer's block

Auticorn

Auticorn

RJP is my king, and I am his queen.
  • Very Chatty Chatot Pokémon General General Master Ball
    • 6,957
    Posts
    20
    Years
    What do you do when you have writer's block? I'm kind of struggling with it at the moment. I'm already listening to music, and it's not doing me much good. :/ I've tried just writing down thoughts or whatever comes to my mind, but that doesn't help either.

    Any other tips on getting rid of it instead letting it run it's course? D: I've had it off and on for a month or two now. It's driving me insane. ;o;
     
    Ahh, writer's block... I feel your pain.

    When I have bouts of it, I look up the 100 Theme Challenge, pick a theme and write what comes to mind. It gets the creative juices flowing again, and gets me back in the mood to write too. Even if it's just a little paragraph I end up with, it's something. It's also fun to just do from time to time :)

    Another trick is to take a walk somewhere that might inspire you - a park for example. I got a lot of inspiration from park walks.
     
    Delirious Absol said:
    Ahh, writer's block... I feel your pain.

    When I have bouts of it, I look up the 100 Theme Challenge, pick a theme and write what comes to mind. It gets the creative juices flowing again, and gets me back in the mood to write too. Even if it's just a little paragraph I end up with, it's something. It's also fun to just do from time to time :)

    Another trick is to take a walk somewhere that might inspire you - a park for example. I got a lot of inspiration from park walks.
    Click to expand...

    Most of the time, I get from watching movies or this one Japanese drama called 1 litre of tears. It's about a girl who had a condition called spinocerebellar disorder. She got it when she was fifteen and died from it at the age of 25. The reason the drama inspires me is because it's based on the journal she wrote about her life with this condition. Not only that, but she continued to write even when the condition prevented her from using her hands or fingers. It's a disease where your trapped inside a body that won't function the way you want it to. You become paralyzed to the point where you are bed-ridden, but it's progression is usually very slow, depending on life span and what not. The drama was based on a true story.

    Anyway, I also get it from music. The story I'm trying to write is based on Selena's (not Gomez Selena) I Could Fall in Love. It's about this girl who meets this guy. Well, the guy has suffered from a number of heart breaks by many girls. It's led him to lack trust in any of them. He doesn't hate girls or anything... it's just he doesn't trust them. So, it's up to this girl to try and mend his broken heart by showing him she's not like the others who dumped him.

    I can't seem to get a good start on my chapters. I'm horrible at plot development because I don't know how to do it. I'm working on character development, which is a good thing. I just can't seem to get the story going. ;o;
     
    Your stories sound very involved and thought out, and interesting too! However, I think when it comes to writing, we're very alike - I saw your reply to the 'Your Writing Process' thread.

    Plot development is a tricky one. I personally just write from my mind. I rarely jot anything down and if I do it's not much (and often changes anyway.) I can't stick to a chapter plan! I develop a vague plot, and add in events as I work towards it. (I'm 35 chapters in to my current fanfic and I'm writing a side plot that links to the main one but I'd never planned to write it 20 chapters ago...)

    Because of this, I do hit writer's block though. Like you, I use music that inspires me. My current main inspirational songs are The End is Where We Begin by Thousand Foot Crutch and another of their songs Courtesy Call (plus a LOT of GlitchxCity remixes)

    I think character development is one of my stronger points so I can give you a little advice there if you like? One thing I like to do is interview my characters or get one of my writing buddies to have their characters interview them for me - a great way for us both to develop them! And it's really fun too. It gets you inside their heads. It's also a great distraction that might cure some writer's block? If you haven't already, maybe give it a go :) you might even find something out about your characters you didn't already know!
     
    Unfortunately, the only surefire way I've found to beat writer's block is to force it. Sit down, close your browser (or unplug your internet), open your writing program of choice, and make your fingers do the typey thing. It will get better after a while, I promise.

    Other possibly effective methods include music, Rainymood.com, taking a shower, talking to someone about your story, writing with paper and pen, and sleeping enough and eating well. You could also write a different scene, work on a different story, or just brainstorm various details about your story. I also draw my characters occasionally, which seems to do wonders for my muse.

    I had writer's block that lasted for ~6 years, off and on. I got some writing done during that time, but it was a depressingly pitiful amount. Eventually I just said "screw it, I'm revamping my first fic" last November and forced myself to do it. Since then I've written more than the entire last six years combined, and it's making me happier than I've been in a long time. I have a job that can be really stressful, and my commute is the absolute worst, but since I've started writing again people have noticed a marked improvement in my mood.

    So yeah, sometimes you just have to do it. It will be worth the pain.
     
    I'm somewhat in agreement with what Bardrothen has suggested. Automatic writing, simply writing the first thing that comes into your head - even if it makes no sense - can be a good way to overcome writer's block. Especially if the block comes from being preoccupied with something. Another suggestion would be to write something completely unrelated to the project that has you stumped. A little bit of writing just for you.

    However txteclipse's suggestion is probably most useful if you really feel like you can't continue a project. Simply make yourself write, even if you hate every word you're writing, just do it. Edit it or delete later, if need be.
     
    Seconding the recommendation to "freewrite," as Bardothren suggested. Even if what you're writing has absolutely nothing to do with anything, it's at least some sort of writing to get you in the right mode. It gets your mind thinking of writing, it gets your fingers moving to create letters (however you do it). Consider it a "warm-up" to your actual writing.

    I had writer's block for a few months. I knew what to write, but everything on the paper just sounded wrong. It was forced and terrible, and I wasn't happy. So I took a complete break from any sort of writing, except for freewriting about my days in a little notebook. I found that complete boredom helped me to get my thoughts in order. I completely broke through my writer's block by sitting in my backyard with nothing but a piece of paper and a pen to entertain me. My mind was able to drift to my stories and everything came together again.
     
    I second walks and music, and contribute watching something in the genre you're trying to write.
     
    I have to step away for a while, or else I get too frustrated to do anything. I'll normally step away for a day or two, then come back and force myself to write. More often than not, it's about nothing in particular, but it's writing nonetheless.
     
    I go and write about something else. That's what got me into the rp section. I couldn't figure out what I was doing with my story so I went and joined in on someone else's. Sometimes writing from a different perspective helps to free my mind up and then it just clicks in my head and it starts flowing out. Sometimes. Other times I just get into a rut and leave for months at a time and then it hits me when I'm taking a shower one day. Pretty much doing anything in the bathroom helps to get my creative juices flowing though and I can usually get a good chunk written or recorded (in the case of a shower) before I get out.
     
    txteclipse said:
    Unfortunately, the only surefire way I've found to beat writer's block is to force it. Sit down, close your browser (or unplug your internet), open your writing program of choice, and make your fingers do the typey thing. It will get better after a while, I promise.

    Other possibly effective methods include music, Rainymood.com, taking a shower, talking to someone about your story, writing with paper and pen, and sleeping enough and eating well. You could also write a different scene, work on a different story, or just brainstorm various details about your story. I also draw my characters occasionally, which seems to do wonders for my muse.

    I had writer's block that lasted for ~6 years, off and on. I got some writing done during that time, but it was a depressingly pitiful amount. Eventually I just said "screw it, I'm revamping my first fic" last November and forced myself to do it. Since then I've written more than the entire last six years combined, and it's making me happier than I've been in a long time. I have a job that can be really stressful, and my commute is the absolute worst, but since I've started writing again people have noticed a marked improvement in my mood.

    So yeah, sometimes you just have to do it. It will be worth the pain.
    Click to expand...

    Wait, what's rainymood.com? I checked it out but... I don't really understand it. O_o

    Anyway, I think most of my writer's block is due to excessive anxiety too. I've been getting a lot of anxiety for some reason where I don't want to do anything. Like, I just don't want to do the work or something. D: It's really weird and bothersome.
     
    I just force it a lot of the time - I just ramble until suddenly things start to come together and I know what I want to write. And if I'm really not feeling it, I just put the work on hiatus and work on something else until I can bear to look at the original work again.
     
    You must log in or register to reply here.
    Back
    Top