How do YOU overcome writers block?

Well, I write fanfiction so it's not exactly the same thing as writing from scratch (so to speak) but I have some tricks. I love Warehouse 13. I love the Artie character. So on my computer at work, I have a photo of Artie up on my desktop (the one where he is carrying this futuristic fishing rod/laser kind of thing). I put it up there, among other shots from the show to inspire me to write. I stare at it on and off throughout the day and it'll make me hungry to go home and come up with something. That's step one. Step two is getting in touch with other friends who love the show and running ideas past them. They can either say yay to them or nix them (though nixing is very very rare). Then we go back and forth, half serious, half joking about what we'd like to see happen in that scene or story or too that character. Sometimes it motivates us to want to write scenes for other stories and I'll jot that stuff down for later. It also helps to have someone waiting in the wings say WRITE MORE -WE LOVE WHAT YOU'VE DONE SO FAR!!! That motivation plus the 'jam sessions' help me produce a bit more than normal. Finally, if there is a scene I really want to work on, I just sit and do it. I don't have to have a whole plot worked out. I just sit down and write the scene. I did it for a story I recently finished. I had the scene written out, got approval from friends and couldn't fit it into the timeline but I was able to take the general idea, fleshed out already, and with minor changes rework it for the newer story. So as an exercise, you could just come up with a decent character and start with any beginning that sounds interesting and write from there. You don't have to make the story go anywhere. Just get into writing and also writing what you like.

I accept that it is not something I can overcome by my own will.

Pull back and do other things in the world, and once you forget about it inspiration may start hitting you. Maybe by forcing it you are trying to extract a story from the wrong place, and by letting go you allow yourself to view other opportunities for inspiration. To the point where you end up with far more ideas than you think you can ever pursue.

As with most things in life, the best results seem to happen when I stop trying to force it and just let it go.

As far as I am concerned, there are two forms of writers' block. There is the type that prohibits ideas, and there is the type that prohibits good writing.

If your Muse seems to be drunk and wandering off, rambling incoherently, you suffer from the latter, and in my mind, it is more difficult to overcome this particular type. If your Muse seems to have taken a vacation altogether, you suffer from the former, and it can be rather difficult to overcome.

The solution to both (for me) is to keep writing. Like traveling over a long distance, writing is a journey that is as much about the steps taken as it is about the final destination (which some would argue we never arrive at). I do not ascribe to writing down thoughts at random, but much of the fiction I write is a "playground" for my character. I let my character tell the story, and I write down what I imagine my character would do in different situations.

One thing a friend of mine suggested is that--in writing a scene for a book--you may find it necessary to write the preceding action, even if that preceding action will be kept from your readers. For instance, if your character is going to be arrested but the officers find him dead, you may not reveal to your readers how the character died, but it may be beneficial for you as the author to write how he died.

The idea is to keep writing, and to struggle through the pain of being in a rut. Writing is and can be very soothing, but--like anything--there are times where we as writers must do what we don't want to do. Thus, we write ourselves out of writers' block.

PurpleRain said:

I think it's safe to say that all writers dread one thing - the evil shield that blocks out all creative thoughts, that takes hold of our minds with the determination to never let go. It's called writers block, and to put it simply, it's Hell.

Since I've been stuck with this evil writing disease for FOREVER now, I figured that I would do well (as would others) with suggestions as to how to overcome the terribleness that is writers block.

When you have a hard time writing, what do you do to inspire yourself? How do you overcome the evil writer's block?

Click to expand...

The blank page can be terrifying to any writer, no matter how experienced.

When confronted with a block, I spend a few minutes free writing just to get some ideas on paper. That usually does the trick.

However, I have learned another trick that helps prevent writers' block when I must set aside a piece temporarily and later resume writing. I stop writing in mid-sentence. When I return to the piece, I begin by completing the unfinished sentence, and that normally gets things rolling again.

I hate the block too - am actually there right now, searching for that elusive "perfect idea" I know probably won't come (at least perfectly)

In the interim:
I like journaling - easy and brainless to recount what happened during the day. Thoughts come up in the process I can expound on.

I also like dialogue - sort of like journaling, but it's more creative - put a few characters someplace and have them converse with one another - about whatever pops into your mind - most conversations are like that anyway.

And to combine the two above, I like traveling. I have one or two favorite characters and I just sit them down at a coffee shop or something, start talking about whatever, maybe a trip fishing and then let them go. The "story" is a combination of journaling their trip and the conversations they have along the way.

Rarely comes up with anything noteworthy, but it keeps the juices flowing, and like mining gold - produces nuggets of value along the way.

Mint chocolate, if it's not available then any other kind of sweets, and music. I have this down to a science. But if that doesn't work, I just start writing and see what comes of it.

I wouldn't consider myself a great writer or anything, but when I get writer's block, I usually skip over the part I'm having trouble with and go to a part where I know I can continue, then come back to the part I was having trouble with.

I believe there is no one cure for writers block. Because their is no single cause for it.

I find my block is:
1.the story has hit a wall, I have written myself into a corner and have no where to go.
2.I can't decide how to get from where I am to where the story will go.
3.I believe there is a block, where nothing seems to flow. In this case I do other things and relieve the pressure I have put on myself. Maybe even read a good novel in the genre I am writing. Mercedes Lackey has been great in inspiring my characters and events. The weird part is, I love her stories, but they spawn my own stories, not to imitate her, or say I could do better, just inspire me to write.
4.read what your favorite writer does to prepare for their writting, or what they do if they get stuck.
I believe writers block is any condition that keeps a writer from putting good words to pad(paper of computer), and the causes and solutions are endless. Figure out why, and it will be easier to figure out how to fix it.

I've noticed that a lot of serious writers don't agree that there is such a thing as writers block, that it is actually a form of procrastination. And almost universally you'd probably find two things they'd have in common.

They don't wait for inspiration, they simply write. As Pearl Sydenstricker Buck said, "I don't wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work." Harlan Ellison said, "People on the outside think there's something magical about writing, that you go up in the attic at midnight and cast the bones and come down in the morning with a story, but it isn't like that. You sit in back of the typewriter and you work, and that's all there is to it."

Secondly, they tend to write first drafts quickly with very minimal editing as they go. They let the story tell itself and the characters develop as they will, and it is in the editing later that a finished story is formed. Ernest Hemmingway had a famous saying "My first drafts are [a word not suitable for Christian forums]" I once stumbled on the first draft of his opening pages to "The Sun Also Rises" and I realised the extent of what he meant. It was awful, as though penned by a rank amateur. It became a very famous novel. It is really hard to allow oneself to create something that initially resembles doggy dos, but editing too early almost always kills creative flow dead.

davidkiwi said:

I've noticed that a lot of serious writers don't agree that there is such a thing as writers block, that it is actually a form of procrastination. And almost universally you'd probably find two things they'd have in common.

They don't wait for inspiration, they simply write. As Pearl Sydenstricker Buck said, "I don't wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work." Harlan Ellison said, "People on the outside think there's something magical about writing, that you go up in the attic at midnight and cast the bones and come down in the morning with a story, but it isn't like that. You sit in back of the typewriter and you work, and that's all there is to it."

Secondly, they tend to write first drafts quickly with very minimal editing as they go. They let the story tell itself and the characters develop as they will, and it is in the editing later that a finished story is formed. Ernest Hemmingway had a famous saying "My first drafts are [a word not suitable for Christian forums]" I once stumbled on the first draft of his opening pages to "The Sun Also Rises" and I realised the extent of what he meant. It was awful, as though penned by a rank amateur. It became a very famous novel. It is really hard to allow oneself to create something that initially resembles doggy dos, but editing too early almost always kills creative flow dead.

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Type writer, kicken it old school.

I believe there is writer's block. But I think more often its being unable to focus, or working on a piece that is on life support with no way to revive it.

How to overcome writer's block:
Just picture all the pages in their underwear, and then go on.
oh, no. Thats speaking in front of a crowd.

PurpleRain said:

I think it's safe to say that all writers dread one thing - the evil shield that blocks out all creative thoughts, that takes hold of our minds with the determination to never let go. It's called writers block, and to put it simply, it's Hell.

Since I've been stuck with this evil writing disease for FOREVER now, I figured that I would do well (as would others) with suggestions as to how to overcome the terribleness that is writers block.

When you have a hard time writing, what do you do to inspire yourself? How do you overcome the evil writer's block?

Click to expand...

Yes, I know the feeling. I have written and published three books but I was inspired to write them by a very high feeling and the motivation was there. But unless that feeling is there I can't do it. It is almost unexplainable.

It seems, at least for me, that something needs be experienced that will trigger the feeling once again; a very happy moment, seeing someone you haven't seen for a very long time, or an event of great joy coupled with music that perfectly fits the situation.

Like: YouTube - God's World

Wow, what a song.

Calypsis4 said:

Yes, I know the feeling. I have written and published three books but I was inspired to write them by a very high feeling and the motivation was there. But unless that feeling is there I can't do it. It is almost unexplainable.

It seems, at least for me, that something needs be experienced that will trigger the feeling once again; a very happy moment, seeing someone you haven't seen for a very long time, or an event of great joy coupled with music that perfectly fits the situation.

Click to expand...

Good points!

It may not be the most productive way, it certainly doesn't work for everybody, and I can't even condone it, but drug use works for me. Whether it's a ton of No-Doz, a couple of beers or a joint, a little bit of good old inebriation usually gets the old writing gears a-goin' for me.

PurpleRain said:

I think it's safe to say that all writers dread one thing - the evil shield that blocks out all creative thoughts, that takes hold of our minds with the determination to never let go. It's called writers block, and to put it simply, it's Hell.

Since I've been stuck with this evil writing disease for FOREVER now, I figured that I would do well (as would others) with suggestions as to how to overcome the terribleness that is writers block.

When you have a hard time writing, what do you do to inspire yourself? How do you overcome the evil writer's block?

Click to expand...

I've been a professional writer for 30 years and I've never feared writers block, never had it. Because if I don't write, I don't eat. Its all a matter of motivation and how seriously you take the business of writing.

But if you do have writers block the best advice I've ever heard is to open a file and start typing, even if its stream of consciousness nonsense, just keep writing.

That's about it.

If I have an interesting dream and remember it, sometimes I will write about that. I write about anything I can think of, even if it's just a sentence. I think journaling a lot about my life helps a little too.

I read a book that talked about how we write because we love to write! Because we have to. Right now I'm realizing that that book that has sat on the back burner for a while is a book that I can discipline myself to write on, yes, but i think that one way to get through the writer's block is to just write. Sometimes it'll feel like work, but then those feelings will go away and the inspiriation will come. You'll have your ups and downs. But I realize that my writing is so much more than that book. Just the ability to put my thoughts and feelings on paper (or a screen) and manipulate it to tell a story is so exciting to me! It fulfills me to express it that way and therefore I cannot write just to write and publish that book, but also I have to write to journal, to put my insights into words and a story and to just express on the outside what is going on on the inside. It's my bread. it's awsome. Just write! Don't limit yourself to that one particular part that you are stuck on.

And like someone else mentioned, when I hear creative songs and read creative stories that makes me say "wow, that was clever" just inspires me because I know I can do the same.

That song by the band perry called "if I died young" has been my recent inspiration, and "secrets" by one republic, because I can relate and I appreciate their talent and it's just awsome!

brstrah said:

It may not be the most productive way, it certainly doesn't work for everybody, and I can't even condone it, but drug use works for me. Whether it's a ton of No-Doz, a couple of beers or a joint, a little bit of good old inebriation usually gets the old writing gears a-goin' for me.

Click to expand...

hahaha, thanks for the laugh. But I'm not judging you Right now my drug is caffeine!

Billnew said:

Type writer, kicken it old school.

I believe there is writer's block. But I think more often its being unable to focus, or working on a piece that is on life support with no way to revive it.

How to overcome writer's block:
Just picture all the pages in their underwear, and then go on.
oh, no. Thats speaking in front of a crowd.

Click to expand...

PurpleRain said:

I think it's safe to say that all writers dread one thing - the evil shield that blocks out all creative thoughts, that takes hold of our minds with the determination to never let go. It's called writers block, and to put it simply, it's Hell.

Since I've been stuck with this evil writing disease for FOREVER now, I figured that I would do well (as would others) with suggestions as to how to overcome the terribleness that is writers block.

When you have a hard time writing, what do you do to inspire yourself? How do you overcome the evil writer's block?

Click to expand...

Now, I can't get that song out of my head.

That's twice today.

The first time was when I read an article about Prince.