writers block?

[undecided]

hi.
i used to write all the time, and be reasonably good at it.
then i had a child and seemed to have no time for it.

i have always had this goal to write a book and try to get it published. if it doesn't thats ok, but i just want to write it anyway

the problem is i write a few pages and then decide my story line is no good.

or even worse i just can't get the first page going

i really want to overcome this but i can't

any ideas/suggestions?

thanks!

 

[rasplundjr]

"If you can talk you can write" by Joel Salzman is an excellent book for getting over writer's block. Or as he calls it perfectionists block. Just keep writing, even if it's just junk, keep writing, you'll always have time to fix it later. Just get it out.

 

[Captain_Tripp]

writters block happens to me also.its happening to me right now.i cant think of anything to write or anything...so...yeah..u aint the only one out there buddy!!!^^

 

[rasplundjr]

Another tip that I saw somewhere is just write a letter to somebody, anyone real or not, living or dead. This will get the words flowing, and can help you forget about the block.

Writing is writing, whether it's on your novel, or just some scraps to clear out the cobwebs....

 

[Tariel]

I've heard that there's no such thing as writer's block - just a lack of inspiration and determination.

How are you going about starting the story? Do you have interesting characters? If not, that would be the first thing to fix.

Don't try to rush either. If you don't have a deadline of any sort (and I'm assuming you don't) then let the story come to you, don't force it. Take your characters--even vauge ideas for characters--and let them play around in your mind for awhile. Don't try to conform them or anything, just let them show you who they are. Once you have good strong characters (and only you can decide when they're ready) then you can start to figure out what the characters can do. This brainstorming is good even if you have a busy schedule and cannot seem to fine time, because you don't have to do much concious thinking.

I don't claim to be any type of expert, but this is what works for me. I have written a 45 page fantasy story since late September and it's still going, so I'd have to say it works pretty well.

Just out of curiosity, what type of story are you writing? What ideas do you have so far? Sorry...I like knowing .

I have never attempted this strategy for non-fantasy sotries, btw...but it should work.

Hope this helps! And I hope that your writing goes well!! I would love to read what you are working on sometime

 

[VickiY]

Write anyway...set yourself a goal of 15 minutes a day, and write...remember...it doesn't need to be sequential...if you've got a great scene suddenly in your mind, write it down! then play connect the scenes when you can!

 

[rasplundjr]

Write anyway...set yourself a goal of 15 minutes a day, and write...remember...it doesn't need to be sequential...if you've got a great scene suddenly in your mind, write it down! then play connect the scenes when you can!

Exactly it doesn't even have to be part of the same story....

Just get something down, that will teach your brain that it doesn't need to be perfect it just needs to come out...

I've always got so many things running around that I have something more akin to writer's jam than block... this story wants to get a couple more lines down, this one wnats a chapter, and this one just wants two more pages... it's like the three stooges trying to go through a door together...

 

[Captain_Tripp]

Exactly it doesn't even have to be part of the same story....

Just get something down, that will teach your brain that it doesn't need to be perfect it just needs to come out...

I've always got so many things running around that I have something more akin to writer's jam than block... this story wants to get a couple more lines down, this one wnats a chapter, and this one just wants two more pages... it's like the three stooges trying to go through a door together...

Yeah what he said!I like the last part.It's funny.Sorry.Just,...Whenever a good idea pops into your mind,WRITE IT DOWN!!!!!!It may come in handy later anyway!Have a journal and write all of 'em down!I have one and I have 48 pages worth of quotes and story ideas for my story that I liked or that poped into my head.Sometimes it's good.Sometimes it's not but most of the time,it's good.Trust me!Whenevr I have writters block,I go back and read some of my storys and I read some of my story ideas and I get some more ideas for a story and then,I don't really have writters block anymore!It's cool that way,though!I wish you good luck!Love ya!

®©Alyssa

 

[Captain_Tripp]

hi.
i used to write all the time, and be reasonably good at it.
then i had a child and seemed to have no time for it.

i have always had this goal to write a book and try to get it published. if it doesn't thats ok, but i just want to write it anyway

the problem is i write a few pages and then decide my story line is no good.

or even worse i just can't get the first page going

i really want to overcome this but i can't

any ideas/suggestions?

thanks!

Well,here's the first step......DON'T STOP WRITTING IT WHEN YOU ALREADY HAVE IT GOING!!!!!If worst comes to worst....have someone read it for you and see if they like it.Have a few people and put tallys down and take a vote!And even if you think it's no good and you think people won't like it,that's them!Not you!Don't let them judge you!Don't let them judge your story!It's not thier story!It's yours!They probley wouldn't be able to write one,if thier lives depnded on it anyway!So don't let them interfeare.

Second off,Just think.Even use what happened in your everyday life to start a story!Ya see,me,I can't start or end a story for crap!The way I started my last one was,

Nikki laid on her bed wide awake,staring at the ceeling and thinking.She was wondering why E.B. hurt her like he has.

Ya see?!Very bad....And I've got 48 more plus where that came from!Trust me.So don't let them do anything to affect you and if you have to,start out with a made up person doing something that happened in your life!Like what I did.(Btw-that didn't really happen to me.I just tend to write tragedy storys!)It's not that bad!I know you can do it!Good luck!I hope your brain clears so you can wriete soon!

Alyssa McC

 

[rasplundjr]

Yeah what he said!I like the last part.It's funny.Sorry.Just,...

actually I like to be humorous...

It helps keep writer's block at bay...


Another thing you might try.

Ray Bradbury had a habit of writing lists. The car, the old man, the thing... etc

He used these lists to write a good number of his stories. He'd pick something and free write on it until he had an essay or a story.....

Sometimes getting our minds off of what we were working on lets it come more fully into focus....

 

[Captain_Tripp]

actually I like to be humorous...

It helps keep writer's block at bay...


Another thing you might try.

Ray Bradbury had a habit of writing lists. The car, the old man, the thing... etc

He used these lists to write a good number of his stories. He'd pick something and free write on it until he had an essay or a story.....

Sometimes getting our minds off of what we were working on lets it come more fully into focus....

I know...thats happened to me before...it's really wierd though too.

 

[oncewaslost]

i usually just keep writing and then days later go back and say "ewww... what was i thinking?" and rewrite it. i have to at least get something down or else i'll stay in the same spot forever.

 

[undecided]

wow thankyou...i didn't expect SO many replys ( :
thanks for taking me seriously and coming up with some fantastic advice


i suppose i just feel like i have "lost my way with words" since being a mum i haven't wrote ANYTHING

also i am struggling to come up with any ideas - so it's not that i don't think my ideas are good, it's that i just don't have ideas...full stop, lol. i draw a mind blank.

i want to write a sort of reality book, about relationships, or a story about friendships. it's hard to say...you know just those "life event" fiction tales...something like that.

i just have trouble with the subject matter...
i think someones husband cheating
then i think know someones child getting cancer
(sounds a bit sick but i like things that pull at the heartstrings and make people value their lives and their loved ones around them)

 

[Captain_Tripp]

I think of the same things.Most of my storys are about 2 children being abused & there about death,dying,suicide,abuse(pysicly,mentaly,sexualy),etc.like that.I know.I'm wierd!^^

 

[Tariel]

wow thankyou...i didn't expect SO many replys ( :
thanks for taking me seriously and coming up with some fantastic advice


i suppose i just feel like i have "lost my way with words" since being a mum i haven't wrote ANYTHING

also i am struggling to come up with any ideas - so it's not that i don't think my ideas are good, it's that i just don't have ideas...full stop, lol. i draw a mind blank.

i want to write a sort of reality book, about relationships, or a story about friendships. it's hard to say...you know just those "life event" fiction tales...something like that.

i just have trouble with the subject matter...
i think someones husband cheating
then i think know someones child getting cancer
(sounds a bit sick but i like things that pull at the heartstrings and make people value their lives and their loved ones around them)

very cool. My stories tend to have a similar element...with a bit of action/adventure thrown in there. It actually makes a great combo, at leats one that works for me. No, really. In the first 15 or so pages of my story, the main character's father is executed, she almost commits suicide, and then she's stopped by a guy who has spent most of his life running from those who want to kill him - including his father. I had this really great piece, not exactly from my work but based on some of that characters that I love. I posted it here a little while ago...but I don't know where it went Oh well. It was very emotional.

Like I said, don't think about it. Not hard anyway. Keep half a mind/eye/ear out for anything that may be a good story idea. The first actual short story I'm writing (everything else I've written has been like at least 30 pages) actually was based on a dream I had a few months ago. I really liked the dream, so I gave the characters names, developed them a little, changed it slightly to make more sense (a big part of the dream took place at my church, in the story it takes place at a school) and I have a story

What I'm trying to say is that you can get ideas for stories when you least expect them--even when you're sleeping. You just have to be able to recognize them when they come

 

[sunshiinedays]

It's so hard to write when you're a mom. Deep thought and concentration are hard to come by when somebody needs you every five minutes.

 

[Tricia4Jesus]

Sometimes the best way to counteract writers block is just to write, whether you feel like it or not. Or get up and do something else. Get your mind on something else. This helps too.

 

[safyrmariposa]

Hi everyone,
I have the same problem as undecided...except possibly a little bit more of the writer's block?

Here's my dilemma:
I started writing one book (which is currently named Horse Hassles) on the ninth (ish) of February, 2004. It's about a girl named Amy, who with her three friends, goes to a horse show and when they return...four horses have been stolen from Amy's parent's stable (her parents run both a public and a private boarding stable). It's set in a tiny country town in New Zealand, 2005.
53½ pages long (about halfway through the plot), and nearly two years later I still haven't even got close to the end, and I've had writer's block for about six months.

So I started another book, hoping that sometime through planning out this next one, some inspiration would hit me for Horse Hassles.

This next one I started 8th of April this year. I hope to call it something similar to December's Dream. It's set somewhere near the border of Spain, in around the year 2005. The main character is a Spanish girl named Nicoletta, who moves with her family to America to live near the Smiths, Nicoletta's cousin's family. During the flight/car trip to America, they endure a bad accident, which places her younger brother in a wheelchair. Along the week, Nicoletta starts to feel like there's no point in living for herself anymore, as her father 'obviously doesn't like very much' her and her family, her mother's 'too busy with settling in and her brother', her brother's in the wheelchair. Oh, and her dog's pregnant. So she keeps on having these feelings until she meets her cousin. And finds out Amanda (that's her cousin) is a Christian. Amanda and one of her school mates try to convince Nicoletta that there really IS a point for living, and that's...*drumroll* Jesus. (This story is set around Christmas, btw)

Anyway, I don't wanna go on for too long about the plot, because then I'll spoil the story for when I'm rich and famous and you see my book in the shops!

(December's Dream) is 2 pages long. I got writer's block for about a week after I wrote the first chapter, then went back and wrote the prologue. Now here comes the writer's block again.


I'm sorry if I've bored you, I'm just kinda excited now.
Anyway, can someone help me, as I've tried lists, I've tried writing in a journal, I've tried switching from book to book, I've tried justabout every suggestion there is. But all I ever do when I think I've got more inspiration, is just sit there and stare at the screen. It's getting rather annoying.

So yeah. Hints would be awesome!

Signing off now (after a REALLLLLLY long post ),
Me.

P.S: I've just thought of something else to add to December's Dream! Wooyay!
I'll be back in a couple of minutes LOL!!!

 

[Tariel]

ok...I am in the middle of two stories right now. Both fantasy.

One is called Secrets of the Meltra and is to date my longest work. It is 85 pages, and still needs to be finished. I haven't worked on SotM for about four or five months now...not because of writer's block but because of my new story currently called "The Experiment" (only because I'm experimenting with what I can do as a writer). tE has been taking up most of my time lately, and will before too long pass SotM for length.

So in January, I'm going to take a fresh look at SotM. I haven't exactly come up with any ideas since I last worked on it...but I thin kthat just looking at it after such a long break will bring in tons of new ideas.

If you can't think of anything, just let your story run through your mind before you go to sleep...you can get interesting ideas that way.

And if you're like me, music can be extreamly inspiring. I went to a piano recital yesterday, and I've got this great new idea now!! It involves a palace besieged in the middle of a ceremony in an attept to conquer the young and easily swayed queen, but she is dragged out at the last second, and it's a huge turning point in the personality for one of my main characters...and I just can't wait to write it!!!