Help! I've got Writer's Block

I have an old Shoe cartoon somewhere in which Shoe has his feet on his desk, smoking a cigar, and staring off into space. But when Cosmo interrupts him, Shoe exclaims furiously, "Can't you see I'm writing!"

There are two parts to writing, composition and transcription. Sometimes transcription flows with the act of composition. Sometimes composition requires extended staring off into space before there is anything to transcribe. Sitting down in front of a keyboard and demanding instantaneous transcription is a great way to prevent any kind of composition from taking place. It is your attempt to transcribe that is blocking your ability to compose.

It is common to suggest that you just start writing -- by which people mean that you start transcribing trivialities. The theory seems to be that this will somehow break the psychological stranglehold of the blank page, and maybe it will, but it won't actually accomplish any useful work.

You are not actually going to begin any useful work until you begin the act of composition, and if that requires a few hours staring into space, that's fine. Stare into space and compose. Start transcribing when the impulse to transcribe takes hold of you.

This is rather like the advice to insomniacs: don't go to bed until you are ready to go to sleep, otherwise you will come to associate your bed with wakefulness, and that will just make your insomnia worse. Similarly, don't sit down at the keyboard until you are ready to transcribe. Otherwise you will come to associate the keyboard with lack of inspiration and make your writer's block worse.

I believe, by the way, that there are many writers for whom composition comes as easily as breathing, but for whom the discipline of transcription is hard. For them, the daily writing habit makes perfect sense. But if your case is that composition comes with more difficulty, the demand to spend X hours a day transcribing seems likely to do more harm than good.

posted over 7 years ago

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Mark Baker‭

4371 reputation 12 1104 744 58

Here are a few techniques I've used.

Free Write

For 15 minutes, write constantly. Don't stop to correct spelling, fix mistyped words or pause for ideas. If you can't think of anything keep writing "I can't think of anything." Turn off your monitor, if it helps you to avoid correcting. The concept is to get the mind and fingers flowing. Write whatever pops into your mind. This is like panning for gold. You go through a lot of dirt to find a fleck of gold.

Banish the Editor

We all have an inner editor. This cruel, vicious, hateful person looks at all of our writing as trash. If we spend our time trying to satisfy this editor, we'll never write anything. You need to kick the editor out of the door while you're writing. This takes conscious effort. Write, regardless of how the horrible editor complains that your output stupid, trite or sophomoric. You will come back to it and polish, revise and make it better. Then you will do it again. Very few, if any, can go from a blank canvas to perfect prose. Writing is re-writing.

Keep Notes

You need to have a bank of ideas you can tap into when you write. Carry a small notebook with you, so you can record ideas. It doesn't have to be a whole idea, fragments can be very useful. Be aware of the idle thoughts that flow through your mind. Hear something interesting? Write it down! Have a fragment of a thought that seems interesting? Write it down. Some ideas don't come all at once. Sometime, you'll piece them together. If you don't write it down, you'll NEVER remember it! Heinlein's cat was the inspiration for a novel.

Inspiration is Everywhere

Inspiration is all around you. Look at people while you're standing in line at the grocery store, and try to describe them. Create stories for people you see as you are out and about. Wikipedia has a random article link. If you spend an hour clicking the link and reading every article, you may uncover something interesting or inspiring.

Ask Why

If a book, story or television show inspires you, ask yourself "What was it that piqued my interest?" Often, you'll find a seed of a story.

posted about 7 years ago

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Andrew Neely‭

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I agree with most of the other posts on this topic, but I have a little bit to add:

I think the answer will be different depending on whether you're an established, experienced writer having a dry spell, or if you're an aspiring writer who can't get started.

If you're a fairly experienced writer: I find it helpful to read back over my old books. I either get caught up in the story and build my confidence and enthusiasm that way, or I find a million things I could have done better, and THAT inspires me to go on and write something new so I have a chance to fix the mistakes I made the last time. I also like to have a target publisher in mind for each book; they might not be the people I end up submitting the story to, but I can keep them in mind while writing, as inspiration. "I wonder what the cover will look like? Wouldn't it be cool to have a book for sale from the same publisher as author X?" etc.

If you're a new writer: I agree with Nick Bedford - maybe you like the IDEA of writing, but the actual writing ITSELF isn't that much fun. If that's the case, I'd ask yourself why you want to write. If you're looking for fame and fortune, I'd try something else - this isn't an easy field to break into, and it's even harder to rise to the top. And I'll bet most of the people sitting on top of the writing world didn't have a whole lot of trouble finding things to start writing about. On the other hand, if you want to write because you think you have something to say, or because you have a passion for it, and just HAVE to do it - great, just try to remember that passion when you sit down to write!

A more concrete suggestion - try to get something written and get some feedback on it, as much and as soon as possible. Yes, it's a way to improve your work, but more importantly, it feels GREAT. Writing a novel is a ridiculously long slog with no feedback, no rewards, and no guarantees. It's VERY hard for a first-time writer to stay motivated through all that. Whatever you're writing, make sure you find ways to share it early and often, to keep yourself enthusiastic about the work.

Good luck.

posted over 13 years ago

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Kate S.‭

265 reputation 2 17 53 0

An instant cure to the blank page...open the newspaper/news site and look for small quirky stories, e.g. "man arrested on unicycle outside Parliament." No pressure, take that headline and just create your own story of how it might have happened. Another favourite one is to pick a published novel/story and re-invent the beginning. hope these help.

posted over 9 years ago

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A.C. Kearns‭

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First of all; Craig had some really good advice in his post! Thank you Craig for these, I must try out the association tree. Anyway, I thought I'd share a tip of mine about how I practice my flow of words.

When I feel the urge to write I have set up a journal which I can reach over the internet. I write what ever comes in my mind and I have one and only one rule; I am not allowed to go back and change or delete anything I've written. This simple rule has changed my way of writing a great deal to be honest.

Before I used this rule for my journal I tried numerous times to write down ideas and short stories but I always got caught up in the work of re-writing and re-touching before I was done. This of course led to that I did not finish of anything I wrote which made me think I could never write.

By using the rule of no re-write in my journal I have eradicated the pressure of writing anything "wrong" since all I write is as it is. My only way of change it is to continue to write and by doing so change the context.

So my advice to you on how to start to write is simply, just write and don't look back while your doing it. Let your thoughts and feelings flow and then read what you've written afterwards. By doing this the writing itself will become more and more natural for you and you will have an easier task of writing an actual story in a more relaxed way.

posted over 13 years ago

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Xenovoyance‭

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Someone once told me "Don't shut down ideas, develop them." This means that no matter how crazy or unrealistic an idea might be, it is still an idea and it is still worth a shot. Let's say you're writing a story on a sport and suddenly telekinesis comes into your mind, maybe you can say that instead of controlling something, you can predict what the thing is going to go through or something (just an example). Great ideas must have come from somewhere. Don't be afraid of failure. Thomas Edison once said, "I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won't work." After all, without the downs, there are no ups.

As a personal advice, I tend to derive inspiration from my surroundings. If I am writing a book about mystical creatures, I tend to get it from the shapes of trees and describing it in detail or in a view of a child that is afraid. If I am writing about school life, I look at my friends and try to envision their point of view. If I am writing a book about adventure, I try to write in it the difficulties of going through (for example, living in a forest, many mosquitoes and insects and unable to find food).

I wish you all the best!!

posted over 7 years ago

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Amano Sumi‭

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You have two issues: writing, and what to write.

Put aside the "what" for a second.

Go get a timer. Set it for ten minutes. Press start. Start writing. It doesn't matter what you write. You can type the alphabet, song lyrics, Schoolhouse Rock, stream of consciousness, what you had for dinner last night, it doesn't matter. Don't edit, don't fix typos, don't save, don't stop. You are even allowed to write "I have no idea what to say next so I am just typing until something occurs to me." Just GO until the timer dings.

There. Now you don't have writer's block. You've just proved to yourself that you can still write.

oldrobots has some excellent suggestions on getting you unstuck on the "what."

I would also add as a general suggestion that you keep a journal (I love the black-and-white marbled composition books) and jot stuff down as it occurs to you. Descriptions, characters, lists of things (Things I like, things I hate, superpowers I would never want, why the color orange annoys me, which items I have had at my favorite restaurant), just write it down. In one of your stuck moments, going back over your journal can sometimes give you a spark.

posted over 13 years ago

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Lauren Ipsum‭

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