How Can I Get Out of Writer's Block?

Question

This little creature has been pursuing me relentlessly for weeks. The thing is like a curse that won't leave. I've tried riding around my neighborhood, reading a little without taking any major ideas, and talking to others. None have yielded any answers for me. Does anyone have any tips on how to break free?

Answer 1

Just start "Thinking Out Loud", for example tell yourself:

'I want to write a great novel...,' It has to have some great exotic locations in it so that I can make compelling descriptions that my readers will absolutely love!  It also has to have some great interesting characters that people can identify with.....,

So just keep on writing....,

And worry about 'Organising' your writing later, first get your

writing engine running, when after a while you created some 'Writing Material' to work on you can 'Organise', 'Summarise' and use it to direct the rest of your writing.

For more interesting tips for writing your 'Bestseller' you can have a look at: http://hpshappywriting.blogspot.com I really like to hear from you and like to hear about your progress.

All the Best,

To your Happy - Writing - Inspiration,

HP

Answer 2

Writing for Yahoo Answers, as you have been doing with great success (from your profile), is probably a good start.  The published authors usually say to write something every day.

Other things to build on:  clipping photographs from magazines (not library ones, please)& writing a story about them, having writing buddies to clip such photographs for each other & giving each other assignments & just knowing someone is waiting to read whatever you've written, jotting down any dreams you remember, writing character sketches of people you know or even dead ancesters you never knew, & the time-honored people watching in coffee shops or while sitting on a ledge or bench somewhere (though I hate that when I think someone's watching me & possibly making up something stupid), & building on words that all start with the same letter.  You could take someone else's story or novel & write a different ending or write about a different angle to the same story or take a minor character & do that character's story.  Just about anything you do is a good start--or so I've heard.

I also picked up a copy of Poetry Writing for Dummies.  Didn't help me, but had some good ideas in it & might help you.

I do know that if you want to be a writer & DON'T follow that traditional advice of writing something every day, thinking you're too good for that, then 30 yrs later you'll most likely be sorry.  Happened to me.  Someone invited me to write an article for a local Peace Press on a topic that was a hot issue for me, but 6 wks later I still couldn't write a sentence because I was so out of practice.  Someone else wrote the article & did a beautiful job.  Fortunately, I've unblocked my block, at least partially, through e-mails to friends & through Yahoo Answers.  At least I'm writing something.  Short stories & poetry, which I did very well in college, will perhaps come later.

So, yes, you want it to be both fun & good, but meanwhile, write something, anything, good, bad, or awful.  Enjoy!

Answer 3

Play some songs with different moods and listen to the lyrics real hard. Then try and shift the lyrics onto your characters, if you get me?

Music is so often the solution x

Answer 4

ask yourself what the characters mean to you the author and then reflect you feelings into words that express them

Answer 5

You need to take a break/incubation by putting the writing aside for awhile without consciously thinking about it and then come back to it when you 'feel' ready to write. Don't force it, it will come naturally.

Answer 6

Put a word down on paper. Follow it up with another word. If you feel up to it, add a subject and a verb. Voila. You've just started a story. It doesn't matter what you're writing about, just start writing already! No procrastinating. I'll even give you the first two words: I saw

There, now you have no excuse. Start writing.  

Answer 7

Do you have an outline for your story? In other words, did you sit down and plot it out in advance, before starting the actual writing?

I ask this because I've noticed that writers who just sit down and write, without some sort of plan, tend to suffer from writer's block more often, and tend to have worse cases of it. (I definitely did.)

One thing that might help is to take 3x5 cards (or slips of paper), and just sit down and start working out where your story is headed. Write down little snippets of the plot on each card, as they come to you. Don't worry about using proper English, or if the idea sounds lame, or if it even makes sense--just start writing down whatever little bits and pieces come to mind. They can be one word, or full paragraphs, or snippets of dialogue; it doesn't matter.

As you're writing them, lay them out in front of you. Group similar cards together. Move the others around, and see if you can find some sort of order to them. Take the ideas that don't seem to fit and set them aside; add new ones as you need to. Do it long enough, and eventually you'll start to see the storyline emerge, and you'll know where you're going.

I do this from the very start--I do all the plotting on notecards and type it up into a detailed outline before I even start the actual "writing" part, and it's helped me enormously. I may have days when I don't feel like writing, but I never have days when I'm stuck because I don't know what to write.

Another reason writers end up blocked is because they try to come up with a perfect, beautifully-written draft from the very beginning, instead of just writing down the story and coming back to clean it up later. Striving for needless perfection too early in the game is a sure way to kill your creativity. Don't be afraid to write ugly first drafts; nobody has to see them but you, after all.

Good luck!

Answer 8

Go out for longer periods, go to a soccer game, walk in the woods, swim, fish - experience the world, natural and human.     And then read - but don't read stories, read philosophy, read classics.    Then more experience.    See then if something hits.