The Writers Block Thread

Discussion in 'General Writing' started by Sapphire, Sep 21, 2006.

  1. Selbbin

    Selbbin The Moderating Cat Staff Contributor Contest Winner 2023

    Joined:
    Oct 16, 2012
    Messages:
    5,160
    Likes Received:
    4,243
    Location:
    Australia
    No one is waiting for us to finish our work. We may as well do the best we can and be satisfied.
     
    jannert, minstrel and GingerCoffee like this.
  2. minstrel

    minstrel Leader of the Insquirrelgency Supporter Contributor

    Joined:
    Jul 11, 2010
    Messages:
    10,742
    Likes Received:
    9,991
    Location:
    Near Sedro Woolley, Washington
    I often get the sense that the scene, or even the whole story, that I'm working on sucks. Not because the idea is bad, but because the prose is lame. Maybe the POV should be different. Maybe the tone should be different. I have to work that out.

    What I do then is focus on just one paragraph (I don't get down to sentence level with this generally). I'll tell myself, "This paragraph sucks. I will now make it unsuck before I do anything else." This doesn't necessarily fix the problem I started with, but it fixes a problem, and that's a start. I pour all my effort into making myself a good paragraph, and then I tell myself, "All right. I've proven I can write one decent paragraph. Now it's time to build on that." And away I go.

    It's kind of amazing how well that works. Once you get a good paragraph, a cornerstone, you can build anything.
     
  3. T.Trian

    T.Trian Overly Pompous Bastard Supporter Contributor

    Joined:
    Mar 12, 2013
    Messages:
    2,253
    Likes Received:
    1,470
    Location:
    Mushroom Land
    Every now and then I also feel like I suck horribly, like whatever I write is stale, bland, and boring. That's when I try to find some angle, usually looking inside instead of out; what would I feel and experience if I was the character? I don't always get any big epiphanies, but as long as I find that angle, that something that makes the scene click, it's enough. I know I'll return to it a million times over the course of the myriad of rereads and edits we do with @KaTrian, so I know it'll get better the next time around or the one after that etc. Sooner or later we'll figure out the scene.

    It probably helps that I really trust our vision. I believe the stories really are good, but they just need a shitload of work so we can sculpt off the useless junk and only leave the good stuff. We save old versions into a separate file, so we can always go back and look at what the story used to be (mostly for research purposes). That's usually a confidence booster 'cause back when we started it we sucked horribly. We're not great yet by any standard, but old versions are one good way to see your development; all of a sudden you can spot mistakes and bad decisions that flew under your radar only six months ago, not to mention a year or a few. When you see your development clearly like that, it gives hope, it tells you all the hard work you put in really does help, it makes you better day by day. We just don't usually see our development because it happens pretty slowly.
    Anyway, hope you get back into it soon.

    PS. Cool avatar, @elynne. Bunnies, hares etc. are badass. :cool:
     
  4. JamesBrown

    JamesBrown Active Member

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2014
    Messages:
    121
    Likes Received:
    79
    I like to imagine all the unpublished manuscripts ever written get sent off to North Korea to be used as toilet paper. You need to be at peace with the notion that the work you slaved over for years will only ever be read by someone's arse, before being smothered in shit and flushed down the toilet.

    I find this mentality helps cope with self doubts.
     
  5. Amanda_Geisler

    Amanda_Geisler Senior Member

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2014
    Messages:
    320
    Likes Received:
    105
    Location:
    Australia
    I agree with all said above, except @JamesBrown's post that was very motivating.*raises an eyebrow*

    It is a great feeling to get reviews for a piece, getting lots of reviews telling what things need changing, then coming back and posting a revision and getting positive reviews. You can only learn from the mistakes of the past, that's the reason we make mistakes, to learn from them. Although some of us (meaning me) often repeat mistakes of the past. Writing is a long process that can never really be perfected, there is always room for improvement. So stop looking at how far you still have to go and instead start looking at how far you've come.
     
  6. jannert

    jannert Retired Mod Supporter Contributor

    Joined:
    Mar 7, 2013
    Messages:
    17,674
    Likes Received:
    19,889
    Location:
    Scotland
    You really want to feel bad? Go into a big bookstore, look around you and think 'who in hell needs ANOTHER book...?!!!' :)

    Seriously, though ...your two best weapons are time and other people.

    If you're feeling dissatisfied with your writing on any given day, walk away. Return to the piece when you can look at it dispassionately, or when another idea strikes you for improvement. It's very important to finish what you start, but it's not important how long that might take when you're writing creatively to please yourself. This is not an assignment. It's a project YOU started, and only YOU can tell when it's finished, or when you're ready for other people to take a look at it.

    And once you find yourself in a frame of mind where you can take constructive critiques, put some of your writing up on the Workshop here (after fulfilling the requirements of making other critiques and posts, etc.)

    Be sure you're not emotionally fragile when you do this, if you suffer from depression. People will pick holes in your offering, and this is not an attack on you. The critique-givers are trying to help your story get even better.

    Pick a time when you won't see every response as an attempt to crush you or reflect negatively on your abilities as a writer. And also be careful you're not just seeking praise as validation of your right to exist.

    Like every other writer here, you WILL make mistakes. The Workshop is to help you see what mistakes you've made and how to correct them. A good critique makes you think about what you're writing, and more importantly, how it's being received.

    We're all at different stages of learning here on the Forum, but we all can read, and we can all give our reactions to what you've written. You can choose to accept or reject anything we say, but it's a toe in the water. And you might also discover strengths in your writing that you didn't know were there. And you will make friends, too. Guaranteed!

    Welcome to the forum!
     
    obsidian_cicatrix and KaTrian like this.
  7. daemon

    daemon Contributor Contributor

    Joined:
    Jun 16, 2014
    Messages:
    1,357
    Likes Received:
    978
    Take a long break from looking at what you have written or even thinking about what you have brainstormed.
     
  8. Mckk

    Mckk Member Supporter Contributor

    Joined:
    Dec 30, 2010
    Messages:
    6,541
    Likes Received:
    4,776
    maybe write something else for a while. I stopped writing for about 4 months because I couldn't bring myself to edit anymore after working on the same damn project for 4 years. And my parents have no clue how writing works, so all they do is tell me to work harder, try harder, make it shorter, as if I'm not already trying hard enough, as if making it shorter would actually resolve the problem. They mean well - they wanna see me published too - but they have *no clue* how it works. If I wasn't trying hard, I wouldn't be still at it after 4 years.

    Anyway, really couldn't bring myself to do anymore - I'm half way through my first edit (of my 3rd or 4th draft which I rewrote from scratch) and once again, I've lost my steam. I keep starting and stopping these days because I'll find my enthusiasm for it for a few weeks, and then it'll just disappear abruptly and I can't stand to even look at the thing. I reread some parts of it a few weeks ago and my GOSH it's cheesy. It's good cheese if cheese is what you like - it's within an acceptable limit - but I hadn't wanted to write cheese. Hence it's a little discouraging cus now I'm like, to rewrite or not to rewrite?

    I'm fast resigning myself to the fact that this is simply a failed project. You know, everyone has that first novel they've never shown anyone.

    But I still wanted to write - I wanted to write freely like I haven't done in eons. So I started writing a merman romance and I loved it - got a few pages of that down. And then just under 4 weeks ago I started a collaboration, a dystopian romance, and I'm LOVING it. It thrills me just to be writing again, and writing what I'm good at. Turns out, I'm really not that good at writing action, but when it comes to emotional scenes, they pop - probably because I love writing them. The girl I'm working with is excellent at action and wacky ideas, so it's great. We only run into problems when I wanna write action or she wants to write emotional scenes - then we end up criticising each other and then we both feel crap for a few days... :rolleyes: lol. We're at 86k+ words and closing in on the climax and I'M SO EXCITED!! I've always been against collaborations and it's turning out to be great for ideas and motivation!
     
  9. jazzabel

    jazzabel Agent Provocateur Contributor

    Joined:
    Jan 5, 2012
    Messages:
    4,255
    Likes Received:
    1,688
    I'm sure all writers get this feeling regularly. For me, I've realised that all this pontificating, struggling, hothouse flower degree of requirements in order to write, is what makes or breaks the writer. Do I want to wallow in my misery every time I lose steam or do I want to write the damn thing? It's not the 'Odyssey' or 'Brothers Karamazov' or even the Bible , It's just a little story that's needs to be written. Write every day, whenever you catch yourself wallowing, give yourself a slap, make a cup of warm beverage and attack that damn scene. Repeat daily until first draft is finished. By the time you do that, hopefully you'll be able to spot errors in early chapters and editing teaches you to edit better.

    Successful authors write books in reasonable time, publish, write the next one and so on. Unsuccessful ones baby a story for decades, never finishing, until all they have left is a half-finished story, most likely a youthful indulgence that's become a monster somewhere along the way. If you can't finish one story in a couple of years, it means it's not a good story, or you don't know how to tell it. Choose another one and keep going. The goal is as much the idea and the writing as is the completion.
     
    VioletScented and 123456789 like this.
  10. 123456789

    123456789 Contributor Contributor

    Joined:
    Jan 28, 2012
    Messages:
    8,102
    Likes Received:
    4,605
    These "lows" only exist if you have unrealistic expectations about yourself. Getting published (from everything I've heard) is difficult. It's not something you should expect from yourself unless you deserve it. And if you think you deserve it, then there's no reason to be feeling low. Either way, life sort of takes care of itself. Write either because you enjoy it or because you and one other person believe in you (hopefully both), but if all you feel is anguish, there's always other things you could be doing.
     
    yagr, jazzabel and jannert like this.
  11. NanashiNoProfile

    NanashiNoProfile New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 28, 2014
    Messages:
    51
    Likes Received:
    11
    Location:
    Scotland
    If I'm writing a part and I'm starting to feel like it isn't moving along properly, or I'm getting stuck with too few (or too many ideas), then I'll start writing another chapter for another character or conjure up some more history to the world (mostly for my own benefit).

    Usually I then find that I develop lots of ideas for the chapter that is in the doldrums. I'll finish off the new piece and be raring to go by the time I am able to get back to the previous one.

    In other words, if you're writing a cool story then you'll probably have lots of ideas for the whole of it. If not, maybe blast out some ideas for something else and it'll soon start helping you out.

    I too have suffered from considerable depression in long bouts, and it sometimes comes back. However, I think I've been lucky in finding that writing helps to relieve it as I can just give my problems to someone else and then write out how they deal with it :)
     
  12. elynne

    elynne Active Member

    Joined:
    Aug 27, 2011
    Messages:
    236
    Likes Received:
    142
    Location:
    Seattle, WA
    NanashiNoProfile --that's a good suggestion for me, I think; work on another part of the story, and try to get around the stuck bit from the other end, as it were. writing's always been my outlet from depression too, along with various other kinds of art--but writing's always been my primary focus. I think it'd be a good idea for me to re-read Art and Fear anyway, too--it's usually been helpful for me.

    T.Trian --thank you! it's from the cover of Watership Down, my favorite book of all time, and if you've never read it and you like rabbits then READ IT, TRUST ME, there's many reasons it's a classic. :)
     
  13. Mikry

    Mikry New Member

    Joined:
    Aug 22, 2014
    Messages:
    2
    Likes Received:
    1
    Hey guys! Nice forum you have here!

    Anywho, I've resolved to write more in my personal time; I recently finished school and as I am studying a field not at all related to English literature at university, creative writing is something that I now have to do on my own time.

    My problem however is that I don't know what to write about. At school I would always be given some sort of general guidance of what I should write about, and now that I don't have said metaphorical spark plug any more, I'm finding it very difficult to really even begin writing. I suppose a good analogy would be that my creative mind is a photo of the entire universe, but the resolution is too low to discern anything. At least I hope that's what problem is.

    I know I can write well, I know I am not devoid of ideas and creativity, and yet I spend hours staring at a blank page, and what little I do write feels incredibly uninspired (often borderline cringe-worthy). Of course, all of these failed staring contests with my laptop screen have chipped away at both my confidence at writing and my will to try. Clearly I am in a very dangerous spiral.

    Do any of you guys have some advice for me? I'd be very grateful. I doubt it's relevant but at the moment I'm trying to write brief scripts for comedic sketches. It's a form of creative writing I never really got much of an opportunity to employ at school, and one that I have always love the idea of being good at.
     
  14. Thomas Kitchen

    Thomas Kitchen Proofreader in the Making Contributor

    Joined:
    Nov 5, 2012
    Messages:
    1,248
    Likes Received:
    448
    Location:
    I'm Welsh - and proud!
    If you need some sort of general guidance, then make it yourself. For starters, ask yourself this question: which genre do you like to read the most? Generally the genre you like to read is the genre in which you like to write. That's a limitation of sorts right there.

    You could also make a list of elements in a story (e.g. character names, locations, objects, etc.). Write them all down in one list and number each one - then get someone to pick three or four numbers from that list, without them knowing what the elements are. Now you can say that you have to include those elements in your story.

    If you'd prefer a machine to do it for you, this website would be very helpful to you (http://www.seventhsanctum.com/) and this page in particular (http://www.seventhsanctum.com/index-writ.php). Just work to these paramaters, and they should help you greatly. Hope this helps you on your way. :)
     
    Mikry likes this.
  15. daemon

    daemon Contributor Contributor

    Joined:
    Jun 16, 2014
    Messages:
    1,357
    Likes Received:
    978
    You have probably read at least one novel that you liked, but thought it missed a lot of potential. Revise it so that it reaches that potential. Keep all concerns out of your mind other than whether you like your own revision of the novel.

    You cannot decide to have a great idea. Great ideas are reactions to what you witness. The best way to force yourself to witness something that provokes a great idea is to revise something.
     
    Mikry and JamesBrown like this.
  16. JamesBrown

    JamesBrown Active Member

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2014
    Messages:
    121
    Likes Received:
    79
    You've got the title of your book already, the title of this thread. Build a plot around the idea of being Paralysed by Free Will and not knowing what to write or, perhaps, what to do in life.
     
    Mikry likes this.
  17. daemon

    daemon Contributor Contributor

    Joined:
    Jun 16, 2014
    Messages:
    1,357
    Likes Received:
    978
    You know what they say, write about what you know.
     
    GingerCoffee likes this.
  18. Link the Writer

    Link the Writer Flipping Out For A Good Story. Contributor

    Joined:
    Sep 24, 2009
    Messages:
    15,023
    Likes Received:
    9,676
    Location:
    Alabama, USA
    And research what you don't! :D
     
  19. JamesBrown

    JamesBrown Active Member

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2014
    Messages:
    121
    Likes Received:
    79
    Or write Fantasy and just make everything up.
     
  20. daemon

    daemon Contributor Contributor

    Joined:
    Jun 16, 2014
    Messages:
    1,357
    Likes Received:
    978
    Regardless of how that was meant to be taken, it is actually excellent serious advice. If I had a list of recommendations to authors, then near the top would be "embrace the full meaning of the term 'fiction' -- never hesitate to write whatever story you feel like writing and to design a fantasy setting to accomodate it."
     
    Mikry and Link the Writer like this.
  21. T.Trian

    T.Trian Overly Pompous Bastard Supporter Contributor

    Joined:
    Mar 12, 2013
    Messages:
    2,253
    Likes Received:
    1,470
    Location:
    Mushroom Land
    Take a moment to think what really excites you, what gets you all pumped up; running and gunning? Ship to ship battles in space? Hack 'n slash sword fights? Spells and sorcery? Sex? Romance? Light-hearted, happy-go-lucky fun or gritty realism? Horror? Military life or depictions of homeless drifters? Some combination of different things? Whatever it is, it has to inspire you, really have you itching to get back home just so you can sit down and write.

    That's what @KaTrian and I do with our stories and so far it's worked for us. Whatever you choose, good luck and welcome to the forum! :cool:
     
  22. aikoaiko

    aikoaiko Senior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 23, 2013
    Messages:
    284
    Likes Received:
    155
    What is very likely happening is that you're still in 'spoonfed' mode and you're having a hard time shifting gears:(. Thinking for yourself is not something that educational institutions encourage, so you need to take the time to relax and let your brain reboot. If you can bear to do nothing at all for awhile that would probably be best, but if you really must write then try a journal-type exploration where you tell yourself what you've told us here---explaining that you're having trouble and why you think this is the case, expressing fears and frustrations, etc. If you can work through this paralysis it might help, but you might also consider some freewriting. Sit down in front of a paper or screen and write anything that comes to mind. No one is going to read it and it doesn't matter you've said, but it might help to loosen the bonds and let you think more freely.

    But above all, don't get discouraged. This kind of thing happens to students who leave more 'restrictive' environments. Just give yourself time for your creativity to reassert itself, then the writing will begin to improve and the ideas will be yours.:)
     
    Mikry and Link the Writer like this.
  23. Mikry

    Mikry New Member

    Joined:
    Aug 22, 2014
    Messages:
    2
    Likes Received:
    1
    Thank you guys for all of your great advice! It's in fact so much advise that it's too much for me to deal with each post individually!

    I think something I need to do is go back to the basics. I need to slightly change my perspective of writing to one where I'm allowed to pursue any corridor I find interesting, and not worry about going too off-topic or exceeding the word limit. Additionally, I think I've realised that some of my fundamental skills are lacking, such as putting together a plot, conjuring up a setting and even character development. I come from a background where I was given that foundation and expected to build on it. A good metaphor (it seems I'm using a lot of metaphors today) would be that I can drive a manual car but was never taught to how to go from neutral to first gear without stalling, with the transition representing those basics I'm lacking.

    Thus do you guys know of any good online resources for learning the aforementioned basics? :)
     
    GingerCoffee likes this.
  24. daemon

    daemon Contributor Contributor

    Joined:
    Jun 16, 2014
    Messages:
    1,357
    Likes Received:
    978
    I cannot emphasize enough that the best way to make incremental progress toward a masterpiece is to begin by revising or reinterpreting someone else's work. Preferably work that you enjoy greatly but you wish significant parts of it were different. It does not even matter what you intend to do with your revision. In the best case scenario, you come up with something that achieves the full potential that the original author tried to achieve (or a different kind of potential that the original author simply chose not to focus on), and you contribute something to the world that improves people's selection of things to enjoy. In the worst case scenario, you become familiar with the thought processes of a successful author at work and you expose yourself to interesting scenarios and tricky problems that kindle your imagination.

    Necessity is the mother of invention. The best way to improve at chess is not to play chess, but to solve chess puzzles. Solving a puzzle may appear at first glance to be nothing more than "playing someone else's game", but it forces you to expand your mind. It forces you to invent solutions that other people have already thought of, but the point is not that other people have thought of the solutions -- the point is to make you better at inventing. And it exposes you to situations that would not have occurred in your own games -- contrived situations with no solution other than certain elements of theory that are actually very useful when you apply them to your own games, but only a genius could intuitively recognize how to apply the theory in an uncontrived situation without having practiced it. Think of revising someone else's work as solving a chess puzzle, or even going through someone else's game move-by-move and revising all the bad moves (which is another proven way to improve at chess).

    Never lose sight of that. You will encounter well-meaning advice that amounts to little more than "unleash your imagination" or "write what you would want to read" -- which is a great end goal, but what steps can you actually take toward it? Well, this is the biggest step.
     
    Last edited: Aug 22, 2014
  25. GingerCoffee

    GingerCoffee Web Surfer Girl Contributor

    Joined:
    Mar 3, 2013
    Messages:
    18,385
    Likes Received:
    7,080
    Location:
    Ralph's side of the island.
    An interesting contrast, I was thinking along the same lines but instead of 'inspire' and 'we like X', I was going to say, what bothers you? What would you say to the world if you had a platform to speak from? Is there a character you would write when you read characters other people write?

    Also, NaNoWriMo is coming up. Take the challenge to write 50,000 words in the month of November. It's a good motivator for some of us.
     
    peachalulu and T.Trian like this.

Share This Page

  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
    Dismiss Notice