Nothing to write about.

Discussion in 'Plot Development' started by waitingforzion, May 14, 2016.

  1. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

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    When I stare at the blank lightly textured page, pencil in hand, I doodle a bit until the sketch becomes something more.
    Try listening to music that would fit the mood and theme of what you wish to write. You might get that divine slap of inspiration
    you were looking for. Perhaps try some of the flash fiction threads in the writing prompts section to get the creative juices flowing.
    And if you still can't find that inspiration you are looking for, I am sure we could all pool together and dump hundreds of novel
    ideas for you to sift through until something strikes your fancy. :) Good luck.
     
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  2. Tea@3

    Tea@3 Senior Member

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    Try this:

    All day, walk around saying 'what if' 'what if' ....everywhere you go, around the house or out shopping, at work, gardening, eating out, constantly ask yourself 'what if?' regarding anything that enters your field of vision.

    Develop this as a habit.

    Say it 1,000 times a day (minimum). Ideas will begin flooding in. (too many, probably)
     
  3. Annabee

    Annabee New Member

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    Well.........you could actually write a piece on 'having nothing to write about'. You could try and express the difficulties you feel when you're unable to think of a subject area or have a lack of inspiration. You could make it into a kind of self observation?
     
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  4. Senko

    Senko Member

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    Have you tried music?
    Sometimes, just by listening to music for a few minutes, my mood changes. I even feel like getting a little more inspiration.
     
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  5. KevinMcCormack

    KevinMcCormack Senior Member

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    There's also something called 'writing prompts' or 'writing randomizers' I bought some Rory's Story Cubes last year, and recently broke down and bought the iPhone App version, and in-store upgrade to add the Space and Mystery cubes.

    There are also story prompt websites, with more conventional approaches, such as dictionary word randomization prompts. I once wrote 10,000 words about the word "red".
     
  6. jannert

    jannert Retired Mod Supporter Contributor

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    I'm not a fan of writing prompts because they don't work for me. However they do work for lots of people. There are several contests that use postcards as prompts. Pick a postcard and use it as the basis for a story. That might work better for some people than a verbal prompt. No reason not to give it a go.
     
  7. Ex Leper

    Ex Leper Banned

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    1. Write a diary.

    2. Write a review on the last book/movie/album you enjoyed (or didn't).

    3. Look out your window and write a desciption.

    4. Sit in a park with a notepad and write descriptions of the people that pass by. Why are they there? Let you imagination go and think of reasons and back stories of why they are there. Have you seen Shaun f the Dead? There's a scene where Nick Frost's character is giving back stories to the other people in the pub to cheer Simon Peggs character. I do that with my wife and kids. It's great imagination exercise.

    Just a few ideas for you.
     
  8. Buttered Toast

    Buttered Toast Active Member

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    I knew nothing about anything when I started, I knew I wanted to write about magic and a boy who lost his hand but that was it!
    I have a learning problem and so I can understand the worries of 'how' and 'what' to start off with and how to keep a flow.
    I just dived straight in and started writing, I took a note pad with me everywhere so that I could jot stuff down when the ideas came to me, it would not necessarily fit the story at the time but it was always ideas I would use later, in fact some of the stuff I have jotted down I will use in my second book lol

    Your first draft is always a rough outline, I re-wrote my work about 4-5 times and the beginning about 6 times so don't leave your ideas to flitter away from you, you never know when you might use them :p
     
  9. Simpson17866

    Simpson17866 Contributor Contributor

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    Since a lot of other good advice has already been covered:

    Pick a story or a series of stories that you absolutely love. Now try to find something wrong with it ;) It doesn't need to be something major, it doesn't need to be something that detracts from your ultimate enjoyment of the story, but it does have to be something specific that you can point to and say "if I was writing this story, then this is how I would've done it differently for this reason" (As always, TVTropes Will Enhance Your Life :) )

    You now know something about yourself, something about what you - as a storyteller - personally value as being important to the art of storytelling. Now pick another story and do this again :D

    If you come up with enough personal fixes to enough established stories, eventually two or three of them will combine in your mind to give you an idea for something completely new.
     
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  10. tonguetied

    tonguetied Contributor Contributor

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    While I like this idea quite a bit I believe the OP was wanting to write something factual, not what ifs, etc. Their problem, as I understood it, was feeling that they had no relevant knowledge of any particular item that they wanted to write about. Of course this is where research comes in and I am not sure if anyone even mentioned that so much. Anyway they probably have moved on, written five tomes, a TV series, etc. by now.
     
  11. Simpson17866

    Simpson17866 Contributor Contributor

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    Oh...

     
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  12. newjerseyrunner

    newjerseyrunner Contributor Contributor Contest Winner 2022

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    I have multiple endless stories that I go back and play with whenever I get stuck. They're never meant to be publish or even polished, they're just free streaming ideas. I have one where my family and I are in the decaying world after a zombie outbreak. I have another where my family and I are zipping around space meeting aliens. Just writing a few minutes on one of those tends to start the creative process and brings up lots of ideas for other things.
     
  13. AASmith

    AASmith Senior Member

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    I have never been the type to think about something to write. The inspiration/topic is either there or it isn't so i never sit at the compute and try to create a new story idea. I suggest not writing if you have nothing to write about. Pick up a book and read instead.
     
  14. Carthonn

    Carthonn Active Member

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    Write about a writer with nothing to write about. What does he or she do? Then make something terrible happen to them. Repeat.
     

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