The best way to break "writer's block" is to pick up your favorite guitar, turn the amp up enough to distort the output signal and rip off fifteen minutes of "Little Wing" (SRV or Hendrix style) while neighbors slam their windows shut and contact the local police. Make sure you finish the last solo before the cops arrive so you can hear the front doorbell ring (cops hate it when you fail to come to the door quickly). Then, when the cops report the neighbor complaints, you tell them your damn teenager got carried away and you made him shut it down. Cops leave happy. You enjoyed the hell out of 15 minutes of pure pleasure. Then, the neighbors tell the cops that your kids moved away ten years ago . . . oooops . . . better get back to writing!
Besides, if they put you in overnight lockup, you will have time and very few distractions (assuming it's a solo lockup).
...more likely general population lockup, and you'll certainly have some new life experience in the end to prompt your creativity...ouch! (sorry, Cog's sick quips are contagious)
Even the solitary cinder-block room, with a concrete slab and a blanket, a toilet with a flush outside the room, and no clock within sight, would be experience enough.
When I say writer's block, that's just my way of saying unmotivated, uninspired, or otherwise not "in the mood" to write. The only way I know to get over these feelings is to write your way through them. Sooner or later the fog clears and you can get back to getting some real work done. In the mean time the stuff you're writing may not be your best work, but it is progress, even if it doesn't feel like it right now. Eventually you can look back over it and, if you aren't satisfide, toss the bad parts out or rewrite them. The point is to keep pushing on to the end, to set yourself some goal you know you can carry out, even if it's only one or two paragraphs per day.
I havn't written in a long time and I'm mad at myself for it. I've always wanted to write a novel but never really had enough time to up until now. The only problem is, now my writing is terrible and I'm not sure how to start back up again. I've been writing for a long time but what are some ways to get back in the groove of things again?
I suggest that you enter the story and poetry contests this forum has going. It's fun and who knows...? You might win! yours in Chaos, Scarlett
Practice. Sitting down for 15 minutes, writing a "blurb" then working on making it into what you picture as perfection. You don't have to share it with anyone, and if you have any questions/concerns - we are here and the there numerous resources online. Competition isn't honestly always the answer to bettering yourself. Just gives you feature.
The reason I joined this forum in the first place was for the contests; I saw that they have at least two going at any given time, and I was like, "Oh hell yeah!" I used not to be able to write poetry at all. I could read and appreciate the poetry of others, but when I would try to write it myself it was just awful. Then I belonged for awhile to a forum (not a writing forum, it was for something else) where they had several poetry challenges and games--like for example the one where you write a poem about a topic that the last person to post suggested. At first I just glossed right over those, but then when I started trying to do that, it really helped a lot. If you I to sit and think of something to write, sometimes the ideas won't come. However, if I try to think of something to write within a certain set of guidelines, and with a topic suggested by another person, suddenly I start thinking of all kinds of things, and I can easily write something. It may not be really great, but at least you'll be writing. It's kinda the same as practicing your guitar by yourself, and practicing stuff that a teacher gave you to learn. If you practice by yourself all the time, you can fall into a rut, right? It can actually stifle your creativity over time. But if you work on pieces and techniques assigned by another person, you expand your repertoire, your knowledge base, and your technique.
Just be careful of the opposite effect and not being able to write without someone's ideas or push in the form of "prompt". Contests, though fun, shouldn't be the main basis of practice, generally speaking.
I do a lot of day dreaming. I end up loving my day dream so much I have to write it down. I day dream a chapter before I type anything.
The writing itself can't be terrible if you don't write anything. That shouldn't encourage you to nurse a blank page, though, if/when you want to write. So, my advice: let yourself write badly. People can't write well again, let alone better than before, if they don't. Maybe start outside your comfort zone, if that helps the mindset of "I expect to improve" instead of "I expect something awful, or not as good as it used to be or could have been." Journaling is supposed to keep us in constant practice. If you're primarily a prose writer, maybe try breaking the ice with poetry or stageplay. At least it gets the ball rolling, at most it exercises description, word economy, and dialogue dynamics, all of which should help your prose. Hope this helps!
Try a contest or something like NaNoWriMo: write 50,000 words in one month, but you don't have to pay anything for it, and if you can't reach 50K in one month, noone is going to punish you, but you'll have written something along the way.
Thanks so much everyone, it was quiet the loss of enthuasim on that piece. After a couple dozen bad writen pieces, I was able to get back into a good writing progress. Many thanks!
Buy yourself a dictaphone (or cheap alternative, a notepad) and take it everywhere with you. When something moves you, or you get an idea for something you could write, record what you're feeling or thinking. Start writing or typing up what you've recorded. It's a really good way to get back into writing or get round writer's block.
Move on to the second line ;P Or better still, a different chapter. Don't try and force yourself to write.
okay. i'll start writing in parts. i'm gonna start the second chapter. or something if i'm stuck there. something really exciting in the first chapter, too. ~hehe~ the girl (protagonist's sister) beets up her mom by accident. ~hehe~ i dunno, i am weird...
There's no law that says you have to write a story in the sequence it will be read. If your story idea springs from a scene you envisioned, write that scene. Chances are that things will occur toi you as you write that scene that will stimulate you to write a preceding or subsequent scene next. You can always revise to clean up the flow and any inconsistencies once the first draft is done.
Do you even have a decent outline for your story, character arcs etc? Stuck after one line! good lordy If your getting stuck already just doddle as much outline, plot/character/ world ideas you can.. best of luck with line/chapter two the truth has been spoken
You don't have to begin with a BOOM. As long as the first paragraph is hook-worthy, you'll be fine. Too many people (myself included) give the first line too much credit.
