Hello! I'm a new member of these forums. I didn't get writers block at first, when I began my novel it was basically my reason for living. I was ABSORBED in it, and completely and in love with my characters, so much so that I was probably working 12+ hour days. But then things changed up a bit, I was on perhaps the 3rd edit of my novel and getting reviews and critiques and what not, and I decided to take a break. I needed to get out to the real world for a bit, so I got on a plane and went backpacking in Asia for 2 months. I had so many crazy experiences and adventures. Well, prior to departure I had figured going on an adventure of my own would only inspire me to finish my book. But the reality was, it took me wayyyy out of focus, and while it did inspire me a lot, it inspired a ton of ideas for OTHER books and stories when I really needed to focus on finishing THIS project. So, I've been back a month now and have supposed to have been working the whole time, but I've really just been sitting around a lot in a bit of a funk. I'm sure you know the deal. Opening up the file with the intention of working on a chapter, only to end up watching youtube vids, listening to music or sitting there staring off into space. It's been extremely difficult, but finally, after really forcing myself, I'm beginning to reconnect to my characters and get back into the story, and I'm really ready to commit myself fully to finishing this project. So yeah, I totally understand. You just have to force yourself, I think. It comes back, when you really throw yourself into it. I won't go taking off on any crazy adventures again until this book is finished! I definitely learned my lesson. The next time I go traveling I want to have a clear conscious to come up with new ideas and run with them instead of always thinking "No! Focus on the book!"
I'm somewhere, I get this brilliant idea...can't wait to get back home...at home, I pull out a piece of paper or open Word......and...nothing! My block in fact doesn't feel like a block! It's like I couldn't write anything to start with!
I used to have that problem too. To help, I usually try to remember ideas as either one or a series of concrete images. Sometimes I'll write the images down on a scrap of paper to remember them. I.E. A dead tree in a frozen field (Dead tree - frozen field) A still pond in summer twilight (still pond - summer twilight) A young girl chatting animatedly on a phone (girl on phone) etc. etc. This might not work for anyone else, but it's worked wonders for me. As long as I assign an association with each image, I can usually remember exactly what I was thinking.
I'm basically like that all of the time. I never want to write anything, even when I want to. I refuse to sit and write.
YEah, I get that too. That's why when I'm actually doing the first draft of anything I always carry a lil notebook and paper around with me. I get these moments of inspiration where the PERFECT sentence or paragraph comes to mind, and I know if I don't write it down RIGHT THEN and there, I will lose it!
I am working on my first short story and am unabble to get past the first day of writing. I sit down and begin to write my story which I believe to be a fantastic idea. The following day I am unhappy with my work and restart from scratch. I dont know if this is a part of the process towards developing the best story possible at my level in writing or if I am just being too picky with my own work. When I write I find that every detail must be as perfect as possible. At this rate I will be unable to get any of my ideas on paper! Has anyone had anything like this happen to them or is it just me?
I feel like that sometimes, but then I usually think that my rewrites are better, so everytime I do a rewrite I feel a little happier with it...if you're not maing any progress with your rewrites, you need to work out why.
Stop being your own worst critic and just write it. Even if you're not happy with it, keep writing it. Then, when you get to the end of it, work on the rewrites until you get happy with it. But don't keep rewriting the first part over and over...you won't make any progress unless you force yourself to move past it. ~Lynn
AnDay, I think different writers respond to this situation differently. Given your situation, I think the advice you've taken already is dead-on. Just write it and worry about it later. You may be surprised what you think when the whole thing's been written. That said, the other option is just to relax about the revisions. I revise my stuff constantly. By the time I get get done, my first draft is several stages further than that. I find it helps me to write to be open to starting over or revamping large parts. I'm not saying you should try this. I think before you can do that, you really need to get the writing muscles used to producing, and that means no revising, just drafting for a while. But I do think you don't need to stress about scrapping and restarting either. It's also a natural part of the process. .Nevets.
I once attended a writing workshop where we were told: first, just get the text out. That serves as a solid enough draft to work on polishing/self-editing in all the subsequent drafts. vanhunks
Awesome, thanks for the input. I'm new to writing so little situations like these are new to me and easily frustrate me. Thanks for all the input.
The story is only going to come out of multiple rewrites. I don't think anyone really writes what just comes out of the mind and turns it into a novel, except maybe Andre Breton, and even he edited his so-called 'automatic writing' novels.
Just write the story. If you have a problem with the way that the plot unfolds or how a character is, then I would find that a good reason to change it, but if its your writing itself then I'd say to let it slide. That's what rough drafts were made for.
Even if you elect to start from scratch, ever... DON'T throw away what you've already written. You never know when you might need it.
Never thought of it like that. I've always looked at the old version as a pile of junk. Thanks for the tips.
You're most welcome! I never throw away anything I write. Like I said, ya just never know. More than once going back and looking through old archives I've been able to stimulate my creativity and on occasion something I thought dead actually makes a reappearance.
I don't know if anybody else has this problem, but it's a huge issue for me. I'm so obsessed with coming up with something original that I refuse to write ANYTHING until an original idea comes to me. I know I should be practicing my skills and coming up with some stuff to get reviews for, but I can't bring myself to do it. It's like, I don't want to write something that feels exactly like another story. It seems like it's all been done before. All the feelings have been taken, all the basic storylines, all the conflicts, and all the characters. Anyone else have this issue? Help?
No, I don't think most people do, because we know that it is an impossible expectation for yourself. The best thing to do is to take ideas that mean something to you and make them your own. Even if the concept or basic plot is familiar, it will be unique because YOU wrote it. It's like playing jazz, which is almost always improvised to a certain extent. They may be playing a song you are familiar with, but the musician is making up variations as s/he goes along, so it sounds a little different every time. Think of all the thousands of ways people have written Cinderella. Nobody has every gotten tired of it yet.
Being that the written word has been around for a couple of thousand years, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that NOTHING new will ever be written. Now make a choice. Are you going to step up to plate and add your own color to an existing idea or fade into the unoriginal and not write. The only thing original is the way YOU look at the unoriginal.
Screw originality and screw practice. I like to rock climb and there's a couple things I've learned from it that carry over to writing. "The best way to train for climbing is to climb." Pull-ups, push-ups, and weight lifting are all fine and dandy for general health, but they don't work nearly as fast or efficient as just going out to the crag and making a go at it. Why waste time with training when the real thing is more fun and effective? "It's not fun trying to climb something beyond your ability." Yeah the first guy to the top gets some bragging rights, but that's not why he went. You climb because it's fun. You climb because it's a challenge. You climb because you like the feeling you get when you look down and realize that if you fell and your gear gave way you would be killed, but you won't fall because you're in control, not gravity. It doesn't matter if the route you're on has been climbed or not you still get that feeling of triumph and you can still satisfy your desire for exploration because you haven't seen that particular place before. Gone are the days when you could just hike into the mountains and make a bid for the first one up. The stuff that remains unclimbed is unclimbed for good reason. If you want to make tracks into the unknown, you have to first be able to handle what is known. Just write what you want when you want. When you're having fun doing it you'll do it more and the practice problem is taken care of. When you're having fun is also when your creativity is sparked, that's when you'll be able to do something that is unique.
I'm taking bets right now, if you start writing something, even something unoriginal, you're going to get an idea in your head that maybe you could change this, or that. You could read a particularly bad book and go over each passage with the thought in mind, how would I do this? You could take cinderella and twist it into a horror tale. There are so many ways to be creative with unoriginal work, it comes full circles and is original again. It's all in how you see the world. Write that down. Tell us how you see it. Don't hold back.
Storytelling is OLD. SOOO OLD. Something we think is original may not be. We haven't heard every story, or every account of everyone who ever existed's lives. Originality is relative. I get these thoughts, oh that's too cliche. Oh that's so naff. Oh this oh that, but it's all excuses not to write. But i think in writing and thinking, you later think of things that surprise you. Things can always be written and re-written later. That's the thought that I try to cling on to in the hope of one day writing something xD But it does seem to me that some people like writting a string of similar things, or something that is similar to "what works" or "what people like." I prefer the idea of bending the rules. I don't believe at heart that if i wrote anything, it would ever be accepted, which is why i'm erring towards weird ideas, controversial ideas and breaking the mould. Which is silly, because they say don't break the rules until you can follow them successfully. But who cares what "they" say, right? Just write what you feel you want to write.
