Writer's Block

[Steph Crandall]

So I've been having some massive writer's block. Does anyone have any nerdfightastic ideas about getting around this?

[Bartosz]

LOL, yes, that is a problem. But on the other hand, your employer one day will be able to say: "Here Steph Crandall wrote her best selling book", so they should be happy you write at work. ;)

[Steph Crandall]

Idk... Lawyers are pretty picky. haha

[Bartosz]

Solution: positive character, who would be lawyer. Haha. 

[Brittany Pedersen]

Going for a walk always helps me, too. A long walk...

[Shannon O'Shea]

I conquer writer's block by reminding myself that it does not exist. Every job is hard sometimes! Whether your profession is creative or not, everyone has difficult and unproductive days, and being a writer is not any different. We just like to tell ourselves that we are special :D

If you are having trouble with a particular project, there is usually an identifiable reason that it is not moving forward. For me, 99.9% of the time that problem is that I didn't do a very good job planning it during the pre-writing phase. This may be due to inconsistent or poorly developed characters, logical plot problems or consistency, tone, or (what has done me in multiple times) shoddy research. (Other reasons could be things like your writing environment, external distractions, stress, or just being bored of the story.) Once you figure out what is getting in the way, it is simple enough to take the time to fix it. Good luck!

[Jackson Stanton]

Find a book you like and copy a page, chapter, etc. It helps me because it makes you think the way the writer was thinking when he or she wrote it, It also helps your writing style :)

[Jordyn Preusker]

Umm, go back and watch Brotherhood 2.0... It's pretty awesome. I'm not very creative, but good luck and DFTBA!

[Ian McMichen]

I play some of my favorite games like Dead Space, Halo, StarCraft, and watch some of my favorite movies Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, and Nolan's Batman. The stories in these and others grab me by the eyeballs and get me emotionally invested in the characters, but this rarely serves to get me through blocks.

What really works for me is listening to bands like Red, Becoming the Archetype, and Oh, Sleeper, and the occasional film or game soundtrack. The three bands I just mentioned have been quite influential in my stories, and by listening to their songs, I can find out where to go next.

[Prophet]

I'm currently in the process of procrastinating on the edit an 85k word novel...

I came across this post, and figured I'd share a couple of good tricks I use to break through the great white wall:

1) Layout a mental starting point for the scene you wish to write. (let's say in the last sequence, two of your characters were on separate paths to the same location.)

2) Define in your mind what type of scene you wish it to be. (Romance, Action, Character definition, conflict development, ect)

3) Find a visualization support that works for you. (I find it easiest to visualize when I am in a vehicle listening to music--as a passenger. Driving and visualizing can be rather dangerous. I also keep notes on my phone in a pinch, simply texting them to myself, as I'll see them often that way.)

4) Play through the scene in your mind as if it were a movie, and take short notes.

For example:

- Bob and Frank travel down separate paths to the same playground. Bob rides a bike along a sidewalk; Frank jogs down a trail.

- Bob reaches the park first, and begins searching for the hidden package.

- Frank comes over a hill, and sees Bob from the higher vantage point

- Bob finds the hidden package, left by the unknown stranger, but as he moves to leave the park, he sees Frank standing over Bob's bike holding a knife--the tires have been slashed!

- Frank demands that Bob hand over the package

- Bob reaches down and picks up a rock...

5) After you've laid out these little points, you can sit down and flesh them out, adding in details and letting your characters define things out as you go.

You'll be amazed how easily the story comes to life if you do it this way. It's sort of like building a wooden frame for a house, and then deciding what materials you wish the rest to be. The outline allows you to focus on a defined arc, but also allows you to modify things on the fly.

Since you begin in a state of free creativity, it's more like a daydream, rather than a brainstorming session, making writer's block a non-problem. Also, the rough outline helps immensely if/when you go to write a synopsis for the story.

 

Another good way is to focus on a piece of dialogue and build the scene around it--this can also help in character development to create much deeper and richer characters.

Let's say you start with: "Hand over the package, Bobby boy."

How would Bob react? How about: "You know I can't do that Franklin."

Then just let your mind build upon that. How about:

"Then things are about to get messy."

Bob stooped down, not taking his eyes off Frank. Bob's fingers clenched the sides off a sharp stone.

Frank held the knife in front of him and threatened, "Don't move!"

Bob swung his arm forward and let the rock fly.

And so forth and so on, until your brain becomes fixated on building the rest of the scene around this little seed. Sometimes I do this with throw-away scenes that never make it into the story, but may have happened elsewhere, unseen by the reader. The rest of the story is better for you having such a rich world in mind, even if the reader doesn't see all that you do.

Overall, I think the best piece of advice I can give is this: end every chapter with some sort of question, or the allusion of a question. Then begin the next chapter in the process of answering that question, or at least adding another step towards an answer. This keeps your mind in the act of problem-solving, and as an added bonus makes your readers want to keep turning the pages.

This is what works for me. I hope it helps.

Good luck, and DFTBA!