Overcoming Writer's Block

[YutoTheOrc]

Hey guys!

I decided to start up this topic to help people overcome their writer's block(a thing we all suffer from), I've suffered from it, you've suffered from it, even the big writer's on this site have suffered from it. So, I figured we could all share our tips on how to overcome it!

My tip is to keep writing...just not your current work. What I do is take a different approach to this story. Okay, that is probably not the best way to explain it. Think of writer like a sewer system, when one pipe gets blocked the water usually takes another course right? Sometimes its ahead, sometimes behind. During my main story The Bells of Life, I start writing a new part of that universe. For example, when I first got stuck I wrote a scene that happened from another character's perspective on a event that happened in the main story. Recently I have severe writer's block, so I'm writing a somewhat of a prequel for it.You don't have to necessarily post it, but it helps clear up the "pipe" if you will!

Hope I've helped you guys! Please share your tips and flood the servers with more awesome fan fics!

[Eurobeatjester]

You don't always have to write in a linear fashion. Sometimes you can come back and connect the dots later.

For me, the way I get over it is music. I'll sit down and listen to a ton of different artists on Pandora, and then bookmark the songs I find that fit the feel of the scene I'm trying to write.

It's tremendously helpful.

[TheTealeaf]

I sit down and have a conversation with my characters.

Don't call the men in white coats just yet.

Most of my writing is done via being dictated to by the characters. So, learning the blues is written by me sitting in my chair, Ayane in another and her dictating to me.

When I have writers block I talk to them, steer around the story put some music on, sit down and talk to them, not just Ayane, but the whole cast. Akihiro always has fun conversation when you filter through the swearing.

I have a very weird headspace.

I also go off and write some of my original story The cats whiskers trilogy. The main character Connor and his interactions with the KS cast are hilarious and often pop new synapses that burn the writers block.

[brythain]

I sit down and have a conversation with my characters.
…
I have a very weird headspace.

I also go off and write some of my original story The cats whiskers trilogy. The main character Connor and his interactions with the KS cast are hilarious and often pop new synapses that burn the writers block.

This is great advice. Sometimes, the conversations are in themselves interesting enough to include in the threads. That's why my stuff has a lot of these 'interludes' interspersed throughout the main story arcs.

So… no, not such a weird headspace. Writer headspace is not normal headspace.

I too go away and write some of the things I'm supposed to be writing, or mark term papers and essays. Same effect.

Lastly, take notes! Just scribble them down as they get to you, on little bits of paper, in notebooks, or typed into text files—whatever you prefer. But, as Rule #5 says, "Don't waste good."

[NekoDude]

You don't always have to write in a linear fashion. Sometimes you can come back and connect the dots later.

For me, the way I get over it is music. I'll sit down and listen to a ton of different artists on Pandora, and then bookmark the songs I find that fit the feel of the scene I'm trying to write.

It's tremendously helpful.

I tend to turn to music as well -- not so much listening to it, but making it. I've been doing music so much longer that the degree of creativity required to do something worthwhile is considerably lower.

My problem lately hasn't been writer's block. I know what I need to write. Shit, I have another thirty or so years of continuity planned out already -- who splits up, who comes together, who splits up and comes back together, who leaves, who stays, who lives, who dies, and what they do with their lives. The problem lately is just not feeling like writing anything.

[YutoTheOrc]

Shit, I have another thirty or so years of continuity planned out already -- who splits up, who comes together, who splits up and comes back together, who leaves, who stays, who lives, who dies, and what they do with their lives. The problem lately is just not feeling like writing anything.

Motto of every good writer :p

[Munchenhausen]

You don't always have to write in a linear fashion. Sometimes you can come back and connect the dots later.

This is what d2r pointed out to me, and has helped me immensely.

I have a few good scenes where I know what is going to happen, but I don't want to pop it in for a chapter or two yet. So what do you do? Write them anyway I think I'd written Chapters 1 and 5 before I wrote chapter 3, and then I wrote 2 and 4

Write the pieces that you know what's happening in it first, if you fancy. That way, you can just write a few scenes to connect them together.

So long as you read it beforehand and make sure it all makes sense, there's no harm in it

[brythain]

You don't always have to write in a linear fashion. Sometimes you can come back and connect the dots later.

This is what d2r pointed out to me, and has helped me immensely.

I have a few good scenes where I know what is going to happen, but I don't want to pop it in for a chapter or two yet. So what do you do? Write them anyway I think I'd written Chapters 1 and 5 before I wrote chapter 3, and then I wrote 2 and 4

Write the pieces that you know what's happening in it first, if you fancy. That way, you can just write a few scenes to connect them together.

So long as you read it beforehand and make sure it all makes sense, there's no harm in it

That's how 'After The Dream' got written. And now that I've got about 80 years of history to play around in, I'm good for a while.