Evil Writers Block

[Lindsay]

I know what I want to write, but when I sit down to write it I have no idea how to get it down. Any suggestions out there on how to break the block?

[mdin]

Someone once said, "There's no such thing as Writers' Block. There's only not writing."

For some reason, it helps me to think of it that way.

[Lindsay]

It's an interesting saying, but it really doesn't help me. I sit down to write and it all just kinda leaves my head. O_o

[Lindsay]

Does anybody have any techniques to get the brain started again?

[Jamesaritchie]

I know what I want to write, but when I sit down to write it I have no idea how to get it down. Any suggestions out there on how to break the block?

I could be wrong, but this sounds more like inexperience than writer's block. I'm one of those who doesn't believe real writer's block exists, except in very rare cases of true psychopathy.

For most new writers, I think writer's block is usually just a case of lacking the experience and skill to transfer the ideas in your head onto paper. Your head is filled with what seems to be a great story, but when you try to write it, you just don't know how.

The only soluton I know is to write it anyway. Write one sentence, then another, then another, and keep at it, even if they seem like crap, and have no connection with the story in your head.

The how of writing is something that has to be learned, just like the how of mathematics or the how of playing a piano, and the only way to learn is by doing.

One thing I might suggest is to find a novel close to the one you want to write, then rip the covers off and pile the pages next to your keyboard. Use them as a template in writing your own novel.

And read everything you can get your hands on. Read everyday. And as you read, study how the writer does what he does.

[Lindsay]

Yeah, It is my first book. I've been working on it for quite a while now and have problems with the chapters between main events. I've got most of the 1st draft done, along with a sketch of the basic story line. I'm just having some trouble with where the characters are at.

[Galoot]

Hi Lindsay. I know it's a lot of reading, but the Learn Writing with Uncle Jim (http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6710&page=1) thread is really worth spending a few days going over. Longer, even, if you want to stop and linger and ask questions. Jim's cool, so ask questions right in that thread if you want.

The most valuable lesson I took away from there was "give yourself permission to write crap." In other words, don't kill yourself trying to be perfect on the first draft. That's what rewrites are for.

Here's a drawing metaphor that made the lesson pop for me. When you're drawing you don't start by creating the most perfect nose you can and then build the rest of the portrait around that, because you'll never get the rest of the picture to fit exactly even if all the other parts are perfectly drawn. Instead, you start with a rough sketch--an oval--then you place your eyes sorta-kinda there and the mouth maybe here, and you erase and tighten and make your lines darker and erase again... and then you erase that first eye and move it up a smidgen and redo the nose to make it smaller. You don't start with perfection, you work toward perfection.

Like the needlessly perfect nose, which you'll wind up having to erase and do over anyway, don't insist on perfection for every paragraph right from the start. You grow attached to all that hard work and become unwilling to sacrifice it later. You force everything that comes after to follow that paragraph logically. Instead, just spit that paragraph out your fingers and move on to the next, letting the story flow, not worrying about minor errors in plotting logic. You can fix them in the rewrite.

I've wasted too much good time editing what I'd written when I should have been putting new stuff down and moving the story forward. Editing and rewriting before I was done the first draft, I cemented my scenes in place so strongly that they became immovable. I lost the flexibility to continue. "Oh no! I already said that Sam Gamgee was an innkeeper. I had a whole chapter about it, polished to perfection! Now how am I going to explain him hanging out in Frodo's garden to overhear Gandalf's revelations through the open window?" Pfft! The heck with that! Don't polish that earlier chapter until after the book is done. That way you won't feel so forced to keep that gleaming, splendid bit of literary perfection. It'll mess with the rest of the story while you're writing it.

Another one that's working for me (so far) is knowing that each character thinks the book's about him. I'm a bit stuck right now, too, but starting with that little gem of wisdom, what seems to be helping is to re-outline from each major character's perspective. What's the protaganist doing from day one through day last? Write his outline. What about the antagonist's timeline? Write his outline. What about the innocent victim the hero's trying to save? Write that outline.

When you can follow the major characters from beginning to end, each experiencing the story from their personal POV as though each of their perspectives were a separate novel, then it's time to tweak their timelines so all the major events coincide when they need to. Then go back to the Uncle Jim thread, read what he has to say about Celtic knotwork (http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?p=83532#post83532), start figuring out whose POV works where, and go!

[Steve 211]

Pick a friend or an author, someone you can tell the truth to, straight out, and write them a letter about where you are and what you gotta do.

David Morrell uses this technique, in writing letters to himself. Like, "John's gotta get into that building, but I haven't a clue where to go with it. The back, the roof, or what? It's gotta be suspensful. Maybe a window, but it's not a usual window, like that kind over those old doors..."

And so on. Just giving your mind room to roam, to pick up hints from your subconscious, will help a great deal. And also, you'll be writing. Which will not only make you feel better, but will improve your typing as well.

For books that are great about writer's block and the whole she-bang, try Ralph Keyes's The Courage to Write and Ann Lamott's Bird by Bird. She echoes Galoot's advice with a chapter on "S****y First Drafts."

Good luck.

[triceretops]

Perhaps using a tape recorder to transcribe the begining of a story--make it fun and harmless. Then put those spoken words onto the screen or paper and see if it makes any sense. Sounds like you have a phobia. Your intimidated. Remember that no one is looking over your shoulder ready to scold. This is your liesure time, so experiment.

Tri

[SRHowen]

The picture in your head is perfect, you know all the background, the how, why, where, what, and when of it--but when you go to put it in words--well the words are not perfect.

The only thing you can do is to write it and write again and again until you are able to transfer the pretty picture into words that let others see it as well.

So write, and write again.

In writing as well as with anything else practice does make it better.

Shawn

[Kida Adelyne]

One thing I started doing is doing a 'daily muse journal' I just write down everything that comes to my head, and I direct my thoughts in the direction of my story. I'll actually write: "I need mark to get really excited and then hurt himself. But how will I do it? Hmmmmm..." And I'll keep doing that until I go "I got it!" and type it out. Works pretty well for me, unless my mind is mush that day. :)

-Ally

[cwfgal]

I know what I want to write, but when I sit down to write it I have no idea how to get it down. Any suggestions out there on how to break the block?

Don't think about it being a beginning and don't start at the beginning. Jump right into the middle. You know what you want to write so imagine a scene of some type that fits that, any scene...a war, a love scene, an argument, a party...and write about it. Do it as if you're writing a letter or email to a friend and describing something you witnessed. Don't worry about where the characters came from or how your story got to this point. Start by describing the people or the location and don't worry about how you're writing, just write it. Add in dialogue if you want to. Don't worry about where the scene is going, just play with it and have fun. When you're done with that scene, it may automatically segue into another. If it doesn't, then just pick something else and jump in.

If you can't seem to make something up, pick something from real life and write about it. Think about any scene between two or more people that you have witnessed recently. It can be two (or more) people at the grocery store, or in the coffee shop, or at the mall, or at work, or at school...a group of friends, an older couple, a younger couple, a parent and child, a customer and clerk. Remember what they looked like, what they were wearing, the facial expressions and gestures they made and write it down. Imagine what they might have been thinking or feeling and write that down. If you can't remember exactly what they did, wore, or said, make it up. If you heard what they said, write it down. If you didn't, imagine what it was and write that down.

In the beginning, you can use phrases, partial sentences, or whatever works. Don't worry about spelling and grammar at this point. Once you have a collection of words, phrases or whatever that sums up the scene, play with what you have. Reorganize it and turn phrases into more complete sentences. Make it tell a story.

If you practice writing it will become easier for you to sit down and just do it. For now, just write and have fun with it. Do that for a while and see if writing something more formal and organized doesn't just happen.

Beth

[Zolah]

Lindsay, it took me three years to finish my first story. Don't sweat it - you're learning as you go. But I know that's not much comfort, so here are the three bits of advice that helped me finally finish the book:

1) Try writing in long hand. Go out and find a really nice, pretty notebook and a nice new pen (both of which you will only use for writing - don't be tempted to jot down phone numbers or shopping lists). For some reason this really seemed to help - it all seems less official then when you type. You feel less frightened that you're writing drivel, because you're only scribbling. I still do this if I'm struggling, and it still works.

2) Tell yourself you're only practising. You're just jotting down rough notes, ideas, images, silly things that occur to you. You're not actually writing a book. You're not even writing the first chapter of a book. You're just practising.

3) Once you've written something down, don't re-read it. I know that sounds like a license to write rubbish (maybe it is, read number 2, above) but seriously, don't. You'll just think it's cr*p anyway. Just keep ploughing on as fast as you can and one day you'll be surprised to find yourself writing the words The End. If you keep going back you'll get into a revising loop and never be able to move on. Anything that really is rubbish can be fixed in the re-writing and revising and polishing you'll do after you've finished.

Hope this helps. Good luck!
:Cheer:

[Hummingbird]

The keep writing suggestion has helped me alot. Sometimes what I need is a spirit boost when I think I'm in writer's block. I listen to uplifting songs, as in theme songs from my favorite shows or the background music off a soundtrack from an exciting part of a movie. Okay, maybe uplifting isn't the right word? Just something to get my brain going.

[Alphabeter]

I'm not Lindsay but I am enjoying the replies here.

I was offline for several days this week. I took the opportunity to try and get a lot of writing done but froze up without my usual prompts. Now that I've saved this thread, I have a lot of great ideas to avoid this in the future as well as reassurance that one or two things I already do are not so goofy (unless you're not a writer but thats a whole 'nother subject).

[Zane Curtis]

Is it any real surprise that, after sitting in your chair staring at a blank screen for half an hour, your mind will also be blank? People get into such a flap over what to write that they render themselves incapable of writing anything. I suspect most cases of writer's block come down to that.

It's really very simple. Whenever you are confronted by a blank screen, move your fingers to the keyboard and start typing. If you've not written the chapter title and the first sentence by the end of the first minute, then you're really asking for writer's block. Don't stop to think about it first. What's there to think about? You're not going to get any inspiration from staring at a blank screen. The only thing a blank screen inspires is blankness.

Don't worry about what to write, either. You can trust your subconscious to provide the details. To my mind, the most substantial part of learning how to write well is learning how to turn off your inner critic and trust your subconscious to come up with the goods. This usually requires some effort on the writer's part, because a writer's first instinct is to give his inner Eng Lit professor free rein. That leads to triteness, self-consciousness, self-censorship, and writer's block. Natural, unaffected prose only flows from the fingers of a writer who writes in a natural and unaffected way.

Once you've got half a screen full of text, you can stop, look back over what you've written, and begin piecing together the various plots and themes your sub-conscious has brought out, and then you can start to think about where you're going with this scene and this chapter. It will work now because you've given yourself something to work with, something for your eyes to look at.

First you write something, and then you think about it. Doing it that way around has never failed me yet. And it works, whether you're beginning a story, plugging away through the middle, or finishing it.

[aquarianstar]

Hey Lindsay, that used to happen to me too.

But I got around it and I fly along now!

What I did was simply write down whatever I was trying to say in really simple, uncomplicated language. Short, snappy sentences where possible. Then I would revise it and elaborate as much as i could, you know, take things a step at a time. At first it was a long, sometimes frustrating, revamping process. But in time I discovered I had to do it less and less and I only use it now for complicated or delicate points in a novel.

So that's my advice anyway!

Good luck,

Sarah.

[Steve 211]

Lots of great advice here. cwfgal said to start anywhere, and that's just what James Dickey did with Deliverance - he first wrote the scene towards the end of the guy climbing the cliff.

And aquarianstar is right on - a lot of times you can simply jot down the events, like, "He gets the car, he drives home and crashes it, another car pulls up, headlights gleaming, sudden silence, and he saw the boots from where he lay on the road." You end up writing without even meaning to. The images just come to you, and later on you can fill in the other bits.

And from Zolah...


Tell yourself you're only practising. You're just jotting down rough notes, ideas, images, silly things that occur to you. You're not actually writing a book. You're not even writing the first chapter of a book. You're just practising.


Musicians do this a lot:

I used to trick myself. I’d say, "We’re going in to do demos," but the demos were the records. It would take the performance pressure off. It would give you the psychological notion that you had a second chance.
- Joni Mitchell

I didn’t realize at the time that a lot of these recordings would eventually be released. Which was great for me. I’ve always struggled with that – as soon as I think we’re doing something for real, it just freezes me up. My favorite recordings tend to be those kind of uninhibited moments in music that had no idea that they were music.
- Tom Waits

[zeprosnepsid]

i think it's important just to write. Most importantly is to write everyday. The brain is a muscle (isn't it?:Wha: ) and you have to warm it up. If you haven't been writing, then you can't always jump right into it.

I'm very bad at editing and I don't like to do it, so I would be weary to just start writing crap in my novel. So what I do is write a short story every day. Just a flash fiction or something, a couple hundred words. It doesn't matter if it's crap, it's just to keep the mind going. Usually I just start with something that's around the room. My pet turtles or the sound of yelling children next door and just see where my mind goes.

But I think you have to keep your mind warmed up. People who write everyday have less instances of writer's block in my experience. You can take time off from your novel, but don't take time off from writing.

[Anatole Ghio]

i think it's important just to write. Most importantly is to write everyday. The brain is a muscle (isn't it?:Wha: ) and you have to warm it up. If you haven't been writing, then you can't always jump right into it.


I agree 100%. I just got back into the habit of writing at least 10 hours a week, and it took me awhile to get warmed up again.

The first day I sat down in front of a computer screen was the worst. Nothing would come to me... even more, I had zero motivation to write.

The saying is, you are what you do. Once I began to write stuff I felt happy with, and keep a consistent writing schedule, not only did my motivation return, but it became much easier to write.

In fact, I now feel that my skill is better than it has ever been and my output has never been this great.

If I wasn't writing regularly, though, neither of those statements would be true.

[Lindsay]

Wow, this is all great stuff!!! Thankyou everybody!

[oswann]

I'm with Beth. Jump in the middle and write. In fact most of the time, even if I think I am at the start, it turns out to be not really the start anyway, but it's down and tangible. Get it down and then worry about transforming it from a saggy baggy elephant into a sprightly gazelle.



Os.

[three seven]

Any suggestions out there on how to break the block?The same way you'd break a physical block. Kinetic energy runs out at the point of focus, so don't focus on the block itself - focus beyond it. Can I say Focus again?

[tjwriter]

If you feel like you need to warm up before you begin, there are plenty of resources for writing prompts. Take a half an hour or whatever you feel is appropriate and write under the direction of the prompt.

I am also working on my first novel, and what have done is a mess. I know that it is, but based on what most people here say, and how that has worked for me, I don't sweat it. If I change something and make it different than what I wrote in the beginning, I mark it with brackets to fix later because I need to keep writing new story now.

For example, I had my characters take a trip and it was only one day. When I began sketches for my world, I realized that trip would really take three days based on the positions of various towns and places. I went to the start of the trip and inserted:

[Make trip three days]

I know that it is important for me to just keep writing the story at this point. It's a draft and it's terrible, but I accept that and keep writing. I'm not worried about continuity or details, I can fix that later.

One other things before I finish my typing marathon, I wrote out a one page book report-type summary of my story almost as if I had read it and had to report on it like in grade school. It's vague and not set in stone, but it helps figure where I need to go next with my tale.

Enough of me for now...

[Rhush]

I'm with Hummingbird. I do all my writing with music. Usually soundtracks or scores to movies. This is particularly helpful if you're writing a period piece. The first three chapters of my novel pretty much came because I had the characters doing what the music conveyed in my mind. Good luck!

[Zolah]

I'm just like that, Rhush! Music is really important to me.

When I start a new book, I put together my own 'soundtrack' for it - that is, I get out every CD I own (a couple of hundred at last count) and go through and pick out a song, aria or movement for each of the major events in the story. Then I copy everything onto my computer and save it under the name of the book. With the last story I worked on, I didn't have any music that felt right, so I ended up borrowing a dozen CD's of Middle Eastern music from the library and put together the playlist from that.

I also have generalised lists saved under names like 'Fight', 'Sadness', 'Joy' and 'Revelation'. This is for when I need the mood just right to attempt a difficult or important scene.

Sometimes though (rarely) I find that the music starts to irritate me. If a scene just won't work and I'm already frustrated, the rhythm of the music begins to interfere with the rhythm of the words in my head. Then I have to turn everything off and have absolute silence until I find my way back again.