Writer's Block

SFLP · Nov 17, 2009

Writer's block. I know that Lori says it doesn't exist, but I don't know what else you'd call it when you sit for hours and hours with a WIP, over that time complete two sentences, and when you're finished throw both sentences away. I've been doing this off and on for weeks.

I'm 30k in on a 100k novel, 9k in on a 40k short novel, and have three or four unfinished shorts. I don't think I've added anything to any of them in four months.

I'm not even having any luck with the practice exercises, for chrissakes, every paragraph, every word, seems awful. Every time I put virtual pen to virtual paper these days, anything that does come out, comes out stilted and awkward and just...I dunno...bad writing, I guess. Even the sex isn't sexy.

I reread most of my novel today and thought, "Jesus, I wrote that? When? How?"

I finally kicked out 2,600 words yesterday, wasn't completely horrible (there was one line I liked – lol) but it was for a long book that I abandoned probably a year and a half ago, not on anything I'm actually working on.

When ScarlettPeaches promised me a sexy blonde pic if I wrote 1000 words today, and I did. It did use my characters from the novel – mostly in name only – but it was dreck, and besides, it doesn't fit in the plot of the book. I'm not really sure what the point was, other than...damn, nice picture, SP. (Frankly, I think she got ripped off.)

I'm not sure what to do. I know I can write, I know I have written...but I can't seem to any more. I'm stuck.

I've tried all sorts of little tricks and exercises and stuff: tried switching to pen and paper for a minute; tried some brain storming; tried setting a timer and just typing ANYTHING for an hour...even tried writing an exercise in first person, which I don't do, to sort of shake up the creative brain cells a little, but...nothing.

This is friggin' depressing. Any advice?

J.

scarletpeaches · Nov 17, 2009

Lori's not the only one who says writer's block doesn't exist.

You wrote 2,600 words yesterday. That's not 'block', that's life.

Advice? Move on. Write more.

Christ, I have days when it feels like getting the words out is shitting razor blades, but I still do it, 'cause it's the only way to get to 'the end'.

nb: I have never shat a razor blade.

Ruth2 · Nov 17, 2009

When I get totally dried up, I go looking.. don't know what for but I usually find it. I credit two music videos for getting my WIP finished. The characters came alive and took over the story. I can still watch those videos and get the same feelings I did the first time I saw them... oh yeah...

Sex and creativity are closely linked.

thethinker42 · Nov 17, 2009

To preface this...Don't get me wrong...when I say I don't believe in writer's block, I don't mean that I think all writers can always churn out words with ease. I sure as hell can't. I just mean there isn't some nebulous "block" that comes along and shuts us down. There are things that get in the way...life in general, frustration, fatigue, story problems, etc...but the concept of "writer's block" has evolved into a get-out-of-jail-free card. "I can't write...I have writer's block." It lifts the responsibility off the shoulders of the writer and places it on an abstract "thing" that can neither be seen nor removed until it sees fit to leave on its own. That's why I balk at the term.

With your situation, it doesn't sound like it's a specific WIP, since you said the exercises aren't helping either. Maybe it's burnout?

Whenever I've hit a slump, when the words simply refuse to come no matter how hard I try, I force myself to stop writing for a few days. Usually a week or so. No writing. NONE. I can still think about it, I can make notes, but no writing. By day 3, I'm usually climbing the walls. By day 5, I'm losing my mind. When I finally lift my self-imposed grounding, the words come.

If I still have difficulty, then I stop and ask myself if the problem isn't the writing. Maybe it's what I'm writing. Maybe the book has some glaring problem, the characters aren't coming together the way they need to, the conflict is falling flat, etc.

Try taking some time off if you think it'll help. Try writing something completely different. Revisit your outline and see if the problem is there.

Good luck.

scarletpeaches · Nov 17, 2009

Yeah. I refuse to have a bad day and call it 'writer's block'. That puts the power outside myself.

I retreat, regroup, refresh, resume.

(Hey, that was good. I should write that down).

thethinker42 · Nov 17, 2009

Yes, you should write that down. Then get back to work. NOW!

Synonym · Nov 17, 2009

When I'm stuck it's usually because something is wrong with the story. The words won't flow because it's screwed up somewhere back up the line. Had that problem with the Cowboy. It just wasn't right, so I left it alone and thought about it for a while. It finally hit me what I needed to do to fix the thing.

Unfortunately I'm working on Mr. Snooty right now. Damn, I hope I made a note somewhere on how I was going to get the Cowboy fixed...surely I did.

ELMontague · Nov 17, 2009

I find the best cure for block is writing, even worthless tripe. It gets me going again.

firedrake · Nov 17, 2009

What EL said.

I write poo, just to keep the momentum going. I've been slogging away at NaNo and the only day I didn't write anything was the day I had my cat put down. All the writing in the world couldn't put that right.

scarletpeaches · Nov 17, 2009

ELMontague said:
I find the best cure for block is writing, even worthless tripe. It gets me going again.

As Uncle Jim says, the best cure for writer's block is a mortgage.

SFLP · Nov 17, 2009

I'm tryin', guys. (Sorry about your kitty, Firedrake.)

The day I was trying with a pen and a legal pad (I can go gangbusters like that sometimes) after a couple of hours, my husband looked over and said, "How's it going?"

I said, "Great. I've written eight words. I just crossed them all out."

I may take Lori's advice and take a break, or I may just dump my WIPs altogether and start over with something new...or maybe I'll go back to that year-and-a-half-old monster that I actually wrote something for on Sunday, though it is a monster, and would probably span three books.

Heh. At least I can still do a reasonable line edit.

Thanks.

J.

scarletpeaches · Nov 17, 2009

Eight words is still better than James Joyce.

So the story goes, a friend asked why he was upset and he said, "I've only written seven words today."

"Seven? But that's good for you!"

And he wailed, "But I don't know if they're in the right order!"

SFLP · Nov 17, 2009

scarletpeaches said:
Eight words is still better than James Joyce.

lmao

thethinker42 · Nov 17, 2009

SFLP said:
I may take Lori's advice and take a break

A word of caution: Make sure you set yourself an end date and stick to it. That way you don't fall into the trap of, "Well, I'll just take one more day off..."

SFLP · Nov 18, 2009

OK, so here's what I'm doing. After I got done whining last night (mostly) I went looking for the pieces of that monster-of-an-urban-fantasy I was working on a year and a half ago. It's gone; not a file to be had, except for the bit I wrote on a couple of days ago.

However, I have all the notes, world building information, character sketches/ages/motivations/etc., a list of a dozen plot points, scrawled almost illegibly on a yellow legal pad. I pants short and midlength stuff, but I normally outline the crap out of longer things. This story never got an outline, or if it did, it's gone.

So I'm going to NaNo the sucker, with the intention of throwing it away on December 1st. It's a bit late in the game, but with the 2700 words I wrote on it this week, that's less than 3800 words per day. Hey, I type 80wpm.

I'm thinking if I just write like crazy, even though it's horrible - and I'll have to, to make November 30th - that I'll get all the crappy verbage out of my system.

And if THAT doesn't work, I'll take a break for a bit.

OK, one NaNo novel in 13 days, starting...

Now.

J.

Misa Buckley · Nov 18, 2009

Things can block writing. Anger, fear, stress. If you're under pressure to write, that itself can become a huge hurdle.

The only way to beat the block is to write. It doesn't matter if it's crap, just write. Evenutally you'll work through the sludge and clean words will flow.

My best advice is to give yourself license to write whatever. No matter how silly, no matter if it fits with anything else. Write a porny version of a fairytale. Just write.

*hugs*

scarletpeaches · Nov 18, 2009

I think sometimes as writers we forget how to play.

Which is a shame 'cause in my opinion we have the most fun genre to play with!

So...watch DVDs starring your favourite movie stars. I do. *coughColinFarrellcough* Have a nap (

). Write shorts. Poems. Love letters. Just write anything, get your juices flowing.

Metaphorically and, uh...well. You know.

Aggy B. · Nov 18, 2009

It has been a while since I've had writers block. The sit-and-stare-at-the-blank-page/screen-for-hours-and-still-produce-nothing.

I am not sure why I don't get that anymore except that I write a lot more now. Which, paradoxically, seems to help keep me writing.

I still get writers fatigue though. Which is just getting so damn tired of a particular project that I have trouble continuing. So I write shorts when my novel stalls out. And I try to write shorts about things I would not normally write about.

Hell, I joined the erotica forum so that I could write something outside my norm. Getting enough sleep is also critical. When I'm tired I just get the shit beat out of me when I try and write.

I think, maybe, the key thing in getting past the "writers block" was realizing that I'm a mean editor. In film school the running joke was always "I'll fix it in post." (Post-production being editing, special effects, rerecording dialogue, etc.) The same is true when I write. Although my first drafts are hella better than even a year ago, I can make them really sizzle when I go through on the edit. Which means even when I write something that is total shit I now have the confidence in myself to let it go because I know when I come back to it I can fix it. (Maybe not on the first go round but by the third or *cough* eighth *cough* edit.) Not sure if any of this applies to your situation, but sometimes it's just finding the right perspective on the creative process.

Good luck on your NaNo challenge.

scarletpeaches · Nov 18, 2009

Aggy B. said:
I am not sure why I don't get that anymore except that I write a lot more now. Which, paradoxically, seems to help keep me writing.

This.

It's momentum. It absolutely is. Once you have it, you can't let it go.

SFLP · Nov 18, 2009

Funny you'd say that, Aggy, about the editing. I just realized that one of the things that fucked me up is that I often edit as I go. If I'm out-of-sync with my "inner muse", that means that whatever I'm writing ends up with some style issues...it becomes choppy, just not right. I looked back at bits I've written in the last four months and I sometimes end up with three paragraphs in a row that each look like they were written by a different person.

So, no editing for this...mostly. Just words on a page.

450 words.

J.

Brindle Chase · Nov 18, 2009

What I do when I hit writers block, is I write anyway... I make a note of the pages I wrote, because I know they wont be very good and will want to revisit them when my muse returns...

What I've found is, by pushing on anyway, no matter how uninspired... refreshes my muse quicker. I go back an re-read the crap I wrote and I go... whoa, I can do much better... then I re-tool those sections I wrote when my muse was on hiatus! *lol*

Anywho... hope that helps??

Aggy's right about writer's fatigue!! Its not that I get uninspired... its that I'm too exhausted mentally to put words together coherently! *lol* for that, I take a break for a couple days and sleep as much as I can. My dreams usually fill a huge bag of ideas for my muse to play with once I'm rested!

scarletpeaches · Nov 18, 2009

See, that's what I don't get. When people say, "If I'm blocked, I write anyway."

If you write...then you're not blocked.

Maybe you don't know how you're going to get to the end, or you're burned out on one piece so switch to another. But you're not blocked.

Brindle Chase · Nov 18, 2009

Well, I think its not so absolute. I can block your way with a velvet rope... and its not really going to prevent you from continuing that path, ... but I did block you and you can choose to leave and come back and see if the velvet rope is gone... or you can step over it, unchain it and move it aside, go arround it... Hehhee... Just because you're blocked, doesnt mean you cant push on.. and doing so doesnt mean you were/arent blocked... it just means the journey became complicated (or whatever)... at least, that's what writer's block means to me!

scarletpeaches · Nov 18, 2009

Good point.

I just don't like the phrase because of the negative history that comes with it and the fact so many people use a 'block' as an excuse not to write. As if the power is outside themselves and they are entirely passive in the process.

Where others see a stumbling block, I prefer to call it a stepping stone.

Wayne K · Nov 18, 2009

I don't get writers block.

Writer's Block

SFLP

Just tell me to shut up.

scarletpeaches

Ruth2

Tam, na Koncu Drevoreda

thethinker42

Abnormal Romance Author

scarletpeaches

thethinker42

Abnormal Romance Author

Synonym

ELMontague

firedrake

practical experience, FTW

scarletpeaches

SFLP

Just tell me to shut up.

scarletpeaches

SFLP

Just tell me to shut up.

thethinker42

Abnormal Romance Author

SFLP

Just tell me to shut up.

Misa Buckley

Extraordinary Romance

scarletpeaches

Aggy B.

Not as sweet as you think

scarletpeaches

SFLP

Just tell me to shut up.

Brindle Chase

Dancing on the edge

scarletpeaches

Brindle Chase

Dancing on the edge

scarletpeaches

Wayne K