Help! I'm Blocked!

There's different tactics. You might want to cruise down to our Humor Forum and look for a thread call "Weekend Progress Report." There's a slightly neurotic but basically harmless woman who resides down there and wields a taser against writers who succumb to procrastination, block, shiny objects, or other excuses and distractions.

There are many possible causes. It could be that you're subconsciously not happy with something you've already written, and it needs to be changed before you progress. It could be that you're the kind of writer who needs an outline and you're trying to work without one -- or vice versa.

OK. But do you have enough conflict? Does the protagonist face opposition? Is there an evolving struggle? Does cool stuff happen?

It could be because you haven't gotten very far in the book. It's easy to look at the first chapter as it's being written and say "It's no good" or that it isn't working or isn't perfect. First chapters of a book are extremely difficult--so difficult that many writers will give up after a little critique, thinking it's not working when all it needs is work for a perfectly good story.

The first chapters don't have to be perfect now; in fact, it's likely that they will change later on once you find out how it ends. Just keep writing something, anything. Even if you have to do an info dump to get you started, knowing, of course, that it will need to come out during the revisions. It'll get a whole lot easier to write once you get 100 pages in and start seeing the story come together.

What's the worst thing that could happen right now to get between the main character and his goal (aside from dying or having all of his limbs chopped off)? Make it so.

For your next block: get him out of it, only to have something even worse befall him.

Pipe cleaners. They sort out any blockage.

Failing that, a cerebral colonic.

The Gorn said:

Hello. This is The Gorn. I am an aspiring sci-fi writer. I am working on my first book. I am not very far along (less than ten pages) and I am already having what I have learned is a common problem....writers block. I've been blocked for nearly a month and it's driving me crazy. My gears need oiling. Does anybody know how I can get a can of WD-40 up there?

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Hi Gorn, it's good to have you here. Welcome to AW.

I would agree with Linda Adams on this one. If you're on your first draft, don't worry so much about making it perfect. Just get the story down on paper and then revise it at a later time. Also, one of the best things you can do to fight Writer's Block, in my opinion, is to not push yourself too hard. What I do when I have Writer's Block is to literally set the manuscript aside and think on something other than the manuscript. Then, my mind has the ability to take a break and the idea I need eventually just comes to me, and I start working again.

I hope this helps you out, and again, welcome.

I find that if I'm blocked (or crawling along) then it is because the last bit of my story sucks and I don't know where to go from there.

Back up a bit and start over.

Gorn, you could try this. I just drank a bottle of wine. If you are old enough you should as well. If you are having block ten pages in you may not being "living" the story. Were your characters at work/school with you today? I find the biggest problem with writers block is really all the other stuff that is going on in life. As others point out in this forum often, you should always be writing even if you are not at the keyboard or with pen and paper. If you are too tied up, find the issue or problem and deal with it. I don't know what it is, sometimes you can have a 1000 problems and it doesn't impact your writing, sometimes one well placed problem will derail the whole thing. Look to that one problem. Have some wine, relax. Live what you are writing, love your characters be with them, be punch drunk with them, laugh and sing stupid songs with them, and then make them real in the morning, they'll always respect you (after you edit edit edit).

ButtonTheCat said:

I find that if I'm blocked (or crawling along) then it is because the last bit of my story sucks and I don't know where to go from there.

Back up a bit and start over.

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My tactic exactly! And it almost always works. I've tossed out entire chapters before to find the last place I was interested in the story then go forward again. If I get blocked again, I go back again. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Until I get it done.

ButtonTheCat said:

I find that if I'm blocked (or crawling along) then it is because the last bit of my story sucks and I don't know where to go from there.

Back up a bit and start over.

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This tactic also works with paragraphs, sentences, and even words. If you're last one sucks and you know it, you'll never build up the confindence to continue. Go back and make it at least average.

And egem..... a whole bottle of wine? Let's not push any light drinkers onto a slippery slope......

Indeed. This is why many writers become alcoholics (or other "substance" addicts); it is very easy and tempting to use a depressant of this kind to switch off the internal editor. It's the same thing as using alcohol to make you more outgoing in social situations. And it works.

Just do what I do, and keep a close eye on how often you do it. No more than 20cl of alcohol per week (adjust up or down depending on your gender and body weight). OK?