• Read this: http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?288931-Guidelines-for-Participation-in-Outwitting-Writer-s-Block

    before you post.

Whats your weirdest ritual to beat writers block?

Status
Not open for further replies.

NateSean

Vulcan/Time Lord Hybrid
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 18, 2014
Messages
803
Reaction score
78
Location
Bennington, VT
Time. Sometimes I just need time to get the clutter in my head in some kind of order.

Writing is like pooping. You can sit there all you want but if you don't have anything inside you, there's no point trying to push it out.
 

Lillian_Blaire

Procrastinator Extraordinaire
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 18, 2016
Messages
38,760
Reaction score
8,775
Location
hanging by a thread
Writing is like pooping. You can sit there all you want but if you don't have anything inside you, there's no point trying to push it out.
That is so gross...and yet, so accurate.

I don't know that I do anything weird. Mostly, I try to sleep. I get a lot of ideas in my sleep.
 

Jason

Ideas bounce around in my head
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 26, 2016
Messages
6,011
Reaction score
1,036
Location
Nashville, TN
I read, and while that's not necessarily weird as a general rule, I guess it's weird because that's really all I do to stop thinking
 
Last edited:

morngnstar

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 9, 2014
Messages
2,271
Reaction score
297
Not really weird, but, if I have something to do that takes time but doesn't involve my brain, like bathing or commuting, I make a point of getting into writing headspace before it, for example by reading over the last thing I wrote. I don't set any expectation for myself of using that mental idle time for writing ideas, but often it happens.
 

Taylor Harbin

Power to the pen!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 8, 2013
Messages
3,078
Reaction score
1,499
Location
Arkansas
Sometimes I'll stop writing and examine in detail why I think I'm blocked. I've had many short stories that took off on false starts, but I reworked them all to my satisfaction. One fantasy story I had was good in theory, but it was missing something I couldn't put my finger on. Then I saw an anthology advertisement and rewrote it as a science fiction story with aliens (yet, if you compare the two drafts, they're almost the same underneath).
 

Snitchcat

Dragon-kitty.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 2, 2006
Messages
6,344
Reaction score
975
Location
o,0
Not weird, I guess, but I go to work or watch TV depending on time of day / evening.
 

maggiee19

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 12, 2015
Messages
493
Reaction score
52
I came to this thread because I've been having the same problem, writer's block for five months now.
 

sockycat

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 1, 2016
Messages
506
Reaction score
121
Location
Michigan
Getting outside seems to help a lot. If I can find a trail somewhere and just walk for awhile my head tends to clear itself out. Doesn't work every time. But so far it's been my best cure. Luckily for me Michigan is a gorgeous state, so those trails are always pretty close and easy to come by.
 

MaeZe

Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 6, 2016
Messages
12,772
Reaction score
6,478
Location
Ralph's side of the island.
I don't think it's that weird, but I walk in the wooded trails in the park and talk out loud as my characters.
 

sockycat

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 1, 2016
Messages
506
Reaction score
121
Location
Michigan
I don't think it's that weird, but I walk in the wooded trails in the park and talk out loud as my characters.

I DO THE SAME THING. I talk to them. It makes me feel a little bananas. But it helps.

I also find myself mumbling to my characters when I'm drawing them. I'm sure I look cuckoo to my classmates.
 

MaeZe

Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 6, 2016
Messages
12,772
Reaction score
6,478
Location
Ralph's side of the island.
I DO THE SAME THING. I talk to them. It makes me feel a little bananas. But it helps.

I also find myself mumbling to my characters when I'm drawing them. I'm sure I look cuckoo to my classmates.

If there are a lot of people in the park, I pretend I'm talking on the phone. No one knows you are talking to yourself.
 

SoulofaWriter

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 14, 2015
Messages
163
Reaction score
16
I tend to get ideas easiest when I'm physically occupied, but not mentally. So... I'll go for a drive, or a walk, or take a shower. These tend to help.

Count me among those who talk to my characters, too. I don't know, it helps.
 

spork

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 19, 2016
Messages
116
Reaction score
19
Location
Ohio
I always take a shower. I think it's easier to figure something out when there's nothing else to occupy my attention.
 

NateSean

Vulcan/Time Lord Hybrid
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 18, 2014
Messages
803
Reaction score
78
Location
Bennington, VT
Joking aside, recently I went for a walk down to Washington Square. The statue of Nathaniel Hawthorne sits there and I sat on the bench, looking up at him and thinking about the world he lived in and the things he had seen.

It helps. I won't go into detail for how it helped me, because it's personal. But I did something similar when I lived near Robert Frost's grave and in both cases, sometimes it's just as simple remembering that those who came before us had lives and had to deal with the real world, too.
 

Bacchus

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 23, 2016
Messages
614
Reaction score
150
Another big fan of walking here!

I am extremely lucky where I live, there is a river one side and a lake the other and I can cross the river to a beautiful wooded island which has a few small channels and ponds that form a fish hatchery. The wildlife is amazing, wandering round the island and watching a couple of kingfishers darting fast and low along one of the overhung streams is simply awesome and it seems to stretch my brain in just the right way.

Another thing that I find helps is to cycle into town and go for coffee, especially on market day. Watching all those people wander by unknowingly auditioning for a part in my novel really helps (c:
 

spork

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 19, 2016
Messages
116
Reaction score
19
Location
Ohio
I am extremely lucky where I live, there is a river one side and a lake the other and I can cross the river to a beautiful wooded island which has a few small channels and ponds that form a fish hatchery. The wildlife is amazing, wandering round the island and watching a couple of kingfishers darting fast and low along one of the overhung streams is simply awesome and it seems to stretch my brain in just the right way.

Do you need a roommate? The sewage treatment plant around the corner from my house kind of ruins any attempts to take a walk.

Also, NateSean, I also find it helpful to think about people who inspire me and the obstacles they had to overcome to accomplish their goals. At a minimum, it prevents me from throwing a pity party.
 

JenniferMannering

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 25, 2016
Messages
62
Reaction score
7
Location
Canada
I RUN

But actually. Exercise is KEY.

Also music. I get so inspired by music.

Also also, I write in an actual notebook. I don't know what it is, but writing things down on actual paper seems to help a lot.

Also also also tea :)
 

J.J.PITTS

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 14, 2016
Messages
661
Reaction score
48
Location
PNW
Not sure I've ever had writers block. Sometimes I'm not sure exactly where something is going or my plan is slowing, but overall I've not had a real wall develop.

Another big fan of walking here!

I am extremely lucky where I live, there is a river one side and a lake the other and I can cross the river to a beautiful wooded island which has a few small channels and ponds that form a fish hatchery. The wildlife is amazing, wandering round the island and watching a couple of kingfishers darting fast and low along one of the overhung streams is simply awesome and it seems to stretch my brain in just the right way.
The few times I've struggled, a long walk will take care of it. I'm lucky enough to have nothing but about 20 miles of deep forest between my home and Mt. St. Helens. Not even neighbors. A long walk through chest deep ferns under the tall fir trees some two or three hundred feet tall will normally take care of things. If I exhaust myself in a 12-15 mile hike through this difficult terrain, the answer has come to me 100% of the time. :snoopy:
 

Ink-Pen-Paper

Life Is Full Of Stories
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 28, 2010
Messages
182
Reaction score
23
Location
Washington, D.C. area
Website
what-me.com
After three years of mostly not writing, only an occasional thought entered into the thought list, I bought a typewriter last week and have been back in the craft doing more and having fun at it than in years. Some of it is knocking out a page of type rebuilding the typing muscles, it is a manual machine. Now that I can pound out a page without stopping, I am writing basics such as scenes and character bio's on it. I can scan the page and import it into ywriter. Groovy (I have been doing a lot of 60's review for a character). Full pages for the novels are next.
 

maggiee19

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 12, 2015
Messages
493
Reaction score
52
After three years of mostly not writing, only an occasional thought entered into the thought list, I bought a typewriter last week and have been back in the craft doing more and having fun at it than in years. Some of it is knocking out a page of type rebuilding the typing muscles, it is a manual machine. Now that I can pound out a page without stopping, I am writing basics such as scenes and character bio's on it. I can scan the page and import it into ywriter. Groovy (I have been doing a lot of 60's review for a character). Full pages for the novels are next.


I'm glad! When I don't want to write on the computer, I write by hand because I have no typewriter. I hope I can get writing soon. Good luck with your new novel and I hope it turns out to be a bestseller! :)
 

KTC

Stand in the Place Where You Live
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 24, 2005
Messages
29,138
Reaction score
8,563
Location
Toronto
Website
ktcraig.com
For me, personally, a walk cures most anything. It's not weird, but it works. I do kind of live my characters in the walk.
 

Cassiopeia

Otherwise Occupied
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 1, 2006
Messages
10,878
Reaction score
5,343
Location
Star to the right and straight on till morning.
I sit in front of my computer and just start typing. It doesn't matter what it is. I start with a blank page and write whatever comes to mind. Eventually my mind of preoccupied issues drift away and I can delve into my story.
 

Tim Archer

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 16, 2016
Messages
207
Reaction score
34
Age
36
Location
Chicago
I go to the archery range down the street and shoot a few quivers worth of arrows. Gets my mind focused, drains any nervous energy that's built up through the day, and it's great for the shoulder and back muscles!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.