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Whats your weirdest ritual to beat writers block?

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Linnet_Crawford

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Walking, showering, reading...
I always found that reading something in a completely random genre / form can shake out new ideas (I'm always open to reading plays. Or some poetry. Makes a nice change, and they're quick.)
 

Spooky

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I am in a constant magpie whirl whatever that means, I research things endlessly and I go out and wander in dark and neglected and wild places and pick things up and plunge and pursue and sometimes I feel the snap, crackle and cackle of my internal brewing pot. I also keep journals of my dreamscapes and examine my path in life and the contours and shades and use it as a background to whatever projects I am attempting to unfurl in each period of time.
 

Putputt

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Whine at my writing group and Mr. Putt. They're too kind to tell me to pull my head out of my ass, and I take advantage of that shamelessly. :D

I also write with my eyes closed sometimes, when Inner Editor is way too vicious and loud for me to handle. "Your writing is crap!!" she declares. Well I wouldn't know, can't see what I'm typing la la la.
 

yazeed

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well i play video games ( I know it is weird that I like books and video games )
and sometimes i draw, cook, read and try to sleep.
 

HPhatecraft

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Not all that weird, but maybe it is.

When I can't start writing, I just read some awful book that got published and remind myself that I can do better than that.
 

Helix

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Not all that weird, but maybe it is.

When I can't start writing, I just read some awful book that got published and remind myself that I can do better than that.

Ha! I do the opposite: I open an excellent book to remind myself how wonderful it is to read well-told stories, and am re-inspired.
 

manego90

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As weird as this may sound I've seen it work not just for me,but for multiple people. Forget that you have writers block and when your ready to write, just write. I say this because I constantly have writer's block and when I write something good and have to write again I have absolutely no ideas in my brain for what I'm writing. It's until I just start writing and I realize nothing is there or makes sense. so i get creative and start editing. I feel like most writers that overcome writer's block are just really good story editors. I don't know, just my two cents.
 

brandenburgdm

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Not all that weird, but maybe it is.

When I can't start writing, I just read some awful book that got published and remind myself that I can do better than that.

Hahaha! I do this when I feel like I'm just getting no where or that my work is crap.

As for writer's block, I love to listen to podcasts, specifically How Did This Get Made? They make fun of (sometimes)awful movies. I usually end up cracking up and relaxing which allows me to open back up.
 

sublunam

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The weirdest thing that's worked for me lately is to write only in italics. So, I guess not weird in the grand scale of things, but certainly weird in the I-have-zero-clue-why-this-works kind of way.
 

Madkei

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I put on a Pandora station to try to get into a certain mood. Then I try to get into the character's head a bit, and usually the characters start talking pretty quickly.
 

amillimiles

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I talk to my CPs and writing buddies, procrastinate for a while. And then I turn off the lights or draw the curtains. Somehow, I'm always better at writing in the dark. Is anyone else like that?

It takes me about 30 minutes to get engrossed in the scene; faster if it's a rainy day or if it's at night, but when the sun's out and you hear the sounds of New York traffic and laughter from Central Park drifting to your window ... it's pretty damn hard.
 

shakeysix

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Now that it is summer and I am retired, I rotate chores. I hour garden work. I hour writing--even if it is crap. One hour house work. One hour political news. One hour tearing my hair out and hollering at the tv. Then back to writing and weeding--s6
 

s_nov

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I have a few things. Sometimes, I go on Pinterest and pin things related to my story. Sometimes I'll pull out a voice recorder and talk out the whole plot or the part where I'm stuck. I also skip ahead and write a scene that I've been dying to write so I'm still creating something, and then I'm able to bridge the gap later.
 

read2live

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Writer’s block is the bane of my existence. It's something I've struggled with a lot of late, too. I've had some really...complicated experience with a publisher that led me to reexamine a lot of things, namely the amount of trust i put in people. But it also caused me to reevaluate my life and led to a midlife career change, so in some senses that's a good thing. My writer's block ritual usually is to just walk away and cone back when I have a fresh perspective.
 

JRMcCarty

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Like a lot of people here, I run or shower. But I've recently become a big fan of Fighter's Block, which is a little simulation game thing that makes you write to keep a little avatar's health up. Sounds really strange, I know, but it's been pretty helpful for me! Definitely would recommend!
 

Cernex

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The weirdest thing I ever did -only once, tho'- was just ramble aloud for about a whole hour, going over the scene over and over as if arguing my myself. I had no idea what I was doing or why, but it seemed to do the trick.
 

Chanan12

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I take a white page of paper and scribble lightly. Make sure you cover the entire page, but draw only fine, light lines.
Pencil is best.
The scribbles, if you look closely, may take the shape of something familiar. Hopefully your pilot light gets reignited and you can crank the heat!
This has worked for me for years.

Instead of scribbles you can just start drawing something. I like to switch gears a lot between sketching and writing.

By the time I start drawing something, I think of something to write. Usually... ;)
 

nicotine027

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I just ended a 5+ year (!) writer's block spell yesterday!

It's a story that has been planned and partially written/drawn in graphic novel form, but that I want to write as a novel instead of drawing it. Instead of starting from the Prologue, I started to write the beginning of the third chapter which is an intense scene I like. Starting from a juicy, dynamic, ect. part of your story is a good method, I think.
 

DamienLoveshaft

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I switch to another scene card and start writing that until the other scene I was writing has more time to sink in. I find sleeping on the problem scene usually does the trick.
 

Spooky

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Long strolls to dubious locations usually under cover of moonlight, unraveling and confronting what is weighing me down emotionally, sipping rum on my rum evenings, dull and agonizing persistence despite the seemingly insurmountable angle of the mountain, slow progress is still progress even if the bigger 'image' of whatever project looks like what a fly sees when it lands inside a bag of sugar that's fallen into the flourishing meadow of a flushing toilet :Shrug:
 
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