Writers block for 2+ years

I wonder if having a looming deadline would give him a helpful shove. Maybe he could try entering a writing contest. The outcome of the contest isn't the big thing here (and that might be the hardest part of this because, after all, if we compete, we'd like to win) but just the act of writing and completing a piece. I went through a similar dry spell in my writing and found that I did do better when I had goals and deadlines but, at least in the beginning, I really needed the external pressure of someone else's deadline to get me going again.

I certainly wish him all the best. We are often our very worst and most destructive critics, without even realizing what we're doing to ourselves. I hope he'll be able to find pleasure in his craft again.

I hear you! I move in and out of writer's block. I took a long break from writing fiction (like, a third-of-my-life kind of break) when I went to graduate school, and it was only after hitting rock-bottom on the other side that I began to find my way back into telling stories (blindfolded and spun around backward, it mostly seems).

Some things that have worked for me:
(1) Treat writing as a daily practice. I bought a journal and committed to writing X pages/hours per day. If it helps, treat it like doing the dishes or cooking dinner. The purpose is not production or exhibition, but self-care. Writing is like that. It is part of how we look after ourselves as creative life-forms.

(2) Set a learning goal. One of the blocks that I figured out in journalling was that I felt like I had learned to write everything EXCEPT the one thing I wanted to write. Academic journal articles, check. Poetry – you got it. "How to write" articles, yup. But short stories? Like, an actual story with a plotline and characters and meaning and everything? It had me curled up in our one armchair with my computer thrown across the room. So I set myself a timeframe and a reading/writing schedule in which I would learn how to write short stories. I read X number of short stories in my chosen genre per week. I devised some exercises, like transcribing and outlining other people's short stories. I read books on how to write short stories (this was actually the least useful activity). I wrote out some character sketches during my journalling time. And then, one day, I found I had a story idea in my head, and I began to write. > So, I guess the "advice" part of this is: treat resuming writing as a specific learning challenge, rather than just trying to get back into the swing of things, then devise a learning plan that suits your own goal and methods.

(3) Go on a writing date. Take yourselves out to a coffee shop or a park or wherever with a boxful of prompts and an eggtimer. Write without stopping for the allotted time, and then share what you wrote.

I guess, looking over what I've written, I'm basically saying: forget about product and point, and write for reasons that have more to do with the process (self-care, relating, learning).

Good luck!

Frankly, it sounds like he likes the thrill of the chase, not the actual art. Meaning he wants to know that he can reach the goal, and then he loses interest once it's reached. So I would recommend upping the ante. Win a competition? Write a series? Write in a different genre? Finish a book in a weekend? Something that gets his competitiveness (even if it's with himself) revved up.

For everyone recommending for him to write a series, He's trying. He has it all thought out in his head but cant seem to actually write it, he says its like somethings physically blocking him
He does write occasionally, but its never more than a paragraph or two and its never anything he's proud of.

I can sympathise with the deadly cycle there. Why write when it's all coming out bad? But then you don't improve, so...

I'd suggest doing something very different, experimental even, to shake things up. That way if it messes up, it's only to be expected but it certainly won't be boring (and might surprise him!). If he writes in 3rd person, write in 1st. Write a horror short story instead of romance, work on some flash fiction of 100-1000 words instead of a script or longer short story. That kind of thing.

2 years is a long time. It's may even seem longer to go without practice. I'd say the best thing to do is to let him keep practicing. The only way to overcome writer's block is to keep writing. If he get's bored be a cheerful girlfriend and inspire him to keep going. Coming not from myself, but from word of other writers, sometimes the only time you have an idea pop in your head is when there's a pencil in your hand.

Good luck!

The only thing that got me out of my 6 year block was deciding "I'm going to do NaNoWriMo." Like SJ Gordon said, the external deadline did a ton to push me, as did doing something with other people who were also struggling with me. I'd tried restarting on my own a year before, and it was just terrible. But writing is like using a muscle, you have to use it to keep it up. Using it again after not using it is going to be tough at the start, but with a little practice, you'll remember how it went.

Camp NaNoWriMo is coming up in June or July. Maybe sign up for that and give it a try. There will be other people here participating and making a cabin he'll be welcome to join. Or, there's a kind of monthly goal-based "NaNo" down in the NaNoWriMo subforum here. Current one's called MayNoWriMo. Have him give it a look, at least. It's easier when you're not going it alone.

Honestly, I can't remember the last time I sat down to write and didn't have that feeling of dread and "I don't wanna!". Also those feelings of pointlessness, of wondering why bother etc. Quite frankly, your boyfriend, if he TRULY wants to be a writer needs to . . . get over it. It sucks. It's not easy. I find it often physically hurts. But I make myself do it. More than a paragraph. I make myself hit a certain word count and I sit there until I do it. And it's not fun. I feel like he's going to assume I don't know what it feels like when I say this, but I really truly do. Ask any of my loved ones having dealt with phone calls and rants about how impossible it all feels.

If he wants to write he needs to get over the idea that his emotions around the act of writing matter. He has to write. It doesn't matter how he is feeling.

I know how harsh this sounds, believe me I have buckets of empathy for him, I actually am viscerally recalling this level of writer's block pain myself. But there's no magic secret. He has to learn that he is capable of writing with or without "inspiration" and that amazing drive feeling. Once he learns that, while it will still be tough, it'll get a little easier on him psychologically. But only a little .

You could suggest he tries to write a story where a writer is subject to a looming threat if it is not done in time.
A gun to his head , a plan to rescue some one, a love letter to stop someone leaving lots of options and play it in real time!

I'd suggest accepting that he's going to be turning his back on it for a while. The paper will still be there (and blank) when he comes back to it. Meanwhile, he can continue being a writer by reading a lot, and critiquing what he reads, engaging with it intelligently. He could join these forums - writers talking about writing can be fun

6 years of writer's block? Could six years of not writing actually be entirely something else or it's always writer's block?

2 years?

is that sitting down every day and saying "i cant come up with anything!" Isn't that what writer's block is? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

It sounds like he's not sure he wants to be a writer. If he does, and he's 100% sure about it, he needs to just sit down and start. And he needs to give himself permission to suck.

There's a difference between thinking you suck and being bored, however. I think I suck for the most part, but I've never been bored of writing. I occasionally get more inspiration for one story vs the other, but that's a bit different. Not saying everyone works the same way, just that he should examine where the boredom is coming from. Is it the story? Is it something about the act of sitting down and working? Something else?

I went through a phase of what you describe after I finished my first novel. That second project just wouldn't turn interesting, no matter what. At one point, I was so desperate that I wrote possible projects on slips of paper and tossed them at a target to see which one to work on. Everything was just flat, bland, meh, stupid, I can't stand this.

The actual problem, of course, was that I had just finished a story that created intensive emotional involvement; I knew the characters inside out, and felt that story deeply. To start over meant the whole agonizing process of chiseling out characters and a story, one blundering step at a time. It meant digging through a sea of useless mud to find that piece of marble worth carving out. I was not inspired.

I messed around anyway, kept trying. Finally found one promising spark. But it did not fire up my next novel. It merely offered elusive hints that a story existed, somewhere. So, as my experience, which may not be very encouraging, I can only offer up the last (nearly) two years, of research, false starts, plot bunny-chasing, character development and copious amounts of whining to my crit partner to reach the mid-point of a first draft that is finally starting to take fire.

I will therefore suggest the following guidelines:

1) It's all gonna stink.

2) Expect about five worthless starts of 15-20k before something starts to look more hopeful.

3) Undeveloped characters will bore you and annoy you to tears. They will sneer at you when you try to make them do anything. They will refuse to develop without a plot. Unfortunately, your plot is just as contrary, and will refuse to develop without living characters. Creating an emulsion that sticks together only comes with time and merciless effort.

4) Keep hammering away, and one of these days it won't stink, and you'll have a draft to edit that you can do something with. Your characters will breathe and flame and inspire you; the soul of the book will enter this cold body of words. You will birth it and set it free to the world.

5) Then you get to start over. And it's all gonna stink.

Hello! Seems the two of us have something in common xD At the moment, i'd suggest attempting quarterly month goals. He'd set goals, and give himself four months to complete them. He can change how long he has to complete them, or the number of goals he sets for himself. He can make them bi-weekly, bi-monthly, etc. Whatever he wants! If he wanted to incorporate some writing and personal items, he can make a list for both. It may be best to start with a few goals, and as he completes them, increase the list. This will allow him to take some time to try the system out, and figure out his limits.

For the last 4-7 years, i struggled with writer's block. But I started this a few months ago. However, it may not work, or it might take a while (it took me a few months( Eventually, that list of items to complete (Four items) became over-whelming. I sat myself down and started. My list of four tasks has increased to 10.

But it may help him