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Tcreek,
I guess when I run around trying to escape my writing chores, I come back to this forum and look up first book advances and see how successful it can be to hook up with a good contract. Money is a real motivator for me since I write non-fiction books (which outsell fiction 3-1)
Since I'm a bit of a science writer and dino buff, I've had to walk up into the mountains and visualize my subject, and reassure myself that writing about prehistoric animals is a very fascinating subject to begin with. Getting out of the house, which I don't do at all enough, helps a tad, because I can think on my feet.
Triceratops
I guess when I run around trying to escape my writing chores, I come back to this forum and look up first book advances and see how successful it can be to hook up with a good contract. Money is a real motivator for me since I write non-fiction books (which outsell fiction 3-1)
Since I'm a bit of a science writer and dino buff, I've had to walk up into the mountains and visualize my subject, and reassure myself that writing about prehistoric animals is a very fascinating subject to begin with. Getting out of the house, which I don't do at all enough, helps a tad, because I can think on my feet.
Triceratops
I think there's only one real cure for writer's block, and that's writing. You sit down at the computer each and every day at the same time, and you stay there. You don't play games, you don't visit forums, you don't surf the net. You write or you twiddle your thumbs.
When you do this each day, every day, sooner or later the muse will get in line and know when you need her. Writer's block goes away, never to be seen again.
When you do this each day, every day, sooner or later the muse will get in line and know when you need her. Writer's block goes away, never to be seen again.
Re: Quoites about Writers block...
There are a couple of non-fiction writers I really admire. Whenever I'm feeling a bout of writer's block coming on, I'll visit their websites, take note of their career charts, or just read some of their articles. It gets me motivated to become as successful as them, or get their work ethic, or just be able to write like them. That breaks me right out of my writing rut!
There are a couple of non-fiction writers I really admire. Whenever I'm feeling a bout of writer's block coming on, I'll visit their websites, take note of their career charts, or just read some of their articles. It gets me motivated to become as successful as them, or get their work ethic, or just be able to write like them. That breaks me right out of my writing rut!
Work Ethic
This is the big thing, for me. Learning to think of writing as a second job. Being that serious about it. Not blowing it off. Not making other plans. Not doing something else, instead. But being exactly as committed to generating words as I am to getting to the day job every morning.
This is the big thing, for me. Learning to think of writing as a second job. Being that serious about it. Not blowing it off. Not making other plans. Not doing something else, instead. But being exactly as committed to generating words as I am to getting to the day job every morning.
Re: Work Ethic
Get that fear of "writing crap" out of my head...
That no idea is stupid... until rewrite.
Read Hemingway and think, "Yeah, I can write better than that."
Get that fear of "writing crap" out of my head...
That no idea is stupid... until rewrite.
Read Hemingway and think, "Yeah, I can write better than that."
Re: Work Ethic
The one thing I know beyond all doubt is that I will never be able to write better than Hemingway.
The one thing I know beyond all doubt is that I will never be able to write better than Hemingway.
Re: Work Ethic
I guess everybody has their own cure.
When I'm stuck with writer's block, I take these fast-acting... Oops, wrong commercial.
What I do is write. By that I mean just write something, whatever comes into yiour mind. It can be just a sentence, a paragraph, a line for a poem, a character sketch... Then put it aside. A couple of days, a week.... whatever. Then go back to it and lok at it. See if you can add something to your sentence or paragraph....
I guess what I'm trying to say is that don't try to write your entire novel if you're having writer's blocks. Maybe writing bits and pieces would be more helpful.
I guess everybody has their own cure.
When I'm stuck with writer's block, I take these fast-acting... Oops, wrong commercial.
What I do is write. By that I mean just write something, whatever comes into yiour mind. It can be just a sentence, a paragraph, a line for a poem, a character sketch... Then put it aside. A couple of days, a week.... whatever. Then go back to it and lok at it. See if you can add something to your sentence or paragraph....
I guess what I'm trying to say is that don't try to write your entire novel if you're having writer's blocks. Maybe writing bits and pieces would be more helpful.
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I like getting one sentence writing prompts to kickstart the process. Mind you, doing NaNoWriMo did wonders for breaking Writer's Block this past November. 
Writer's Block
I agree with Jamesaritchie that the best cure for W-Block is... to write. It really is a discipline.
I struggle with it, too; I think all writers do at some time. Fair to say that I struggle with it almost every time I begin to write something new. The more I write, the harsher my inner critic tends to be, always raising the bar. Writing is the hardest work I do, yet few things give me such a sense of pleasure or achievement (when I'm done!). There are times that I feel like I have to wrench every word, every last syllable, right from the gut, and by end I am sheer exhaustion, a bloodied mess. I've even sat at my keyboard, watching the clock near deadline, and just... plain.... sobbed.
And then...
... it comes.
And I write.
Zee
I agree with Jamesaritchie that the best cure for W-Block is... to write. It really is a discipline.
I struggle with it, too; I think all writers do at some time. Fair to say that I struggle with it almost every time I begin to write something new. The more I write, the harsher my inner critic tends to be, always raising the bar. Writing is the hardest work I do, yet few things give me such a sense of pleasure or achievement (when I'm done!). There are times that I feel like I have to wrench every word, every last syllable, right from the gut, and by end I am sheer exhaustion, a bloodied mess. I've even sat at my keyboard, watching the clock near deadline, and just... plain.... sobbed.
And then...
... it comes.
And I write.
Zee
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Cure for writer's block: just keep writing, however off the wall and garbled the sentences may be...sooner or later, something will click and it moves forward. Then it's back to editing and cutting out the clutter.
Sometimes if i just cannot write -- free associating, just tossing words down on a page, will get me somewhere.
Sometimes if i just cannot write -- free associating, just tossing words down on a page, will get me somewhere.
I find if I pray about what I am writing I get rid of my writer's block. I also do an outline and read other's works.
--Jess
--Jess
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I don't believe in writer's block. I think a break from whatever you're writing is just new story possibilities. A writer never stops writing. If he/she isn't typing or writing a story, one is dancing around in his/her head.
I may not be typical, but often writers block will come when I'm not sure exactly how I want to move a part of my story forwards. I know where I'm going, I know where I've been and I know where the road leads but sometimes there's a boulder in the way. As several people have said, the only way to get past it is to try to get past it. Even if all you do is discover a way not to get past it, you've still made a discovery.
I'll sometimes force myself to write something, then come back to it later and throw it out or rewrite large parts of it. However, it's usually led me to get writing again and cured the block.
I hope it helps. I'm not sure I expressed that as well as I'd like!
I'll sometimes force myself to write something, then come back to it later and throw it out or rewrite large parts of it. However, it's usually led me to get writing again and cured the block.
I hope it helps. I'm not sure I expressed that as well as I'd like!
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Here's what I'm doing lately to cure myself of sitting down and going, "Oh man, what do I write?"/"I can't think of anything!" (I'm in the midst of writing a novel, so this may or may not apply to you)
Before I stop for the day, I write a few short notes within the ms about what I want to happen the next day, in general terms. At least then, I have something to start with the next day. There are a lot of variations to that, like stopping in the middle of a scene, or even in mid-sentence.
But, really you just need to sit down and start writing words. Maybe you just need a warm-up; try free-writing for fifteen minutes, writing whatever the hell you want - sometimes you may just need to free yourself from the piece you've been concentrating so hard on. I think learning to free-write has helped me enormously.
For the most part I think DISCIPLINE is the key (I'm still learning this, but doing better!); even if I wrote crap for the day, at least I wrote something, and that gives me confidence that I can write more the next day.
Before I stop for the day, I write a few short notes within the ms about what I want to happen the next day, in general terms. At least then, I have something to start with the next day. There are a lot of variations to that, like stopping in the middle of a scene, or even in mid-sentence.
But, really you just need to sit down and start writing words. Maybe you just need a warm-up; try free-writing for fifteen minutes, writing whatever the hell you want - sometimes you may just need to free yourself from the piece you've been concentrating so hard on. I think learning to free-write has helped me enormously.
For the most part I think DISCIPLINE is the key (I'm still learning this, but doing better!); even if I wrote crap for the day, at least I wrote something, and that gives me confidence that I can write more the next day.
Writers block....
Ever since I developed insominia, or at least a small version of it, I started making up stories in my head to pass the time while I was trying to fall asleep. Most of them were random stories, but they all had a general similarity somewhere along the line. These alone or the dreams that I actually woke up from gave me some ideas.
Listening to music, or just playing out certain scenes from the book or reading them helps me too.
Hope that helps anyone hehe.
Ever since I developed insominia, or at least a small version of it, I started making up stories in my head to pass the time while I was trying to fall asleep. Most of them were random stories, but they all had a general similarity somewhere along the line. These alone or the dreams that I actually woke up from gave me some ideas.
Listening to music, or just playing out certain scenes from the book or reading them helps me too.
Hope that helps anyone hehe.
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I think the best advice you could be given for curing writer's block is to write (just put down words) and change them later. I feel a story develops itself. Some of my best ideas have come from this method, and even though it sounds unusual, I can tell you from experience, it works.
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I think the writer's block is a superstition. I never had a writer's block until I heard of it. When I did, it became an excuse for frivolous things. The cure from the writer's block is to believe that it doesn't exist.
Sindbad
Sindbad
Block
All teh evidence says you're exactly right. Writer's block can actually be traced back to the early 19th century, and basically to one writer. Before that, it was assumed by all writers that the writer was in control of the words. Writers routinely wrote reams of words on a daily basis, and no one ever complained of being unable to write.
Even then, writer's block was extremely rare until the late 19th century when a couple of literary journals published articles wondering about that first case. When these articles hit the streets, the incidences of writer's block went way up. But it wasn't until the internet came of age that writer's block became common.
I just touched the basics here, but the evidence is extremely strong that writer's block does not exist, except very, very rarely, and when it does exist, it's a true mental illness that needs treatment.
What so many now call writer's block doesn't exist, except as an excuse not to write. It really is a "Name-it-and-claim-it" condition. If you believe it exists, it does. If you don't believe it exists, it doesn't. The technical definition of modern writer's block is "An unwillingness to sit down on a regular basis and do the hard work." The less technical definition is "Laziness."
SindbadtheSailor said:
All teh evidence says you're exactly right. Writer's block can actually be traced back to the early 19th century, and basically to one writer. Before that, it was assumed by all writers that the writer was in control of the words. Writers routinely wrote reams of words on a daily basis, and no one ever complained of being unable to write.
Even then, writer's block was extremely rare until the late 19th century when a couple of literary journals published articles wondering about that first case. When these articles hit the streets, the incidences of writer's block went way up. But it wasn't until the internet came of age that writer's block became common.
I just touched the basics here, but the evidence is extremely strong that writer's block does not exist, except very, very rarely, and when it does exist, it's a true mental illness that needs treatment.
What so many now call writer's block doesn't exist, except as an excuse not to write. It really is a "Name-it-and-claim-it" condition. If you believe it exists, it does. If you don't believe it exists, it doesn't. The technical definition of modern writer's block is "An unwillingness to sit down on a regular basis and do the hard work." The less technical definition is "Laziness."
Jamesaritchie said:
That, and perhaps "Performance Anxiety". I have bouts of outright laziness, but very rarely. I really enjoy writing, and look forward to it most days. When I do find myself avoiding the keyboard, it usually turns out to be a case of nerves--a worry that I won't be good enough or do justice to the scene I see so vividly in my head. That's when I have to talk myself out of my perfectionistic nature and just get started.
For me, the key to keeping things going is to just keep going. Even if it means I have to literally grit my teeth and continue typing through a passage I'm still sitting there trying to fix, over and over, and getting nowhere. I do that a lot.
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