WB - or am I just crazy?

Some here don't believe in writer's block.

As for myself, I've hit that wall a few times. Sometimes I just sat stuck until my subconscious solved a problem I wasn't even aware of. Once that sticking point was solved the words started flowing freely again.

I also found that writing out of order helped. I'd have ideas for things further down the line and I'd write those scenes. Often writing something out of order satisfied the Muse and I was free to continue from where I had gotten stuck.

Don't stress. Stress isn't good. These things all work out in time.

This may sound easier said than done, but I'll still say it...

Write. Write anything. Write total crap. Write a description of the weather, your pet, your dinner, your underwear. Write about anything at all and keep writing. Get to the point where it feels as natural as possible, look again at your 20,000 words impartially. Decide what you want out of that 20,000 words (do you want a novel, are you telling a precise story?) and go from there. If it means planning the story for a while before actually writing, then do that. If it means writing that same day, do it.

Give yourself permission to write crap. The important thing is to keep writing.

And prepare yourself for a certain Ms Peaches to tell you writer's block doesn't exist

I find that reading helps. A turn of phrase, a similar character or situation, anything like that can get me thinking about my own work in a different way.

Wall

It sounds like you've hit the proverbial 100 page wall. This wall sits most often at 20,000-25,000 words. It's been said there are more 20,000 word, dead-end novels out there than all the finished novels written since the world began. Probably true.

Of course writer's block is only a myth. If you have real writer's block, you couldn't have written the post you did. "Writer's Block" as we know it can be traced back to the first writer who suffered from it, and it's progression to current times can also be traced.

You are not being hit by lighting, and you are not suffering from writer's block. You're suffering from lack of interest, from being too critical of your writing, and most of all, from not sitting down and typing words.

I mean, really, you hit 20,000 words one day, and only twenty-four hours later you want to claim writer's block?

It's not gone, you are. The story is right there waiting for you. But you have to make the choice of finishing it. And choice is all it ever is. What, you think pro writers just sit down and the words magically flow out? You think we don't have times where getting the words down involves sweat and blood and frustration?

Who cares whether you think the scenes lackluster and boring? Who cares if they really are lackluster and boring? Writing them is still a choice, and still the way most of us work.

There is no evidence at all that Roth suffered from writer's block, and a great deal of evidence that he did not. Not writing does not mean one has writer's block. Not writing nearly always means a person does not want to work hard, and that's all it means.

Writer's block is an excuse not to write when things come hard. If you want to sit down and write, you sit down and write.

If you don't want to sit down and write, then you don't. And you shouldn't. There's little point in doing something you don't really want to do. But there's also no need for a mythical excuse like "writer's block."

Sometimes James can be brutal, but its often brutal honesty and just the slap in the face a lot of us need from time to time.

WittyandorIronic said:

I understand plodding on, working hard, and working through it, but you can not criticize me for mourning, even immediately mourning, the loss of that magic.

Click to expand...

Of course not. We've all been there. Just like dealing with a death, people will tell you, "this too shall pass" but when you're in the midst of it, you can't fathom that will be the case.

WittyandorIronic said:

On another note, I had never heard of the 'proverbial 100 page wall', which at least means that I might not be alone in my craziness. I might be relegated to the 'flash in the pan' pile, but at least I'm not alone.

Click to expand...

You are definitely not alone. Not sure how long you've been lurking before you joined, but stick around. It's like one big group therapy session here.

I've never experienced writer's block...so I have nothing to contribute here.

Although...I've been told I give a lovely slap upside the head? Just let me know...

Just keep writing.

Writer's block is totally mental, and if you get obsessed with and intimidated by it, it controls you.

So don't let it. Decide to keep writing regardless of whether or not you feel like it. Writer's block will leave you alone after ten or twenty pages.

How well do you like your ending?

It sounds like you've plotting this thing out, done a rough outline, etc. Have you lost the passion to get your characters to some sort of resolution? If so, maybe it's because the ending has lost its sizzle.

The ending might be weak, or maybe you're just tired of it. If you can't make the ending better, try tormenting your protagonist more--emotionally torture him/her until you can't wait to get them to that moment of relief.

Works for me.

Jamesaritchie said:

It sounds like you've hit the proverbial 100 page wall. This wall sits most often at 20,000-25,000 words. It's been said there are more 20,000 word, dead-end novels out there than all the finished novels written since the world began. Probably true.

Of course writer's block is only a myth. If you have real writer's block, you couldn't have written the post you did. "Writer's Block" as we know it can be traced back to the first writer who suffered from it, and it's progression to current times can also be traced.

You are not being hit by lighting, and you are not suffering from writer's block. You're suffering from lack of interest, from being too critical of your writing, and most of all, from not sitting down and typing words.

I mean, really, you hit 20,000 words one day, and only twenty-four hours later you want to claim writer's block?

It's not gone, you are. The story is right there waiting for you. But you have to make the choice of finishing it. And choice is all it ever is. What, you think pro writers just sit down and the words magically flow out? You think we don't have times where getting the words down involves sweat and blood and frustration?

Who cares whether you think the scenes lackluster and boring? Who cares if they really are lackluster and boring? Writing them is still a choice, and still the way most of us work.

There is no evidence at all that Roth suffered from writer's block, and a great deal of evidence that he did not. Not writing does not mean one has writer's block. Not writing nearly always means a person does not want to work hard, and that's all it means.

Writer's block is an excuse not to write when things come hard. If you want to sit down and write, you sit down and write.

If you don't want to sit down and write, then you don't. And you shouldn't. There's little point in doing something you don't really want to do. But there's also no need for a mythical excuse like "writer's block."

Click to expand...

I love you. I couldn't have said it better myself. I am one of those people that doesn't believe in writer's block but a lack of motivation. 60 years of "writer's block"? More like 60 years of an excuse not to write. If you really want to write, you'll write. So your flow ended. Big deal. It happens to everyone. I think it suffice to say that not every novel flows forth in one gushing torrent of inspiration. Flash fiction doesn't even do that (at least for me).

From what I've read of your posts, Witty, it sounds like you're aiming too high. You claim to have this brilliant story and now your work is seemingly lackluster compared to it. Aim lower. It's ok. I swear. And don't write when only inspired. Like what others have said, write whatever comes to mind. If you write nothing more than a sentence, at least you wrote that sentence. Good writing doesn't come immediately and more often than not the good books have been poured over laboriously for ages before they're "good." Your fear is hindering you. Stop it. If you don't it'll continue to overwhelm you and you'll continue to hide behind the facade of writer's block. You're not suffering from writer's block. You're freaked because your faucet was turned off. Just keep poking and prodding at it and it'll turn back on eventually. Really force it too. That's the only way to make it happen because it certainly won't do it on it's own. Suck it up and move on. You got lucky with a flow. Just be thankful you got that. Now the real work starts.

DonnaDuck said:

I am one of those people that doesn't believe in writer's block but a lack of motivation.

Click to expand...

Does it matter what you call it? Isn't it the same thing?

No. I see writer's block as an excuse when you don't want to admit that you're no longer motivated to write whatever it is you're writing. If you admit that you're no longer motivated to write then you're over that hurdle of self-responsibility. One is taking responisbility that it's your fault that you're no longer writing, the other is putting the blame on something "seemingly" out of your control.

seun said:

This may sound easier said than done, but I'll still say it...

Write. Write anything. Write total crap. Write a description of the weather, your pet, your dinner, your underwear. Write about anything at all and keep writing. Get to the point where it feels as natural as possible, look again at your 20,000 words impartially. Decide what you want out of that 20,000 words (do you want a novel, are you telling a precise story?) and go from there. If it means planning the story for a while before actually writing, then do that. If it means writing that same day, do it.

Give yourself permission to write crap. The important thing is to keep writing.

Click to expand...

DITTO

You're broaching on a whole 'nother concept, whether this "Writer's block' is a thing smote down from the gods or imposed upon ourselves by ourselves. Considering I believe only we can harm ourselves, considering I accept personal responsibility for the fact that I just don't feel like writing this or that instead of being damned by some intangible being or some unknown reason, I still feel writer's block is self imposed not god-imposed. I am not going to place the blame on some deity when something bad happens to me. I believe in karma and if something bad happens then I did something to deserve it. What goes around comes around. I don't view such blocks as bad, just hurdles that you mange to jump over eventually instead of some spiteful entity damning me by wiping my brain of creative thought because of something I did that it deems wrong. I think it helps to not believe in god in order to bypass all of that, but that's just me.

Haha! Well I certainly am a masochist but I am also certainly sadistic to my characters!

Personally, I've always felt "Writer's Block" was just a fanciful term writers like to use, just as many of us refer to "The Muse" and other mythical entities that either aid us in our writing or what have you.

So if I want to say I'm struggling with something, why am I not allowed to call it writer's block? If I want to say I'm being inspired why can't I say its my Muse?

we're writers, aren't we allowed artistic liscense? If I said "I'm on fire" I'd hope you all would understand its simply a metaphor.

Or a simile.

Or an analogy.

Whatever.

The best away around feeling like you're feeling that I've come up with is to have at least two novels in progress at any given time. I work on one till I hit that wall...then put it aside entirely and work on the other one for a few weeks or months...then back to the first.

Doing this proved to me that I don't have writer's block; I just have so much enthusiasm for any one story before I have to let my batteries recharge. This is pretty consistent with my life in general - if I do ANYTHING too much I get sick of it, even the things I love the most. So after a while, I just have to do something else, until the first thing seems new again.

Edited to add: One of the upsides of this approach is that by the time you switch back to your other book, you'll have a fresh perspective on it, and can see what really works and what doesn't.