You finally take time away from everything to write, only to realise writer's block has set in.

[restcity]

You finally take time away from everything to write, only to realise writer's block has set in.

What do y'all do when y'all have writers block!? I'm serious! I know it's normal to get amongst writers but seriously, lot's of times when I get writer's block I just feel bad I that I can't seem to write anything.

 

[AW Admin]

Moving this from OP to our Writer's block sub-forum.

 

[Maryn]

There are many cures, including those who believe in letting yourself be blocked until you aren't, unless you have a contract and deadline.

What can you do in the meantime? You can write down ideas, just the overview, for future writing. You can research. You can get outside in a place without traffic and let your mind wander and recharge. You can busy yourself with other things that need to get done but were always put off while you were writing. (I bet there's a disorganized closet or dresser waiting). You can write something utterly unlike your "real" writing, whether it's a journal or a recipe or a thank you letter you owe. You can critique the writing of others. You can beta read. You can work hard on your mastery of writing mechanics. You can buy or borrow writing books to see what the big names have to say on the craft. You can cruise the internet for writing prompts and give it a few hundred words, or a time limit, or both.

Maryn, knowing we all work through this

 

[lizmonster]

There have been times I've found drawing to be extremely helpful. It's still making art, but it uses a very different part of my brain. I stay creative, and the writing bits get to recharge without me hovering over them waiting for them to deliver.

 

[Paul Lamb]

A key point in what you've said is that you've taken time away from everything to write. This is important. Even if you just stare at a blank screen for an hour, consider yourself at work.

There are as many ways to deal with writer's block as there are writers. As others have said, there is corollary work you can be doing in the meantime. Research. Writing prompts. Organizing files. Dusting. Writing letters to old friends by hand. What works for me is to write something totally different from whatever blocks me. So in my case, I might try to write the chapter of a Western novel (a genre I rarely read). And/or put the characters from your blocked work into that Western and see what they do there. That often gives me insights.

Good luck to you.

 

[ChaseJxyz]

There's 4 kinds of writer's block, I've found in myself:

1. The scene feels "stuck." Like I KNOW what to do next, where things need to go, but it's just not happening. I toss out the scene and start it over. idk why it works, it's like I wrote myself into a corner and I gotta try it again
2. I'm writing but stuff doesn't feel "right," whatever that means. That's usually because my current mood/brain isn't conducive for the specific tone I'm going for. So, I work on another writing project.
3. I've run into a problem I need to solve, like what is the mechanics of this fight scene going to look like? How is the MC going to get out of this situation? I need to think, so I go and do things where I'm about half-occupied thinking and the rest of my mind can wander and think about the problem. So I clean the house, I do errands, I walk around the neighborhood and grab a nice (non-alcoholic) drink (or maybe beer if it's the weekend).
4. I am just, physically or mentally, in a really bad state, and there's nothing I can do. I can be exhausted from a crazy day or recovering from a migraine or something like that. So I'm kind to myself and close Word and go take a nap or watch tv or something. If I have ideas, I'll write them down on my phone, and that's neat, but I won't make it happen.

"Writer's block" is really vague and means different things for different people. You need to take a look at yourself and your feelings around your writing and the particular scene/piece you're struggling with to figure out WHAT is making you "blocked," so then you can find the solution for it.

 

[restcity]

A key point in what you've said is that you're taken time away from everything to write. This is important. Even if you just stare at a blank screen for an hour, consider yourself at work.

There are as many ways to deal with writer's block as there are writers. As others have said, there is corollary work you can be doing in the meantime. Research. Writing prompts. Organizing files. Dusting. Writing letters to old friends by hand. What works for me is to write something totally different from whatever blocks me. So in my case, I might try to write the chapter of a Western novel (a genre I rarely read). And/or put the characters from your blocked work into that Western and see what they do there. That often gives me insights.

Good luck to you.

try to write the chapter of a Western novel (a genre I rarely read). And/or put the characters from your blocked work into that Western and see what they do there.

That sounds fun. thanks for the idea!

 

[Maryn]

Oh, another important thing to share: Give yourself permission to write crap. Writing anything, of any quality, is writing.

Maryn, who writes crap

 

[neandermagnon]

I agree with Chase in that there are different types of block/getting stuck

For me, if I get stuck on one project I'll tend to rotate to another project. I kind of rotate through my projects and it makes me not stress out about being stuck on one project.

If I'm stuck on what to write next on a project, sometimes the problem is that I haven't done enough thinking to write the scene, in which case something like going for a walk or doing work that doesn't require much mental effort, e.g. hoovering the house, can give me some time to think the scene through, then when I sit down to write I've got something more substantial to write down.

Being tired and having too much to do can make it hard to write anything at all. I find I write better if I make sure I give myself enough rest and don't expect myself to get down to writing the exact minute I'm on holiday from work*, because I need to rest from work for a bit before my brain starts wanting to do anything creative. If you've been through a period of having lots of responsibility and being really busy, maybe something like this is going on. I find letting myself chill and do nothing for a few days really helps. My brain starts getting heavily into the creativity again after I've had enough rest.

*I'm never on holiday from the kids, although they're getting old enough to leave me alone to work on creative projects and they have their own creative projects too

Another thing I've noticed is that I go through phases of taking in stories, and phases of output. So if I've done loads of writing, I'll need to go through a phase of reading, watching TV fiction series and maybe watching a few films, then I'll go through a phase of writing but not reading and not wanting to watch much on TV, except to relax and that'll usually be documentaries rather than fiction. My brain's kind of weird like that. (Best documentaries for relaxing is anything by Brian Cox. (The physicist Brian Cox that is. I believe there's more than one famous Brian Cox.))