How do you writers get past Writers' Block? by Alliethorn7

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

How do you writers get past Writers' Block?

POSTED BY: ALLIETHORN7
UPDATED: Saturday, May 13, 2023 12:26
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Sunday, April 8, 2007 4:38 AM

As you may have guessed, for the past week or so, my brain has been absolutely unwilling to come up with new ideas and/or details for my stories. Not just here; everywhere. ALL of my stories, my origionals, my comic, my story here, and a new idea for Firefly I've been playing around with. Sad thing is, I known what I want to write. It's there but... it just will NOT come out'n play.

So far, most I can do is immerse myself in Rome: Total War, rock out to Flogging Molly, and read more fics.

So... any ideas?

Having fun yet?

-Danny

I wanna take the Bullet,
The one aimed straight for your Heart;
I wanna meet the wolves halfway,
And let them Tear me APART,
But that's not the way they do it here...
THRICE RULES!!!!!!!!!

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Sunday, April 8, 2007 5:01 AM

STEAMER

You and me both! I've been having the exact same problem for the past few months, it's been driving me kuang-zhe-de, and I even wrote a blog about it last week. Much as I hate to entertain the idea of quitting writing for a while, it may just be time to take a break. Guess even the muses need to rest now and then - but I would take it as a kindness if my muse would get its prairie harpy off my boat and get back in the air....preferably soon.

I'm going to try and get back to reading a little more - not just fanfic, but novels as well. Reading a couple of my favoured authors often will inspire the go-se out of me.

The best writers never got anywhere without a little reading to start them off.

Another husband
With lots of cash
Chuck his laser
In the trash
FIREFLY

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Sunday, April 8, 2007 6:05 AM

SISTER

That's what I'd suggest; reading more...Long, long walks...or naps.. believe me backing away for a bit...re-charging the batteries.. or as my mom used to say,"just sit down and have yourself a good think." My profession requires me to write everyday (news; boring).. but to write for fun I have to devour books... let them simmer like a lovely stew and then my brain, or muse begins to pick up the threads. Good luck to you.

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Sunday, April 8, 2007 6:40 AM

COSMICFUGITIVE

Procrastination. The ultimate weapon against writer's block!

Listening to music, watching a movie or doing something creative are helpful techniques that unblock a clogged muse. Occupy your mind with other things, have fun and take your mind off writing all together.

Then BAM!

A piece of dialogue or a plot thread will appear from nowhere. Ideas will form at the funniest of times, and always have a pencil and sheet of paper to write any of them down.

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Abby Sciouto: "Are either of you guys Libras?"
Tony Dinozzo & Kate Todd: "No."
Abby Sciouto: "Good thing 'cause they are so screwed this week!"

- 'The Good Samaritan', NCIS.

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Sunday, April 8, 2007 6:46 AM

CYBERSNARK

I watch fanvids, or shows whose "voice" I want to evoke. I also play (or used to, 'cause my comp's been "uupgraded" and now won't play anything, and it's stand-alone, so I can't download fixes) video games that reflect whatever I'm trying to write (fantasy, sci-fi action, fighter piloting, mystery, etc).

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

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Sunday, April 8, 2007 7:12 AM

BROOKLYNBROWNCOAT

I have found that getting high usually does the trick; also, immersing yourself in quality literature can help stimulate the mind. Here's some suggested reading:

http://www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=15&t=21727

I stumbled upon that thread while traveling through troll country. A bit lengthy, but pure genius. I don't know how the author does it, he must be some sort of prodigy. James Joyce, Arthur Doyle, Herman Melville are all in awe of this writer.

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Sunday, April 8, 2007 7:31 AM

PHAEDRA

First paragraph. Booze! Lots of it. Cigarettes! At least a half a pack. Second paragraph. HBO series! Rome or Deadwood for plotting inspiration. More Booze! Make sure its the same kind otherwise you'll get sick. Third paragraph. Fan fic or vids! Steal from the genius of others. More Cigarettes! Just five, you know cancer and stuff. Fourth paragraph. Still More Booze! Bottles getting a little empty. Free cell! Heck at least theres something I can do well. Fifth paragraph. Give up! Rewatch Firefly or Serenity. Finish off bottle and pack! Pass out.

Tomorrow repeat rewriting everything you just did.

No seriously this is my ritual whether I'm drafing briefs or creating new worlds of angst. My irregularity in posting speaks for itself. Still at the end of the day, I like to think I turn out something moderately acceptable.

Phaedra (a bad luck name)

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Sunday, April 8, 2007 7:41 AM

KANEMAN

Quote:
Originally posted by brooklynbrowncoat:
I have found that getting high usually does the trick; also, immersing yourself in quality literature can help stimulate the mind. Here's some suggested reading:

http://www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=15&t=21727

I stumbled upon that thread while traveling through troll country. A bit lengthy, but pure genius. I don't know how the author does it, he must be some sort of prodigy. James Joyce, Arthur Doyle, Herman Melville are all in awe of this writer.

Pure genius. An all time classic post revisited. It has been gone but not forgotten...

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Sunday, April 8, 2007 8:13 AM

BROOKLYNBROWNCOAT

Quote:
Originally posted by kaneman:
Quote:
Originally posted by brooklynbrowncoat:
I have found that getting high usually does the trick; also, immersing yourself in quality literature can help stimulate the mind. Here's some suggested reading:

http://www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=15&t=21727

I stumbled upon that thread while traveling through troll country. A bit lengthy, but pure genius. I don't know how the author does it, he must be some sort of prodigy. James Joyce, Arthur Doyle, Herman Melville are all in awe of this writer.

Pure genius. An all time classic post revisited. It has been gone but not forgotten...

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You. (takes a bow) At this time I would like to thank my parents for raising me; my friends for tolerating me, Joss Whedon for his inspiring work (mainly Firefly/Serenity; Buffy, not so much); and especially my pharmacist for his many meds, (hears music in background) the Dutch for creating New Amsterdam; the NYC public school system; Robert Nesta Marley for his music; philles for making blunts (gets yanked off the stage and sent back to troll country)

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Sunday, April 8, 2007 8:40 AM

DARKFLY

Suppose all I can say is just take a break for a little bit, relax do something to take your mind off it & when you don't have anything to do see if you can get past the Writer's block

---------------------------------------------------------------------
check out my MYSPACE at... http://www.myspace.com/darkfly7

http://richlabonte.net/tvvote/index.html
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http://www.kolumbus.fi/~kj2275/final_cut/

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Sunday, April 8, 2007 9:48 AM

NCBROWNCOAT

I've currently got a bad case of writer's block myself. Sometimes I just back off for a while, but I give myself a bit of a deadline.

Right now I have a deadline of Monday morning with my beta and have I written anything since Thursday? No, I'll hunker down tonight and hope the flow of words start.

http://fireflyfaninnc.livejournal.com/

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Sunday, April 8, 2007 2:01 PM

CLJOHNSTON108

I got me one o' them Digital Voice Recorders from Olympus for about forty bucks.
That little thing is amazing!

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Sunday, April 8, 2007 2:54 PM

KAYLEEGIRL

Take a break from writing. Because I write at work and then come home to write for fun, sometimes I just need to do something that is not based in words on a printed page. Visual or physical stimulation is a good break from writing. Take a walk, excercise, watch a movie, make some art...

Accepting the fact that this is just the non-productive point in the ying-yang of your writerly Tao cycle helps a lot. Just let it go for awhile and stop trying to write. It'll all come back to you when it's right time.

OR...Keep writing -- write a lot of angst filled poems about having writers block. Sometimes the only way to get rid of the blues is to sing 'em, baby!

If I'm gonna dream, I'm gonna dream big.

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Monday, April 9, 2007 6:10 AM

ALLIETHORN7

Thanks, folks, and... Brooklyn?
That thread... was...
AWESOME!!!!!!!!!
I think I WILL take a break... for now. Til' then...

Having fun yet?

-Danny

I wanna take the Bullet,
The one aimed straight for your Heart;
I wanna meet the wolves halfway,
And let them Tear me APART,
But that's not the way they do it here...
THRICE RULES!!!!!!!!!

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Monday, April 9, 2007 6:40 AM

MAVOURNEEN

Start keeping an idea book.

Get some sort of notebook, unlined. Spiral bound is best.

Whenever you see something spiffy, something interesting, something weird...cut it out and put it in there.

Write down snippets of conversations you overhear at 7-11/ on the subway/in the library that strike you.

Cut pictures from magazines - images that intrigue you, people who interest you, etc.

It can be Firefly related or not. Whatever you decide.

Don't browse through while you take the above mentioned break.

When you feel you are ready, start looking through it.

I worked on my book for 6 months before I was able to write again.

It helps. It helps a lot.

------------------------------------------------

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Tuesday, April 10, 2007 5:19 AM

SHIELDMAID

Man, writer's block sucks. No way 'round that...

And people have given some truly excellent suggestions here! I humbly offer the following to the ones already posted; I write a lot, and frequently it's under a deadline. So these work for me:

Have a couple different projects going at once. If I can't think of what to do with project A, I can switch to Project B or C or D. Usually I can eke out a sentence for one of them, anyway, that isn't a dismal piece of crapola--and sometimes when I'm working on one, a plotline or quote for another one will fall out of my head and hit me.

I force myself to sit down for a specified amount of time (15 minutes, an hour... whatever I can do realistically) and write *something.* My caveat is that it can be whatever I want--a filthy limerick, a list of things that piss me off, a series of Old Norse-styled kennings for writer's block--as long as I write something. My opinion is that it keeps my brain front and center on the whole writing process instead of letting it slip back under the weeds at the shallow end of the pond and lurk, even if it's only to compose an ode to what I had for breakfast at Hardee's. I figure it's still an exercise of the creative process, as well as of the discipline of writing--and that's never really a waste of time in my opinion.

I'm on the "read, read, read..." train, too. Reading what others are doing A) makes me want to write, also; and B )lets me enjoy the company of other people who presumeably find words fun and interesting and a reasonably-priced vacation. That's inspiring all the way around. :)

Try something completely different just for fun. I've had a blast and done away with writer's block by jumping outside my box and challenging myself to do something entirely different (and sometimes inane). The end result doesn't have to be good--the real worth is in the process. For instance, using a traditional poetry form with a nontraditional voice/subject matter. What qwould a Shakespearean sonnet composed by Malcolm Reynolds sound like? What would he write about? What would he say? How would he say it? Or a haiku by Jayne Cobb? I've actualy gleaned some really good bits out of this sort of exercise, because I found myself making connections or realizations about a subject I might not have arrived at otherwise from my established, more comfortable, perspective.

Those are a few things I rely on, anyway. The common thread seems to be to find a back door around the writer's block by challenging my brain to be creative "off the beaten path.". Sometimes that's all it takes to jump-start things and get them moving again. And sometimes it starts a whole unexpected new project. Either way is cool, as far as I'm concerned.

Hopefully someone else might find some of them as effective as I have.

Thanks for your time--

Shieldmaid

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Tuesday, April 10, 2007 5:28 AM

HERO

Quote:
Originally posted by Alliethorn7:
So... any ideas?

Try giving up. Don't write anymore. Abandon your dreams and fantasies and resign yourself to the quiet desperation of everyday existence. Worked for me...

H

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Saturday, May 13, 2023 12:26 PM

JAYNEZTOWN

Now you have AI to write stuff

The Night Was Moist - Throw Artificial Intelligence From the Train?

All the celebrities who have shown their support for the 2023 writers’ strike

https://news.yahoo.com/celebrities-shown-support-2023-writers-18352681
5.html

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