From Lori:
What should I do to overcome writer’s block? I am in the middle of writing my own fantasy story and am experiencing writer’s block. I know basically what is going to happen in the story but it’s just a matter of getting to that point that I am having trouble with. Can you give me any advice?
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Lori, I have never experienced traditional writer’s block. I usually have plenty of ideas to work with. A more typical problem for me is choosing from among my ideas. Which one will be best? Often I have to try one, write it out, and see if I like it. If it doesn’t work, then I try another one.
I have two posts on this blog that might help, one by me and one by Jessi Roberts (See below). I hope you can break through that block.
If anyone has ideas to add, be sure to comment, and if you have a question you would like to see addressed here, send it to blogqa@daviscrossing.com.
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Categories: Q&A
For me, writer’s block can come at random times which makes me not even feel like writing at all, or in the middle of writing when I can’t figure out how to start or continue a scene.
Usually, what I try to do is switch to something else if writing isn’t working for me. I try to do something else for my writing/publishing career if I have spare time but also have writers block. I might work on a different story, do concept art for a future book cover, or work on a blog post. I’ll browse YouTube for interesting art and writing tutorials and podcasts. If all else fails I tend to watch an anime or listen to documentaries. That allows for a break, but helps me remain productive since it tends to serve as both inspiration and research. If I have ideas, I jot them down and continue with my break unless I have sudden inspiration to actually write out a whole scene. The important thing for me is to have a lot of productive things I can switch between so something is almost always. Ring accomplished.
Many times when I have writers block it’s because, to me, there is something wrong or boring in the story I’m writing. it could be that I hate the way a scene is worded, or the scene could be starting off in the wrong place, or the plot isn’t good enough to because it was just thrown together to force the story to happen. One time I was plotting out a story and got a bit of writers block and set the story aside. I ran out of ideas and the plot was just not feeling cool anymore. Later I came up with a better idea that set the plot in a new direction. I discarded the things with the old plot that I hated, salvaged what I could and wove it into the new plot. Sometimes the best thing you can do when you have writers block is to get away from the story and daydream about it until you can come up with some ideas that make you excited to write again.
I recently realized that for me, “writer’s block” was me actually getting bored with the story if I knew too much of what was going to happen in advance.
I used to think I was an outliner, but after spending months on slaving over an outline, I would then not want to actually write the story. I recently realized this was because I was getting bored with it. I spend all that time writing the story in outline format, and then didn’t want to rewrite it again in novel format!
Now, I write a rough draft, sometimes starting with only the barest bones of an idea, sometimes with a few key scenes in mind, sometimes with pre-developed characters, sometimes with only names and the faintest idea of personality. I write the rough draft as fast as I can (NaNoWriMo is great for this!) and sometimes in the writing process once I figure out the direction I want to take with it, sometimes I’ll do a little more outlining of what I want to get to. Anyway! I have no idea if that will be helpful for you or not, but it’s worked for me so far, so wanted to share! Good luck!
The biggest thing I’ve found about writer’s block is finding out what exactly the block is. Some people just use that term when they’re not sure what problem they’re having with the story. Are you stuck on part of the plot? Are you stuck on part of the character development? Some people say it when they don’t feel inspired. A career writer can’t write only when they feel inspired or a book is never going to get done. If I feel this sort of block I either take a one or two day break or I just push through it.
storitorigrace.blogspot.com
All those happen to me. I really get stuck on Characters backgrounds and looks. Mostly looks most of my characters have sad background stories