Posted by Tony Findora in Overcoming Writer’s Block

Posted by Russell Watt in Overcoming Writer’s Block

Posted by Lindsay Bayes (Marketing & Advertising Coordinator/Events) in Overcoming Writer’s Block
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Ah yes! The pesky cursor blinking on the screen with not a care in the world what comes after. No words, no thoughts. Just a page with a blinking cursor. Maybe there are words, but now…its like the engine has stalled out and died.

Writer’s Block!

It’s that magical wall that just suddenly appears in the middle of the road and you somehow have to find a way around it. The problem is, it feels like there’s a river on one side and maybe a cliff on the other. There’s no way around, and making your vehicle jump over it seems impossible. So what do you do? Get creative!

I want to share 5 ways that anyone here in STF can overcome this terrible dilemma. Whether you’re writing posts, plotting as a GM, or even writing outside of STF on books, articles, whatever. These tips and tricks should definitely be of great help when you come to this point. (Because, let’s face it, if you’re writer chances are you’ve already had issues with this.) The key here is finding inspiration and getting your mind to start jogging. (And remember, there is no one definitive set way of overcoming this.)

1. Music

This is probably my number one thing I do if I’m stuck on something. It can be music with or without words. Anything that gets your mind turning gears. I’m, personally, a big fan of Two Steps From Hell and Thomas Bergersen. I love epic, legendary sounding music. Find what kind of music inspires you! And when you can’t seem to get the cursor to move, or the pen to keep moving, just go back and listen. Usually, I don’t even try to write when the music starts. I let go of the pen or I’ll get up from the computer and just listen.

2. Reading

I think reading is essential for anyone who writes. How can you know how to write unless you’ve seen examples? Besides reading to see examples of good writing, sometimes reading inspires us! Maybe there’s an author who has written some of the best books you’ve ever read. Read more of them! And don’t just read for the fun of it. (Really there’s no harm that, but don’t limit yourself.) Read to learn from it too! I can not stress enough that we ought to read, read, and did I mention…READ! It’s how we grow as an author, and its one way to overcome that blank feeling before getting to the writing.

3. Writing Prompts

Woohoo! Writing prompts can be a lot of fun! I’m very excited to see the start of those here in 10-Forward. Did you ever consider, when finding yourself at a stop in your writing, to maybe write about something else? I’m not saying you should totally abandon your work. I’m saying take a few moments and look over some writing prompts. Sometimes, just getting a flow for writing is all it takes to move yourself away from that pesky blockage. I’ve always found that once I get typing, the words just come naturally and sometimes I can jump right back into what I originally was doing and move past Writer’s Block.

4. Movies

Movies are essentially visualized stories. I’ve been inspired but many movies, but my all time favorite has to be…Braveheart! But there are plenty of other movies that I’ve seen and been inspired by. If you’re experiencing writer’s block, watching movies that fit in well with your niche could help you overcome it. You never know unless you try.

5. Pictures/Art

This is definitely one way to get inspired as well. I’ve seen writing prompts that simply give you a picture, and based on the image, you create short story. I’ll admit it, Pinterest is also a great way to visualize some things. Or simply using google to find images of things you may find inspiring. Some of my favorite photos are of nature. Forests, mountains, flowing rivers, grassy plains. I’ve seen pictures that make me wonder about things that had taken place there. The stories that can unfold from pictures or art of any kind, can be as numerous as the grains of sand near the sea.

This, of course, is a very short list of possibilities to assist you in overcoming writer’s block. If for some reason, none of these take your fancy, think about what inspries you. Where do you get ideas from? How gets your creative juices flowing?

This if the first of hopefully several posts we would like to create for you STFers before November comes around. NaNoWriMo will be on us before you know it. I know I definitely plan to participate. If you’re planning to write during National Novel Writing Month as well, keep an eye on 10-Forward! You will find interesting tips and tricks for all sorts of barriers that come up in the writing process.

Discussion:

Which of these aids in overcoming writer’s block appeals to you the most? Have you tried any of the others? What have you tried to do to get you over that hump? What gets your creativity moving?

Go ahead and comment below!

-Tony the Tiger

Music is definitely one of my favourites! I love to listen to music when I’m out walking and often find myself playing out scenes set to a track just like it was a soundtrack. If I’m really stuck or in general feeling uncreative, I like to go for a walk, change my scenery, toss my earbuds in and see what happens.

I also really like going and reading old work. Especially in STF, where we can go back and read Archives (obviously we can’t do that just now for WeBBSpace, but we will soon enough). When I’m stuck about a particular character’s development of feeling like they are lacking in some way, I like to read their early threads, or maybe key ones where major development happened. Typically this helps me see where they’ve come from and how much they’ve grown. I also get to re-read details I might have forgotten and sometimes those details prompt great new character development ideas.

~Linds

Looking back at old threads has definitely helped me out! (Especially ones you find more me, Linds. :P ) It helps to see how a character has grown. In RP, it can sometimes be hard to see that as multiple sims tend to span over a couple years writing time.

Thanks Tony for the

Kind of related to 1 and 4, I find DVD/Netflix/Youtube Clips of tv shows can help me overcome this.

Also related to 4, I find that live shows, be it musicals, plays, concerts, speeches or even sporting events can inspire me.

Or just more basically … people watching … I wonder where they are going? That’s an interesting outfit/hairdo/tattoo I wonder what their job is? How would they handle …

I find that exercising has also helped me in the past … something in the fact that I’m focused on the treadmill/weight machine/free weights rather than the fact that I’m struggling to write helps me.

Never thought of exercising, but I could see how that might help! :)

Change what your writing. If writing the meeting between the characters is becoming a struggle, why continue struggling with that, jump elsewhere in the story (perhaps a battle scene, or a romantic scene, or a romantic scene during a battle) and write that instead. Nothing says you’ve got to start writing at page 1 and write straight to the end. Or in the extreme … have two (or ten) books on the go of different genres, and write part of another one while struggling with the first.

Name it and shame it or sleep on it. My psychologist told me … name the anxiety/depression and speak to it, thanking it for what its telling me and trying to teach me. I do this (I call mine Doyle) and I find it is no longer so big and scary. I find that the forums in Nano to be good in this, particularly one that encourages one to
* Write at least 5 things you are currently struggling with/want answered/unsure of in your story down on a particular thread in a subforum preferably at the end of a day of writing.
* Go to bed and sleep on it.
* Return to the thread the next day (or the next time you’re writing) and see if others have got suggestions for you. Or, if you’re like me, the sleeping on it brings out ideas that can answer one or more of the questions. I guess you really don’t necessarily need to do it through a forum … just writing/typing them down and sleeping on it works just as well, I find.

A favourite of Nanoers everywhere are word wars. You have 5 minutes, or 10 or 15 or 20 (or in some cases 1 hour) to write as many words as possible. At the end of the time, everyone says how many words they wrote and the one with the most words gets to boast about their victory … until the next word war begins. There is something about a word war that I find shatters the writes block into nothingness.

Yes, I am a 7 (I think) times veteran of Nano, and I’ve even officially ‘won’ them on a couple of occasions. There is something about a group of writers all writing towards the same goal (their first draft or redraft of a novel) that I find inspiring. I rather enjoy their community both on the forums and through the local regional irc/discord channel - a great many of the official regional channels are still on irc, some have moved to discord already, and who knows more may join. I find that the online groupings to be very friendly and welcoming, with a UK region and a Canadian region welcoming me as their token ‘mad’ Aussie each year.

And as we say in nano
Write Harderer,
Never forget your Travelling Shovel of Doom,
Plot bunnies never hurt, and
There is no scene in a novel that can’t be improved without the introduction of ninjas or dinosaurs or ninjas riding (or fighting) dinosaurs

-Tribble

Completely agree on all this Russ! The key here is to find something that inspires you. And write! Taking breaks can be good. And certainly, one does not have to go in order. I know I sure don’t. :P With my current WIP, I tend to write what is on mind at the moment. Then I touch on other areas later.

Great contribution you both! :)

-Tony

Two apps that people have found useful during nano are:
+ Write or Die: Set a number of words you want to write, set the time you want to write for and press GO. If you drop behind the the word count, or don’t type anything for some time, a consequence occurs - either jarring noise or a picture of spiders or similar. I tried this one and found it too stressful and unmotivating, and so I tried …
+ Written Kitten: Set a number of words, but no need to set a time, and press GO. Every time you type that many words (so if goal is 50 words - 50, 100, 150, 200 etc) a reward of a picture of a kitten doing something incredibly sweet appears on your screen. I find this one motivating and stress free and without the time limit, I can ooh and ahh at the pretty kitties and not worry about not meeting a wpm target. For those who prefer other cute animals, there is an option to change the kittens to puppies or other animals.

In either case, make sure you copy the words you’ve written to your writing software of choice - I’ve learnt the hard way on this point. :)
-Russell