ITT we have writers block

[Dasquian Belargic]

Yup. Can't seem to find anything to get excited about with writing at the minute. Guess it's that time of the year again :lol

Feel free to vent your writers block frustration here too.

:twak

[Tear]

Lots of ideas. Dying motivation.:(

[Droo]

I don't have writer's block. I'm just not enjoying it at the moment. :grumble

[Dasquian Belargic]

^ Why not? :(

[Droo]

I don't know. Usually, I get this real hunger to be creative, in any way and mostly, I satisfy this through writing. As it stands, I don't feel any sense of reward or satisfaction from writing and consequently don't hunger for it. I have ideas for stories but have no desire to see them through just yet. Perhaps I'll do some drawing or play my flute instead.

[Khendon Sevon]

There's no such thing as writer's block.

There are only lazy writers.

If you ever want to become a professional writer, you have to get over the notion of "inspiration" or "writer's block". You need to train yourself to be creative from the moment you wake up to the time you go to bed.

That's the only way to do it.

So, stop whining ;) and go write!

[Daria Nytherciria]

You..:shakefist

[Khendon Sevon]

I've written nearly two pages today so far.

I have a party I have to go to. Afterwards, though, I'm catching a train back to my apartment. That'll be about an hour and fifteen minutes of transit. What am I going to do the entire time I'm on that train?

Write. That's why I have my netbook.

What will I do when I get back to my apartment around 10? Probably watch something on Hulu while stretching then, you guessed it, write until I go to bed.

Write, write, write.

Unable to write because you don't have a story to write? Outline. Outline, outline, outline. Figure out your start and your end, then fill in the details between. Work on your characters, discover who they are and what they do. Keep hammering away at it.

As much as it sucks to say this: It needs to be a job.

My 40 hours/week job is programming video games. I probably spend another 25-30 hours a week on my novel.

It'll be worse when I start editing. I'll be taking hour lunches at work where I'll just sit with a red pen and edit, edit, edit.

Ah, life.

[Captain Untouchable]

There's no such thing as writer's block.

There are only lazy writers.

If you ever want to become a professional writer, you have to get over the notion of "inspiration" or "writer's block". You need to train yourself to be creative from the moment you wake up to the time you go to bed.

That's the only way to do it.

So, stop whining ;) and go write!

I'm not sure that's necessarily true. There's a noticable difference between writing that someone has forced out robotically, and something that's properly "inspired".

If you're writing a novel you can come back and edit the parts that don't feel right, which is great. That being the case, then pushing through and churning out uninspired stuff isn't such a big deal; its the momentum that matters really. But that doesn't mean there's no such thing as "writers block" - you can't do that when you're working on a time constraint, or when you're posting around the forums, or whatever. You can't really get away with doing a first draft on a post. ;)

[Lykaios]

Real life has just a this thing for getting in the way. Too much has been going at work that has left me mentally drained, therefore when I come home and stare at the screen ready to type, nothing's coming out. Or what comes out is entire horseshit and not good enough to be posted.

With that said, I'm off work for 3 days this week so that should ease things some and hopefully help me back into the swing of things

[Khendon Sevon]

Nope.

You're still sticking too much to the idea of inspiration. It's like luck, you make it.

You can't achieve anything by waiting around for a light bulb to go off in your head. If all you're doing is writing a post, that shouldn't be a problem. Take the first idea you have, write it up. Don't like it? Do it again. Short form is infinitely easier to do than long form writing.

Let Darwin be your buddy, branch off with ridiculous ideas and, eventually, one will stick. In short form, you don't have to worry as much about how everything meshes and the deep, underlying meaning of everything.

Just keep writing until you find something you like. Explore. Consider it an exercise.

Pretty soon, you'll notice that you've trained yourself to write amazingly well and have constant "aha" moments the entire time. You'll find yourself doing less "exploratory" writing and more of exactly what you want and desire.

[Daria Nytherciria]

I can force myself to write every day. I did Nanowrimo last year and wrote almost 40,000 words in 30 days. Doesn't mean that any of it was good or inspired. Fact is, I know that inspiration helps because if I am excited about an idea I'll write more and it'll be better, rather than just churned out for the sake of writing.

Maybe I won't make a career out of writing because of that, who knows, but that's the way it is for me right now.

[Khendon Sevon]

Real life has just a this thing for getting in the way. Too much has been going at work that has left me mentally drained, therefore when I come home and stare at the screen ready to type, nothing's coming out. Or what comes out is entire horseshit and not good enough to be posted.

With that said, I'm off work for 3 days this week so that should ease things some and hopefully help me back into the swing of things

Get yourself into the rhythm of writing in the morning and at night.

I spend all my time at work doing math and solving complex relationship problems in software. Trust me, my brain feels like sushi left in the sun afterwards.

But, I make a point of cooking (zen in its own right) and working out. It gives me just what I personally need to break the spell.

Then it's off to the writing mill with me hacking away at my keyboard, happy as a bug in a rug.

[Tear]

I'm not sure that's necessarily true. There's a noticable difference between writing that someone has forced out robotically, and something that's properly "inspired".

If you're writing a novel you can come back and edit the parts that don't feel right, which is great. That being the case, then pushing through and churning out uninspired stuff isn't such a big deal; its the momentum that matters really. But that doesn't mean there's no such thing as "writers block" - you can't do that when you're working on a time constraint, or when you're posting around the forums, or whatever. You can't really get away with doing a first draft on a post. ;)

I agree with the momentum idea. I've been on a roll before and everything just flowed easily. Other times I'll get to a sentence and get totally stumped on how to write it.

At these points I usually take a break and let me subconscious chew on it for a bit. Although this definitely adds to why I write so slowly:lol. That for me is my form of writers block.

[Khendon Sevon]

I can force myself to write every day. I did Nanowrimo last year and wrote almost 40,000 words in 30 days. Doesn't mean that any of it was good or inspired. Fact is, I know that inspiration helps because if I am excited about an idea I'll write more and it'll be better, rather than just churned out for the sake of writing.

Maybe I won't make a career out of writing because of that, who knows, but that's the way it is for me right now.

It's not about churning out a word count. It's definitely not about writing for the sake of writing.

It's about giving yourself dedicated time to work on whatever writing you're doing and removing all distractions.

I shut my door, sign off aim, and keep my browsing limited to research while I'm doing my writing. Focus is the key.

That whole "I'm uninspired, le sigh" attitude will vanish. It's a myth put in place by laziness. I'm not kidding.

Try a week of dedicated writing. The results are superior to simply writing whenever you feel the itch and far more productive.

[Ilias Nytrau]

My 'writer's block' has everything to do with laziness and procrastination and lack of motivation. That's exactly what it is. Considering I've been quite adept at those things of inertness for many a year, I figure I would know what I'm talking about. Besides, I've lost count of how many times I've churned out a post from a position of 'block' or 'no inspiration' just to get some nagger off my back. Not to be insulting to those who might know what I'm talking about, but it tends to take that (as much as I don't like being nagged) and my mood turning sour because of it to motivate me. I wish it didn't have to because of how frustrated it makes people be with me - old habits are hard to break and I'm not going to make any 'buts' or excuses about it.Them's the facts, kids.

Anyway, coupled with the habit of previewing my posts and then going back at least 80% of the time to add more, edit this thing or that thing to make it look better... next thing I know, I've got inspiration aplenty and I feel more or less confident that I've written something decent.

Now, if only I could find this elusive thing called 'motivation' on a consistent basis. Yes, my brain also is rancid applesauce after all's said and done on a typical weekday, much like everyone else... and it's probably incredibly likely that my day is much fuller than any of yours. All y'all. Just ask me. :\

And it may not be about churning out a word count, but I feel a little better about something I've written post-wise when it looks at least a certain length. :)

[Darven]

It's not about churning out a word count. It's definitely not about writing for the sake of writing.

It's about giving yourself dedicated time to work on whatever writing you're doing and removing all distractions.

I shut my door, sign off aim, and keep my browsing limited to research while I'm doing my writing. Focus is the key.

That whole "I'm uninspired, le sigh" attitude will vanish. It's a myth put in place by laziness. I'm not kidding.

Try a week of dedicated writing. The results are superior to simply writing whenever you feel the itch and far more productive.

Ah but I heartily disagree! Just because it works for you, does not mean it works for everyone. I tried the dedicated writing week. The results were poor and awful. If I don't have some powerful motivation to sit down and write, then I cannot produce anything remotely worth reading.

I've talked to a professional writer who has been in the business for long enough and would agree with me in that there's a huge difference in quality between the writing you do when you're motivated or inspired, and when you're not. I'd say there's a notable difference, and - IMO - you can see the difference in published literature often enough. Sure you can simply sit down every day and write, but there's a certain spark in "inspired" writing that I find lacking otherwise.

When things are going well in my life, and I'm full of energy and creativity, I'm also usually full of ideas. But I need to feel motivated - and to a certain degree, lazy enough - in order to sit down and actually put it in words and make something out of it, and not even then will it always turn out well. If I force myself to write, I find myself a lot less happy with the result, and even less motivated to pick up a pen the next time.

Anyway.... I don't aspire to become a professional writer (at this point in time, anyway), so I'm perfectly fine with not dedicating my entire spare time to the pursuit of putting words on paper. I've got far too many creative outlets anyway... writing is simply one of them. It does annoy me if I can't write something at the point in time when I want to get it all out, and I'm sure I've missed out on some opportunities there, but it's not the end of the world.

[Mu Satach]

Anne Lamott who wrote Bird by Bird, describes sitting at her desk and holding up a small frame and choosing something simple within her eyesight to write about knowing that it would be awful and she would essentially throw it away. Could be a carrot for all she cares. She uses it as a daily exercise when she has writer's block just to keep the momentum of writing going until the muse returns.

And you never know, sometimes throw away ideas reverberate and change into something else.

Now whether you want to treat writing as daily activity or not is a personal decision depending on what your goals are.

For myself, I need to be in a groove of writing daily... otherwise, when I come to the hard parts that aren't fun to write but have to be there to carry the reader from point F to J it's like pulling teeth to get through it. Or worse, I just don't do it. Then the story is never finished, just abandoned in the box of good ideas. Waiting, surrounded by other good ideas and eventually picked up and written by someone else who can get through the tough bits. If it's a good idea, someone somewhere will think of something incredibly close to it and write it before I do if I don't write daily.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Not sure why but I am feeling suddenly really excited about this writing idea that I have been bouncing around for a while now. Just spent some of the afternoon trying to divide the plot up into chapters, whilst divising names for the central characters. I think naming is simultaneously my most and least favorite part of the planning stage - I am such a stickler for a character having the 'right' name, they just won't come to life for me without it :ohno

[Ilias Nytrau]

Pssht. Names are easy. Sometimes the characters are, too. :p

[Dasquian Belargic]

Oh, names are easy. I have lists and lists of names. It's just fitting them onto the right head that isn't so easy :mneh

[Khendon Sevon]

I usually find the name first :) Then the character evolves.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Yup, I'm the same way - hence why the name needs to be just right ;)

[Morgan Evanar]

I got busy with life and I stopped caring. Pretty odd if you ask me.