How to deal with a writing block?

Just keep going. That is the best advice I can give you, Reilith. Life is never easy but as artists, all we can do is use this gift from God of expressing ourselves through writing by continuing to do so. Take refuge in your story world, pour your heart out through what you are writing.

Identify what it is that's causing your stagnation. You mention life problems. Can you pick a theme from what you are struggling with and use that to write a story? If it's the story itself that's causing the block, then go back to your main idea. I don't believe in writer's block because I think that the issues we have with our stories can be remedied by studying the premise we're working with. This is mostly the reason why I plot before writing a story out, because I can work out most of the kinks or problems with the premise itself before taking it to paper.

As for wanting to give up on writing, LOL I feel that way daily. But somehow I make it back to the computer and continue working. I must be a masochist. Best of luck to you.

 

Things that have helped me, at various times, overcome that which I prefer not to mention by name:

1. Write a few words. Take a break. Write a few words. Take a break. Write a few words. Keep going even though you're getting little done. Eventually, you'll write yourself out of it.

2. Allow your writing to suck. Yes, what I just wrote isn't worth being printed on toilet paper, but that's okay; that's why God invented editing.

3. Find something that gives you a deadline that you have to meet. For me, it was an in-life writing group. No matter how little I was getting done, I committed to have one scene ready each time the group met (once every two weeks). At time, my production was that low, but one scene eventually turned to two turned to four turned to ten.

EDIT 4. Figure out when you write best. I rock in the mornings. Afternoons are like pulling teeth. Night is okay. Mondays are great. Fridays, not so much. If I set my goal to produce 2000 words every Friday afternoon, I'm setting myself up for failure.

 

One thing that helps me is dividing up my writing into four stages (I think I'll post something on this process later). The first stage is the brainstorming stage where I get every idea, whether good or crappy, onto a page. The second stage is the planning stage where I plan the steps out. The third stage is the writing stage, where I write. The last stage is the editing stage, where I edit. No stage may interfere with any other stage. Each has its box and role and may not tread into the other stages.

I find when I get "writers block" I have either not planned/brainstormed properly or my editor is getting in the way. When I find the block descending I look at the stages and see which is lacking or interfering with the writing. I then fix the problem. If I am editing I stop. If my planning or brainstorming was lacking I stop and root out the deficiency. If I am planning in the middle of writing I stop. If I am brainstorming I write down the idea and let it stew and continue with what I have planned. Hope this helps.

 

My only solution is to put my butt in the chair and write.

The stuff I think is bad is rarely as bad as I thought it was when I read it a week later, and it is better than nothing.

 

Somewhat different suggestion from those above:

Maybe your subconscious is saying that you are writing yourself into a dead end. Maybe look over the earlier material, see if its moving in the right direction.

Last year, I hit a point with my main WIP where even a couple hundred words a day was a major accomplishment. Went back, looked over the last couple of chapters, and it hit me: my characters were spending a *lot* of time in meetings that basically accomplished nothing. They were in a difficult situation that required action - so several pages of meetings dropped to a few paragraphs and I started focusing on the action aspects.

I have noticed this same tendency with a couple of my other projects - if I start veering into a dead end, my word count per day plummets.

 

Yeah,

I really have to agree with Philip on this one.

Being connected online is just as distracting as a real life interaction.

I find that if I completely tune out the world: family, friends, coworkers, social media, and even the daily news, I can then restart my brain in the vacuum of total isolation.

Sometimes 10 minutes is all it takes.

I know that I find moments when inspiration is so propelling that I feel super high from it.

I also know that some of my best writing has been during the editing phase.

So, maybe a good cure for the common writer's block is to go back and start editing.

Sometimes chocolate helps too.

 

Sounds like they were in corporate America.

 

That was pretty close to what I thought, except...

...they were 'restricted guests' of the erratic leader of a fantasy city on the brink of chaos, and had excellent reason to think their status would shift to 'slaves' or 'dead' in a few days, tops. Yet, I wrote scenes where they kept having meetings about events that took place months ago on the far side of the world instead of focusing on escape. Some of those long ago and far away events *had* to be discussed - they were central to a couple of the characters motivations - but those were less immediate than escape. So, I pared down those meetings and focused on the escape plot. Then things took off...until NaNoWriMo came along, and so did another project.

 

I definitely agree with what the others are saying here. Tune out distractions and let the writing flow, even if it isn't flowing as strongly or swiftly as you would like. Also, personally I like to surround myself with inspiration in times of writer's block. I will put on an inspiring film on mute, listen to music, or have a favorite novel nearby so that I can pop it open and read a couple of paragraphs. There's a lot of ways to get around it, the hardest part is realizing that there are solutions. Also, don't forget to take a breather. I suffer from severe test anxiety and my psychology professor told me that when I start to feel the anxiety, to just turn the test over and not think about it for a sec. Sometimes, it's best to step away from the writing for just a few minutes to breathe and collect your thoughts. Hope some of this helps

 

Or ... you could start with a writing prompt. (Depending on how much your daily total is) after you finish writing a 2 page short story or some poetry or something, (just something to get your mind going) then go back and try it again.

If there's an issue of plot, I find that taking a run also helps. You can clear your mind of everything else and think of all the ways you can proceed. By the time you finish there should be at least one idea that is worthy of trying.

If you normally write on a computer, try writing with a pen and paper.

Take a break and read something that inspires you or something from an author whose style you like.

Try this chart...

And I've scoured the internet but couldn't find the link ... but I saw on a blog somewhere that a woman printed out a bunch of questions & prompts to and placed them on sticks in a cup (I added to hers and put them on Popsicle sticks which I keep in an old tea tin). I haven't used them in a very long time since I've started outlining more diligently. But I found that it helped when I was absolutely stuck during Nano. Some of them are downright silly -"personal vendetta against soup" and others are more serious "Kill a minor character", "The phone rings/ they receive a letter ..." , "Add a scent", "Have a (sane) character be convinced they're crazy", "Set a scene in a library / pub / church / cemetery " etc.

Otherwise reaccess your outline (assuming you're in the middle of a project).

 

Piece I'm working on now features a grand climax I have been mentally plotting out for months.

Night before last, I got to the first part of that climax, wrote three paragraphs, then couldn't remember a bloody thing.

Spent hours thinking about it yesterday, working it out all over again...and then wrote a two hundred word step by step outline for said climax. One of those deals where certain things have to happen in given sequence.