[DarkElfChilde]

You are sitting around or doing whatever, and then suddenly you want to write but you can't seem to get anything out, even with writing something new.

How do you get out of it? Any special ways you use to help you write again?

I tried a lot of exercises...but they fail me.

[Jurio]

Just get up and go do something then try comming back, that normally works for me.

[Rhapsody]

Not excersises actually, hmm I would say: don't force it. Just work on something else, but keep the routine there. If you force it you're only going to frustrate yourself and your story.

Good therapy is playing oodles of patience/bejeweled, reading a book, relax... Just get your mind off it. I am aware that writers blocks can stick around for months (I have been there), especially when that happens forcing will only make your doubt yourself or resent the piece you're working on.

Good luck!

[NeumeIndil]

I read. If I can't write for some reason, I grab a book and that usually gets the juices flowing again. Not in the sense of bunny spawning, but more in that having to create the images from the book in my head wakes up the imagination/creative part of my brain.

[DarkElfChilde]

Thanks for the ideas.

Yeah, I do tend to force myself to write...very rarely does it work, but in the long run, it doesn't.


<.< I need to find a book I haven't read.

[NancyBrooke]

If it's short term, I'd definately go the route Rhapsody is suggesting: don't force it, fritter away some time doing something else not too brain-taxing like playing a computer game (spider solitaire is my personal favorite), read a book or some fanfic, do some housework or take a shower. Sometimes reading someone else's take on a character or situation spurs my ideas that or a similar subject. I heard an author awhile ago talking about cultivating that frame of mind when you're doing something routine (like folding laundry) and all the best ideas come to you ... For me, taking a shower is very fruitful, I even keep those washable crayons around to write stuff down on the tiles (not that I shower everytime I get stuck writing ...). If it's long term, again, I'm going to agree with Rhapsody, don't force it. Write if you feel like it, but if it's not working, try working on something else.

I had a devil of a time with that second chapter of "Devours." I think I did three distinctly different drafts over at least a year or more ... in the meantime I wrote other stories, and worked on other sections of "Devours". Eventually, it worked itself out.

I know I started a thread on this back then. Give the forum a search and you can check out the advice folks gave me, too.

Good luck. It will work out.

NB

[NancyBrooke]

Here's the thread I started O so long ago now:
http://www.openscrolls.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=72&highlight=

[DarkElfChilde]

Thanks

[Ania]

I know exactly this feeling! I've had a writer's block for six solid months and I was miserable over Christmas about this I started writing and it came back! I often go for a walk and do some exercise of some sort, I often get a lot of inspiration on the way to the post office for some reason!

[Haleth]

If I'm really, really stuck and it goes on for weeks or months, I'll turn to prompts.

There are some here:

http://www.theblob.org/raina/prompts/

And here:

http://nine.frenchboys.net/fantasyplot.php

One for crazy plot twists here:

http://nine.frenchboys.net/plottwist.php

This is an interesting one for emotions:

http://www.shepherdsflock.net/jessica/prompts.php

Here are a few derived from song lyrics. In general, it's not as flaky as it sounds.

http://community.livejournal.com/50lyricsfanfic/354.html

[Viv]

Haleth, those are excellent links, especially the first one! Thanks!

[Ningloreth]

I write for a living -- computer manuals -- and, believe it or not, you do get writer's block doing that! But playing games or reading obviously isn't an option, so I've had to come up with ways to keep writing.

I imagine explaining it to my Dad, then I type the explanation up, and edit it. (Not good for NC-17 stuff , but very good for computers).

I write a series of headings, then I add the bits between, and then the bits between those bits, and so on.

I write up the bits I can, & type xxxxx for the bits I can't (maybe a word, maybe a page), then I go back and work on the x's, then go back again and work on any that are left...

Oh -- and if, at the end of the day, I've still only written a single paragraph, I tell myself I've done really well because I've broken the block & that from now on it will be easier (and it usually is).