User blog:Corbierr/Defeating the dreaded Writer's Block!

'''Here's that blog I promised last night! :)'''

On this wiki, we have a large number of writers. This much is obvious; stories pop up here constantly, whether they are fanfics or originals, and this is in part because writing seems to be a big thing over here.

But the dark, sad reality is that many of these stories do not get finished. Many do not make it past 5 chapters. Why is this? How can ideas peter out so quickly when they had so much promise? If there's anything to blame for many of these instances, it's Writer's Block. It's a curse that makes good ideas seem useless, it cripples and destroys a story and the writer themself.

However, there is hope!

Yes, you heard me right. ''Hope! ''There are, indeed, ways to overcome this. Are they easy? No, but if you can get through them...if you can feel more confident with your stories and as a writer!

So let's break through this mental wall once and for all! We'll examine different three common types and ways around each problem...and then finish with one simple way to get past any version of the block.

Time to learn, peasants...

"I can't say what I want to say!"
This is a common one, and it's the one I personally struggle with most often. This type occurs when you have an idea in your head of what you want the scene to be, but can't describe it in a way that does your mental image justice.

Why does this happen?
Because we want our products to be perfect. And a lot of times, we think our mental image is "perfect", while the version we end up writing down is comparatively worse in our eyes. We struggle with the disconnect between thoughts and words, and the fact that just having an image of what you want is not enough to actually make it work.

It sucks, because this happens with anything, not just story telling. It can happen with school or work papers, for example, or...analysis blogs, perhaps.

And it's natural, when you know what the concept or image is but you can't find a way but not only put it into words, but in a way that will make people understand you ''exactly. ''

How to stop it!
I know this is hard and it goes against our nature to want to make our stories as good as possible. But the one way to really defeat this is to just write something down and move on. Dwelling on one scene or paragraph will really not only make you take much longer on finishing (and possibly make you get frustrated enough to quit) but it will also just make you feel gradually less satisfied with anything you could write at all. You know what I mean. You get so focused on making sure you write precisely what's on your head that you start to obsess over every flaw with your writing as opposed to what actually works.

Having something, no matter how dis-satisfying it may be for you, is still better than nothing at all, right? Even if it's not exactly what you wanted, it's good enough, and you just need to tell yourself that. That just because you might not believe it's perfection, doesn't mean others won't understand, like it, and maybe even like it more than you would have in any case. You can always fix it in the editing stage, and after some time off, I can almost garuntee that you'd have had enough time to really come up with the perfect scene and you will be less focused on just one concept, rather than on the big picture. By the time you can rewrite it, you'd know what you'd want to say.

If not, maybe it's a scene that's not worth keeping.

(And you know what? Sometimes the scene in your head is not as good as you think it is.)

"I can't even get started!"
This is another common form, when instead of not being able to say what you want while writing, you can't start AT ALL. (I tend to have this problem, but it's more laziness than anything)

Why does this happen?
Many possible reasons for this one. Maybe you go in without ideas and expect to get them when you're working, but you realize you can't even think of a proper beginning. Maybe you've already started your story, but you have a particular chapter that you just don't have any clue what to do with, or you've written yourself into a corner earlier on. Maybe you just see the blank page as an enemy, and the idea of starting a whole new story from (more or less) scratch is just too daunting for you. Or maybe you just can't figure out where you want to start!

These are all common problems, and they can be devastating!

How to stop it!
Like there are many reasons, there are many ways to stop it. If you don't have any ideas, then what you can first do is just spend the first page of your story jotting down any random things that are on your mind. Once you're done with this, you've got the creative energy flowing, and then it's much easier to just go off and write out a story.

If you can't think of where to go with a particular chapter, then maybe backtrack to what you wrote last or see if anything sparks anything. Or, when in doubt, start off with a sudden twist, like betrayal or death! Then go from there. Even if you don't keep it, it'll get the creativity flowing, and just writing a random twist scene like this can really get you learning more about the characters, and if you know the characters, you'll know where to go from there.

If you just don't feel like starting from scratch, try taking a random sentence from a book and building off of it (preferably a book you aren't too used to, so you don't know where the book itself went afterwards.) Just any random sentence or two, and then just continue on with whatever it sparks up. Again, the objective is to get the creativity flowing and a story on paper, NOT to write something perfect. (Instead of a book, you could do it with TV show quotes or online quotes as well)

What if you just can't think of the proper opening? There are two ways you could go about this. One method I use a lot (and it does work) is to not bother with a "true" opening. What I mean is, let's say I'm writing a scene where Bob and Ben have to drive home in the pouring rain (idk.) If I can't think of a proper opening, I write something along the lines of: "''So in this chapter they are driving and it's raining. Kay. So uhh Ben is driving, why not? And he's like still upset at Bob for what happened, and Bob suddenly tries to apologize. Ben is like "damn you" and Bob tries to apologize again. Oh and it's really late and their parents are already calling them to ask where they are!" ''Pretty quickly, I move on to being able to write real dialogue and narrative. As soon as the chapter is done, I just go back and edit the opening like I would any other paragraph.

A second way to get around this is not to write an opening at all, but instead just start with the scene that's in your head- the one you REALLY want to write. After that's down, (unless you get stuck with the first form I mentioned :P), you have two options. Either make THAT your beginning and start "In Medias Res" or you just backtrack and make a quick scene, now that you've managed to get started and can actually write without spending more time on the opening than on your "fun" scene.

A blank paper can be an extremely trusted ally to the writer, if they know how not to be scared by it...all you have to do is remember; Once you start writing, the hard part is stopping.

"I don't even know WHAT to write!"
Our third and final most common form is when you just do not have any idea where you want to go with your story. Either you genuinely don't have any ideas, or you don't think the ideas you DO have are good or strong enough to write. Or maybe you have so many ideas, you can't choose!

What causes it?
Isn't it kind of obvious? It's a lack of decisiveness and planning! Either you have a lot of ideas but don't like them / you can't choose between them, or you just cannot come up with an idea at all!

If it's the first case, where you cannot choose one of your possible ideas due to either not liking them or just liking them all too much, one thing to do is write down all your ideas and then follow it with anything you may think of when you see your idea on paper.(For example, writing "Pirate story" can lead to ideas like "Treasure" "Curse" "Enemies" "Adventure" and "Danger".) Once you have your lead ideas and the branches of each idea, just pick the one that seems the most appealing at the time. If you are interested in it, and if you now have an idea of where you can take the story, then writing it will be that much easier!

If you have no ideas, there are many options, such as...

- Plot generator

- Random word generator (using all the words that are generated in a story is going to force you to be creative!)

- The "using a quote from a story" idea I posted above

- Writing down all the words that pop into your head, and what THOSE words make you think of, until you have a long list of words that bring up possible mental images you can work with. (I've come up with one of my best plots this way!)

- Rewriting something you wrote in the past- with a plot twist added

- Just writing random shit until you get a gem that becomes a story

See? Plot inspiration can come from ''anywhere. ''And once you have your possible plots, go back to the above solution and start doing that!

The key is to not be too focused on writing a perfect story, but to instead just write ANYTHING down that you THINK could make a good story.

As long as you have the ability to find something to inspire you, you won't have too much trouble with coming up with ideas. Just don't be picky, and don't say you can't. Because as it will turn out, you usually can, and it's something you should realize about yourself.

Overall?
If there's a pattern you've noticed, good work! The pattern being that one of the best ways to get over your writer's block is to just ''write. ''

Because you know what?

You should not be afraid to write crap in order to find the gem of a good story. You should not be afraid to write something new and random just to get words on the paper.

You should not be afraid of failure.

If you are writing for this wiki, there IS no failure. Nobody here will laugh at you if your writing isn't great. If you want advice we'll give it, and we'll hope you'll give it to us. None of us are professionals, and you should not feel pressured into having to write something perfect.

If you can practice, if you can think, if you can imagine, you can write.

Do not fear failure, because that's how the failure itself happens. The only possible failure is when you give up on trying to write what you want to write due to purely mental roadblocks. If you have something written, you can edit it, but you can't edit ''nothing. ''Nothing is an ending, pure and simple. Any writing, at all, is the key to more possibilities, no matter what you may write at that very moment.

Don't give up, just write.

If you write, you may end up with something awful, but you may also end up with something beautiful.

Knowing that, isn't it worth the risk?

So just get out there and don't let the writer's block stand in your way.

You are a better writer than you think.

And as long as you write something, failure is not an option.

'''Thank you for reading! I really hope this helped people out! If you have any tricks for getting past writer's block, share them below! The more solutions, the merrier!'''