Over the past week, I've had several sessions when I'm sitting in front of my laptop, staring at an empty page and just can't write anything. It's so frustrating because I really want to write but don't know how to get passed this.
And it's not like I don't have ideas. I know the plot I want to write but the words escape me. If I try to force myself to write, it comes out so very uninspired. I need advice.
Comments
I feel your pain!
I’ve been fighting a dry patch myself, really for the better part of a year. Each word that I write seems like it’s harder than the one before. My second year on BC was about a third as productive as my first.
One thing that I’ve done that’s worked is to create artificial deadlines by starting a serial and promising new installments on a set schedule. It works for me, because I worked to deadlines all my life. But, it’s nowhere near as much fun as writing from inspiration.
It’s also okay to take a break, though. Your stories are fantastic; trust us to wait for them, and be there for you when you’re ready to post again. :)
— Emma
Hard to think you also deal with this
Your stories are always so insanely well written.
"Each word that I write seems like it’s harder than the one before" perfectly captures it omg. I miss the flow if you know what i mean where I can write a thousand words without really thinking about it. I hope it comes back or I'm gonna cry lol.
I would try deadlines but they stress me out to no end. As soon as I feel like I have to do something, it starts feeling like a job and my effectiveness drops even more.
But thanks though, knowing i'm not alone kinda makes me feel better. I think I'll just focus on reading stories on the site instead for a while.
Think of something else to write about
If Plot A is giving you trouble then it may be time to put it on the back burner and have a look at something else, something fresh.
I often have random ideas and scenarios floating about in my head and, if I get to a point where I just don't know how to continue, I'll pause the current stream of consciousness I call writing and open a new file.
Maybe it doesn't go anywhere, sometimes it does. One of those Plot B's stalled halfway through chapter 3 while another is now up to chapter 14*.
Who knows?
Penny
* I do not plan to post that until it is complete. It is not an Anmar tale.
Dogs have owners; cats have staff. Grand-daughters have minions.
Ah I think I get it
I wish my issue was just the plot but I feel like I know what I want to happen each scene and each chapter but it's putting words on the page that's the problem.
i guess maybe subconsciously, I don't fw the existing plot all that much so I'll try to explore other plotlines. Thanks for the help.
Might Not Help...
Try a recording device, and talk the tale.!
Listen to it and see if its willing to be put on paper.
Hugs tmf
It depends who is in charge
I am one of those authors who has an idea of the overall plotline but I don't micromanage the entire story. Frequently I discover that one or more of my characters does or says something that changes the whole plotline but I don't usually go and erase that section unless I'm at a critical point in the story.
Sometimes nothing obvious may happen, sometimes it makes a big difference. In VotV I didn't realise that Tyra was coming until she leaned over Ursula's shoulder as she was learning to read. I didn't know that Zakaros would decide to take an active part in the story until Ursula saw him in the market place in Wadek, until then he was just a passing inconvenience.
If your subconscious is stopping you from writing, then maybe there's a good reason for it. Maybe one of your characters wants to do something different and is trying to find a way to tell you.
Penny
Dogs have owners; cats have staff. Grand-daughters have minions.
I often get dry spells
sometimes, it helps to do something else for a bit.
huggles!
Don't try to force it
Stop worrying about it. That is hard but possible.
And in the words said by John Cleese in Monty Python, 'And now for something completely different'.
Do something else (don't kick the cat or the dog) for a while.
Then...
Start thinking about a plot. Don't even think of trying to write it down. Dream about possible plot lines and characters. Only then, when you have a firm idea should you open up the computer.
Stop worrying. That will only make things worse. Relax.
Samantha
Writer's block
The bane of every fiction writer that ever touched pen to paper (or these days, fingers to a keyboard). I dare say that all authors have sat staring at an empty page and asked themselves, "Just where has my muse gone this time?"
It happens to me so often, I'm quite surprised when I can start a story and finish it without a stretch of inanis mens, (empty mind). When it persists I do try picking up stories from my bone pile of incomplete work. Sometimes that suffices to get the juices flowing.
When all else fails, I put the whole idea of writing on the shelf and occupy my time with other creative interests. I go to SketchUp and design a piece of furniture or sometimes simply play computer games; oh, and I read other peoples work (or in a pinch my own). When that gets boring and there's nothing new on BC that catches my interest, I go back to the story, read the last bit that I've written and go from there.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin ein femininer Mann
Reading your own work
Occasionally I'll re-read some of my earlier work. I am always amazed to find that I wrote it, and I wonder how I managed to do it. It is almost like another, better author wrote it, which of course is true.
We forget how we change over the years. Old stories can look fresh again, especially when you have forgotten what happened!
Penny
Dogs have owners; cats have staff. Grand-daughters have minions.
Knowing what to write
Sometimes it is hard. I had difficulty at one stage and then realised it wasn't what I was writing that was causing the block, but that topic. I changed the focus to something else and what I wanted to say came out. That took four months to do that.
I also sometimes take a break for writing one thing and write something later on in the story. That then gives me inspiration to go back and fill in the gaps. I've got the next "leap" point. For instance, I've just written the last chapter of a story, and now I've just got the six or seven chapters to get there.
I hope it comes to you
Tension
This might sound silly.
When I encountered that kind of resistance, I would take the largest piece of paper I could find and write the names of the main characters at twelve / three / six, and nine. Then, I would draw lines between all the characters. On those lines, I would make notes about the tension I wanted to develop between them.
Then I would review the first thirty pages or so of The Plot Thickens to increase my characterization.
Usually, after those two steps, the story would jump off my keyboard for an initial draft.
Or, as Arecee once told me, if writing is that much work, wouldn't it be better to take a walk on the beach?
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Doodling
Have you tried doodling? I don't generally suffer from the block but sometimes, just to get started when I am ready to write I just use a blank piece of paper and a pencil. I firmly believe that everybody's mind is full of ideas and when faced with a blank they will rise from the darkness to fill it. Some of the very short things I write could be called "word doodles" but they do help with creating things. To get those started sometimes all you need is a character. Google a "random name generator" and roll the dice. Usually they give you a few and then you sit down and describe them - what are they like? what do they do? where do they live? what is their story?
See if that works.
Maryanne
The Muse takes a break
It happens to me. Once upon a time it worried me that I'd dried up. Then something takes my fancy and I'd start a new story. They don't always go very far, but when I manage to create a believable central character, I let the story unfold as it wants to. Sometimes, when it slows, I'll write a line like 'Then the phone rang.' and sit on it until I figure out who is on the line and what they're going to say. I never post any story that is not complete. I might go in and rewrite bits of unposted chapters. Yes, I do have a few stories on my computer that should be finished, and I find that writing the title of a likely story can lead to it being written, even if I have absolutely no idea of who, or what, the story may contain. My final piece of advice is -- FreeCell is there for frustrated authors!
Marianne Gregory
Beginnings
I've said it before, and it's still true: what I find hardest are beginnings. Finding the best launch point to kick-off the next book is where the most drafted chapters get tossed in the bin - well, ok, they're shoved aside in the historical wtfs lurking in the Scrivener project file. Just in case. ;) Once that starting point 'feels right' then the rest launches and events happen as they need to happen.
Unlike others I find I need to write sequentially, so it's one scene after the other. But there are (many!) times when after a scene is on the page, I have to pause - even if I already have a next scene in mind. The muse / subconscious will just go, "Hold up!", and it's best to stop. Happened this past weekend, and thus the rest of Sunday was spent on minor editing of previous chapters even though consciously I wasn't sure why.
Found out the next day while at work, when during a break a better idea entirely popped into view. One that fit so perfectly that it should have been obvious - except it wasn't until that moment. If I had pre-written anything at the ending then all of that would have needed to be most likely tossed into that same bin - due to not having the right emotional carry-ons from the previous scenes if nothing else. The characters and the needs of the story lead me forward - I only have initial places to aim.
If you're stuck staring at a blank page, maybe noodle on whether the start point you had in mind when first thinking of the story is really the best place where muse and consciousness can align to get things going and achieve that magical 'flow'.
Just my zero cents worth, anyway. :)
I am not an author…….
And never claimed to be. However, I have had to write many, many things during the course of my life. Op Orders, personnel appraisals (both in and out of the military), business proposals and plans, contracts, research papers, reports, analyses, etc.
What has always worked for me when I get stuck on something is to simply walk away from it for a while. Go do something else. Take a walk, talk to people, read, pretty much anything that takes your mind off of what you are writing and allows your subconscious to percolate on the problem for while. Sometimes this requires longer than other times. It could be a few minutes, an hour, overnight, or a few days.
I don’t know if this helps, but it has always worked for me.
Also, like Emma Anne Tate, I have always worked under a time limit or with a deadline. Otherwise, your break can become limitless.
D. Eden
“Hier stehe ich; ich kann nicht anders. Gott helfe mir.”
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
Walk Away
That's the best advice. I was told when I was young and something had really got up my nose, to put my first draft reply into a drawer and not to open it until the next day, by which time I would have calmed down. Then rewrite it.
I'm having a problem at the moment with a new story, so I know what it's all about.
Your Stories A Slice of Your Life
I get my story ideas from what is happening around me and in the news. Just let this be a primer. I am satisfied enough with my writing. Most people don't vote or comment on what I write. So what, I am happy enough.
I spent a good chunk of my working life as a computer programmer
... where Management takes a dim view of "writers block" (or similar.) Hearing my manager tell somebody else "Unacceptable." was pretty scary.
Others have said it ...
Still, if we "saturate our brains" with the problem =and then walk away= and do something else, anything else, we often get lucky.
I had one medium-gnarly problem at work. At just about quitting time, I was convinced I could do nothing further on it, and left for home.
=Halfway to my car!!= , the solution came to me, and was so simple and obvious, that I didn't even go back in, or need to write down.
---
A mistake in very precisely grinding the Hubble Space Telescope primary mirror to the wrong shape severely crippled its usefulness.
Of course there was great political, etc., pressure for a fix.
Senior optical engineer James H. Crocker was taking a shower(!) when he realized the solution. (And it helped a lot, that the maid, in properly cleaning the shower, had left the shower head in the wrong place.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrective_Optics_Space_Telesc...
---
We've all seen Hubble's pictures ...
tech writing vs fiction
Back in the days when I was trying to be computer salesman (I suck at that BTW) we built PC clones from the motherboard up. DOS was the operating system and as you old timers will remember, it was not exactly user friendly. Some of the software available assumed a fare amount of computer knowledge and what documentation that came with it was rife with computer jargon. Since at that time I was pretty much a techno-nerd and it all made sense to me I was tasked with writing explanations in common English.
Writing from my knowledge base was a snap. I could simply sit down crank out verbiage that distinctly led the user through what was needed to be done. One of the women who was a client told me that she never understood Boolean Logic until she read my explanation.
But that was writing about something I had a through knowledge base in and it was no trick. However when I sit down to write a piece of fiction, I have only the scant basis of what's to happen and if it doesn't take on a life of its own and the characters become alive, I struggle to just make it readable, let alone interesting.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin ein femininer Mann
Tech writing
I spent a large part of my work documenting my programs, no problem since I had a defined goal and knew how to get there.
Fiction is a very different thing, since I never know where the story is going. I have 4 good starts on the hard drive that are going nowhere. I don't let it get to me since I write for my own pleasure. Just let it brew until it's ready to come out.
Only four?
One I finally finished recently, "Grandma's Gift," was started in 2000, shortly after my granddaughter was born. I've got nine and that's in the TG genre. I have ten in the other genre I write in (which will remain unnamed).
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin ein femininer Mann
Never happened to me.
I've always believed that I could fill a page with words, sometimes better than others. You have to believe you can do the same. Still, if you can't lots of good advice here and what do I know I've only posted about 4-5,000 stories and chapters and four novels.
Angharad