Writer's Block || 1

[kitty_fic]

I've been planning to do a discussion or essay on writer's block for a very long time, but I actually found this topic completely overwhelming and nervewracking. I'm certainly no expert and I'm sure that many people have written many more inspired things on the topic than I ever will. However, it's something I suffer from and is often on my mind.

Comments

[tryslora]

Yes. To all of those

[starduchess]

For me a lot of times I either let distraction take me or I have all these wonderful ideas and scenes and dialog in my head, but when it comes to sitting at the computer to type them out, the words do not want to flow. I have no problem with non-fiction, so it must be the "unknown" of writing new fiction.

One of the ways to overcome that is just to write. Doesn't matter what the words are. Just push something out to break that mental barrier. I have found over time that the writing gets easier the more you do it. It's a creative skill you have to practice, just like playing piano or dancing or painting.

As another note, I was in a panel discussion at condfw several years ago, and someone asked one of the main panelists what she does to overcome writer's block. Her answer: "I never get it and here's why. I always have three projects going at once - one in outline stage, one in writing, one in editing. If I ever get stuck in one, I just switch to another for a few days, and the problem on the first works itself out." One thing a lot of

[eidheann_writes]

Anxiety Anxiety Anxiety

I was kicking ass on my fanfair until I hit the point where I was facing *gulp* smut.

It took TWO WEEKS to write ~1 page. I whined, I websurfed, I looked for any kind of distraction because I was completely 100% certain I wasn't going to be able to do it. Some people advised me to skip ahead and keep going, some people advised me to just write and let my beta sort it out later. I ended up powering through (but, again, 2 weeks effectively lost to it) and I STILL feel I haven't completely gotten my feet back under me.

Currently, I'm kinda doing a hybrid. I'm starting to work on the end, knowing I've got a good chunk of middlebits that still need to be filled in before I can consider the draft done. Just doing what's easy, I guess, as a reward to myself for getting over it.

So, anxiety is my problem, and a carrot/stick is my means of accomplishing?

[kitty_fic]

Mine is caused by several things and not just one which makes it complicated!
- Anxiety
- Unpreparedness
- Unhappy with your story or idea/Revisions went horribly wrong
- Fear of failure
- Too many ideas
- Stuck on one part/No idea what happens next
- Can't find the right words/emotions/etc

BUT I'll just pick one to focus on at a time... Today I pick:
-Too many ideasNow to rationalize it... I always have so many ideas and projects I'm working on or wanting to work on that combined with my writer's block and the other causes of my block I've gotten completely overwhelmed and gone into shut down mode! So today I promise myself I will work on one thing at a time and not even think about the others until each task is done. I'm going to make a list of 3 and only three things that need to be worked on the soonest. Everything else can wait... and from those three I will only do them one by one

[herumtreiber]

I'd say distraction is my problem. The internet, people and family coming over and talking. Things that grab my attention. They can also be source of ideas though.

What works is lowering expectations. Instead of thinking I have to write a 4,000-word chapter, I imagine working on a 400-word piece. Once I write a scene or a bit of dialog, the ideas start to flow and it's hard to stop them. The first page of the blank document is the obstacle to overcome.