Writers Block

[Rolling Thunder]

I find the Red Hot Chilli Peppers to be the best cure for writer's block. A couple of drinks is also a good one (kills inhibition, result being that your writing is often a lot more confident and fluid. 9/10ths of flawed expression comes from subconscious insecurity)


Stalington also has a good point, and I hope he will forgive me for expanding on it- Make characters extreme. Make them the vector for all the insane, debauched and sociopathic acts you usually save for Grand Theft Auto sprees. Angry at a girl/boy. Write her (since I am male, I reserve the right to indulge in chauvinism) into the story- one of my scenes involved a fairly bloody fight between two lovers. (with zweihanders, if you can beleive. Great Scott, but I am warped). It often helps if you actually find yourself hating your characters.

Or maybe that's just me.

 

[AuntyEthel]

i dunno... get absolutely smashed?

Works for me as well, though some writers condemn it.

Watch an incredibly bad movie or tv program, and it'll inspire such contempt that the words will flow like water down a mountain. Or diarrhoea.

 

[haruvister]

I'm at the stage now where to cease writing would see me crippled by guilt. I've worked my writing into my daily routine, and now it's so thoroughly entrenched I can't not write for at least an hour every day. It's kind of forced, but it works for me.

Also, if an idea for a poem, song or story pops into your head, wherever you are, write it down. When you get home, type the idea up and save it in a folder called - yes - 'Ideas'. You'll soon have all the inspiration you'll ever need!

Cutting booze and drugs from your diet works well, too. (If you're already that way inclined, of course!) Nothing I've tried works as well as a clear head.

 

[Shirahime]

I get chronic writers block sometimes. More often than not I can go for months without writing a single paragraph that makes any sense.

So I just stop writing. So when I get an idea after christ knows how long I just write it down and keep it for later. I write down all kinds of crap in no particular order. I' writing a story right now and I haven't even wrote the begining, I've written 3 pages of stuff that suomewhere near the end.

 

[COR 2000]

Well, I do have some Writer's block. It just takes me a couple of minutes to get started on something original, then I either start Doodling or start writing.

 

[Cheesus333]

I'm a competitive person, so when my friend wrote the most pulse-poundingly brilliant thing I've ever read, I immediately set out to one-up him.
And that was the moral high road; I would have easily settled for clubbing his brain with a chair until he lost finger control and could never type again.

 

[sequio]

I go through the list of things that piss me off and that usually gets me irked enough to write anything and everything. The main problem is the vitriol that bleeds through, but the profs just kind of wash over that as my writing style.

 

[Mister Ash]

there's a ton of good ideas here, now I've just got to convince myself to try them.

One thing I really lack right now, is motivation. I want to write.... but when nothing happens, I get frustrated, and start looking for other things to do instead. (how long can I stay alive on GTA with 6 stars and never getting out of a car or loosing the wanted level) distractions are a big thing for me, I can get distracted from anything, by anything, even in a room with nothing. hell, even as i write this, i'm going back to watch today's ZP again....

and I would write stuff down at work, if only it wasn't a busy pub that'd cause me to get yelled at (also messes up the no-drinking idea, with my craptastic willpower) though I do try when I've got chance.

 

[Shirahime]

and I would write stuff down at work, if only it wasn't a busy pub that'd cause me to get yelled at (also messes up the no-drinking idea, with my craptastic willpower) though I do try when I've got chance.

Dictaphone. Or an MP3 player with a mic. It come in handy for me when I had monologues to learn for drama college. I'd record myself saying it then play it back on repeat.


Plus you can say some pretty insane stuff into and and laugh at it later. XD

 

[Mister Ash]

and I would write stuff down at work, if only it wasn't a busy pub that'd cause me to get yelled at (also messes up the no-drinking idea, with my craptastic willpower) though I do try when I've got chance.

Dictaphone. Or an MP3 player with a mic. It come in handy for me when I had monologues to learn for drama college. I'd record myself saying it then play it back on repeat.


Plus you can say some pretty insane stuff into and and laugh at it later. XD

That's actually a pretty sweet idea... My iPod touch has a notes feature... which so far only gets used for e-mailing returns info to the work computer, and writing down stupid stuff customers (and staff) say (but that only gets written down at the end of the night, when re-telling the story to someone who wasn't there)

 

[Shirahime]

Yeah my mp3 player has a mic and record function. I's a shame a lot of people don't put it to use because it is ahndy to have it, or a note fuction because more people carry an mp3 player or mobile around with them all the time practically; instead of a pen and paper.

 

[Shivari]

Just write. If it sucks, you can delete it later. But staring at the screen waiting for a sudden epiphany accomplishes nothing.

 

[Radelaide]

I ask around. Get people to read what you've written and ask for tips or ideas on how to expand it. If nothing else, you've got ideas you can work from later.