Writer's Block: Anyone Got Tips?

[Quadrophenia]

I've four novels I want to write... and aside from outlines and a single page of prologue for each, I haven't written anything else in the last few months. 

Needless to say, I feel a little ashamed, peppered of frustration.

Does anyone here have any tips or techniques on how to deal with procrastination or writer's block? 

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

One thing that sometimes helps me is writing down every reason why I can't write anything. Just get it all on paper—whine and moan, swear, rant about every single reason why you can't write and shouldn't try. When I do this, it'll usually trick my muse into saying "Well, if you're going to write anyway, I might as well give you some ideas you actually want to use." 

With procrastination, get an audience. People who believe in what you're writing and want to see it written. I was fortunate enough to find some of those on the Shard, and while I haven't completed my WIP, having them to write for does help with motivation. 

[The One Who Connects he/him]

My "unfinished projects" pile definitively states that I need to hear these tips as well. In my personal opinions though:

Writer's block: I either take a break or work on a different section.

Procrastination kinda depends on why you are procrastinating. If you lack motivation, refer to TwiLyghtSansSparkles above. If it's some variant of laziness (where I suffer mostly) sometimes it's best to let yourself have a rest. Otherwise, just do something time consuming that you don't like doing. You'll be dying to get back to the story pretty soon.

[Quadrophenia]

33 minutes ago, TwiLyghtSansSparkles said:

One thing that sometimes helps me is writing down every reason why I can't write anything. Just get it all on paper—whine and moan, swear, rant about every single reason why you can't write and shouldn't try. When I do this, it'll usually trick my muse into saying "Well, if you're going to write anyway, I might as well give you some ideas you actually want to use." 

With procrastination, get an audience. People who believe in what you're writing and want to see it written. I was fortunate enough to find some of those on the Shard, and while I haven't completed my WIP, having them to write for does help with motivation. 

 

Huh. I... never thought about that before. The first paragraph, I mean.

Second, well, I always feel nervous about posting any of my ideas online where anyone could see. I'm paranoid someone might steal my ideas and get money off 'em before I ever get the chance.

[Quadrophenia]

26 minutes ago, The One Who Connects said:

My "unfinished projects" pile definitively states that I need to hear these tips as well. In my personal opinions though:

Writer's block: I either take a break or work on a different section.

Procrastination kinda depends on why you are procrastinating. If you lack motivation, refer to TwiLyghtSansSparkles above. If it's some variant of laziness (where I suffer mostly) sometimes it's best to let yourself have a rest. Otherwise, just do something time consuming that you don't like doing. You'll be dying to get back to the story pretty soon.

 

 

I do have to say, that last bit is a tantalizing proposition! 

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

51 minutes ago, Quadrophenia said:

Second, well, I always feel nervous about posting any of my ideas online where anyone could see. I'm paranoid someone might steal my ideas and get money off 'em before I ever get the chance.

That's a fear of mine, too, I admit. I've kept a lot of the more detailed stuff confined to private conversations, while I stick to vague stuff on the forums. I've submitted more specific questions to the forums before because I needed more diverse opinions, but I've limited how much I share on purpose. To be clear, I don't think anyone on this site would steal my ideas or anyone else's, but I do worry about lurkers. 

So, there is a risk, but there are ways to manage that risk. 

[Quadrophenia]

1 minute ago, TwiLyghtSansSparkles said:

That's a fear of mine, too, I admit. I've kept a lot of the more detailed stuff confined to private conversations, while I stick to vague stuff on the forums. I've submitted more specific questions to the forums before because I needed more diverse opinions, but I've limited how much I share on purpose. To be clear, I don't think anyone on this site would steal my ideas or anyone else's, but I do worry about lurkers. 

So, there is a risk, but there are ways to manage that risk. 

 

What's your strategy, if you don't mind my asking?

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

2 minutes ago, Quadrophenia said:

What's your strategy, if you don't mind my asking?

I stick to the issue I feel I need to ask about and share only what's necessary to get the question answered. Plus, I'm unintentionally protected from unscrupulous lurkers by my rapidly evolving story; older ideas and questions regarding the same WIP are pretty outdated now.  

[Quadrophenia]

Just now, TwiLyghtSansSparkles said:

I stick to the issue I feel I need to ask about and share only what's necessary to get the question answered. Plus, I'm unintentionally protected from unscrupulous lurkers by my rapidly evolving story; older ideas and questions regarding the same WIP are pretty outdated now.  

 

Ha! That's a fair point.

Looking back on it, one of my biggest problems is findin the appropriate tone. For instance, one story I'm writing... well, on the one hand, the world itself is a dark, cruel, depressing place. It's Upton Sinclair's The Jungle meets Fritz Lang's Metropolis, an industrial hellhole that treats its lower class citizens like utter scum. On the other hand, the main plot revolves around something of an underground tournament; there's excitement, action-

How do I balance that?

It's my attempt to write a Sanderson-esque novel, and he always knew how to keep that in perspective, balanced. The first Mistborn novel nicely illustrated the plight of the working skaa and the horrors of the plantations, only for Kelsier to pull a Django Unchained at the end... and it never broke the narrative tone, because even the people he saved were skeptical of the freedom he had given them. It was a nice way to keep things in perspective.

But I don't want to rip off the man.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

2 minutes ago, Quadrophenia said:

Ha! That's a fair point.

Looking back on it, one of my biggest problems is findin the appropriate tone. For instance, one story I'm writing... well, on the one hand, the world itself is a dark, cruel, depressing place. It's Upton Sinclair's The Jungle meets Fritz Lang's Metropolis, an industrial hellhole that treats its lower class citizens like utter scum. On the other hand, the main plot revolves around something of an underground tournament; there's excitement, action-

How do I balance that?

It's my attempt to write a Sanderson-esque novel, and he always knew how to keep that in perspective, balanced. The first Mistborn novel nicely illustrated the plight of the working skaa and the horrors of the plantations, only for Kelsier to pull a Django Unchained at the end... and it never broke the narrative tone, because even the people he saved were skeptical of the freedom he had given them. It was a nice way to keep things in perspective.

But I don't want to rip off the man.

There's not really a hard-and-fast answer here. You can't plug the different elements into a generator and get quotas for how much darkness, how much action, how much humor you need to keep the whole thing balanced. So I'd recommend seeking out media that has to balance different narrative elements, and learning from either their mistakes or their successes. Welcome to Night Vale is a good one to start with; they manage to balance dystopian politics, Lovecraftian horror, character drama, adventure, and a heaping dose of deadpan humor. Their balance leans more in the favor of the deadpan humor, but that's more a narrative choice than anything. 

[Quadrophenia]

1 minute ago, TwiLyghtSansSparkles said:

There's not really a hard-and-fast answer here. You can't plug the different elements into a generator and get quotas for how much darkness, how much action, how much humor you need to keep the whole thing balanced. So I'd recommend seeking out media that has to balance different narrative elements, and learning from either their mistakes or their successes. Welcome to Night Vale is a good one to start with; they manage to balance dystopian politics, Lovecraftian horror, character drama, adventure, and a heaping dose of deadpan humor. Their balance leans more in the favor of the deadpan humor, but that's more a narrative choice than anything. 

4

I am not kidding when I say Welcome to Night Vale is my jam. It's the altar of weird I pray at every morning. It's my chief fandom on the internet, easily.

Don't forget steeped in surrealist performance art traditions or philosophically absurdist, either. 

 

[Yata he/him]

Of course I don't write as a Job and therefore my solution isn't really efficent if you MUST produce something in a setted amount of time and I am more a world builder than a real writer therefore I can't actually say if this method may help you.

Anyway when I am struck with my current work. I simply pass to something else for a while. I have a rotation of some ideas ans I uses to expand them with a rotation pattern.

 

[Darkness Ascendant he/him]

7 hours ago, Quadrophenia said:

I'm paranoid someone might steal my ideas

Amen brother

6 hours ago, Quadrophenia said:

The Jungle meets Fritz Lang's Metropolis

Concrete Jungle  

Okay, back to business. Your a procrastinator, aren't we all? So how do you tackle that? Well, as Twi said, motivation helps, there are multiple writing groups here on the Shard, there's the Reading and Writing excuses sub-forums, as well as some right here in the Creator's Corner, you could start your own if you want as well! 

Get in the mood for writing, I find that if I sit, and stare at a wall for long enough, some good ideas begin taking shape, as well as the urge to WRITE THEM DOWN!!! Once I've down that, I've just kickstarted a few hours of fervent work on some of my own projects.

Force yourself, it helps to literally drag your-self to your desk and pick up your writing implements, steel yourself and bottle all those reasons not to write, then while your sitting down idly, staring at that wall in front of you, think about rewards, reward yourself for writing. Make goals, even 500 words a week will help, and slowly it will become habitual and you can increase your output to as high as 1000 words a day!

That's what I have, although I am still guilty of procrastinating. I'll get back to my own work tomorrow, I swear

[Quadrophenia]

2 hours ago, Yata said:

Of course I don't write as a Job and therefore my solution isn't really efficent if you MUST produce something in a setted amount of time and I am more a world builder than a real writer therefore I can't actually say if this method may help you.

Anyway when I am struck with my current work. I simply pass to something else for a while. I have a rotation of some ideas ans I uses to expand them with a rotation pattern.

 

 

How do you mean by rotation pattern?

2 hours ago, Darkness Ascendant said:

Amen brother

Concrete Jungle  

Okay, back to business. Your a procrastinator, aren't we all? So how do you tackle that? Well, as Twi said, motivation helps, there are multiple writing groups here on the Shard, there's the Reading and Writing excuses sub-forums, as well as some right here in the Creator's Corner, you could start your own if you want as well! 

Get in the mood for writing, I find that if I sit, and stare at a wall for long enough, some good ideas begin taking shape, as well as the urge to WRITE THEM DOWN!!! Once I've down that, I've just kickstarted a few hours of fervent work on some of my own projects.

Force yourself, it helps to literally drag your-self to your desk and pick up your writing implements, steel yourself and bottle all those reasons not to write, then while your sitting down idly, staring at that wall in front of you, think about rewards, reward yourself for writing. Make goals, even 500 words a week will help, and slowly it will become habitual and you can increase your output to as high as 1000 words a day!

That's what I have, although I am still guilty of procrastinating. I'll get back to my own work tomorrow, I swear

 

Well, it's something to try. I do feel I'm generally more productive when I have set goals to work work. Writing 500 words a week? Yeah, I can do that. I can write this down, set up obligatory once-per-week goals.

[Yata he/him]

19 minutes ago, Quadrophenia said:

How do you mean by rotation pattern?

More simply with an example:

You are working to your "MainStory". When you are struck with MainStory. You simply put it away for a while and start (or continue if you can) another project that we call here..."SideStory". SideStory may be whatever you want (same of different genere than MainStory, complex or linear, ecc...). Its only purpose is to made you out from your actual "thought pattern" pushing your mind to solve something else. Then if you are struck on SideStory or if you have some new inspirations for the MainStory, you may return with a more clear mind to MainStory.

The working Sequence would be: Main->Side->Main->Side......

I talked about Rotation (and I am sorry if this confused you) because I work with more than two projects and My working sequence is actually a Rotation between them.

 

Of course it's possible that my method isn't the best one or maybe doesn't really fit you....But it's the only one I may reccomend from direct experience

Edited September 19, 2016 by Yata

[Quadrophenia]

Just now, Yata said:

More simply with an example:

You are working to your "MainStory". When you are struck with MainStory. You simply put it away for a while and start (or continue if you can) another project that we call here..."SideStory". SideStory may be whatever you want (same of different genere than MainStory, complex or linear, ecc...). Its only purpose is to made you out from your actual "thought pattern" pushing your mind to solve something else. Then if you are struck on SideStory or if you have some new inspirations for the MainStory, you may return with a more clear mind to MainStory.

The working Sequence would be: Main->Side->Main->Side......

I talked about Rotation (and I am sorry if this confused you) because I work with more than two projects and My working sequence is actually a Rotation between them.

 

Of course it's possible that my method isn't the best one or maybe doesn't really fit you....But it's the only one I may reccomend from direct experience

 

It might. I am working on four novels at once (or trying to), and they're all variations on fantasy sub-genres.

I have a dark fantasy/horror book in the vein of Mistborn, Berserk and The Dresden Files. I have a 'weird' one in the vein of China Miéville. I have a more whimsical Studio Ghibli-inspired monster fest. Finally, last but not least, I have a spaghetti western set in a high fantasy world.

It's a lot of different tones to juggle with... which, I realize now with the benefit of hindsight, may be contributing to my writer's block.

[Yata he/him]

44 minutes ago, Quadrophenia said:

It might. I am working on four novels at once (or trying to), and they're all variations on fantasy sub-genres.

It's a lot of different tones to juggle with... which, I realize now with the benefit of hindsight, may be contributing to my writer's block.

I have no problems to jump between genres but of course may be different for another people.

At the moment I work to: A post-apocalyptic fantasy setting for Roleplay games, a novel in a nice hybrid between standard fantasy and Mister Sanderson style (good potential to me), a Goth Fantasy inspired by Mister Sanderson (actually quite only world building and characters for now), A weird mix between high tech and medieval fantasy who in the end may be similar to a steampunk, a cool story inspired by oriental myths and conjuration magic and for last I am helping my girlfriend with the world building her comic.

There are other ideas, but nothing more than a couple of pages of notes

Edited September 19, 2016 by Yata

[Quadrophenia]

14 minutes ago, Yata said:

I have no problems to jump between genres but of course may be different for another people.

At the moment I work to: A post-apocalyptic fantasy setting for Roleplay games, a novel in a nice hybrid between standard fantasy and Mister Sanderson style (good potential to me), a Goth Fantasy inspired by Mister Sanderson (actually quite only world building and characters for now), A weird mix between high tech and medieval fantasy who in the end may be similar to a steampunk, a cool story inspired by oriental myths and conjuration magic and for last I am helping my girlfriend with the world building her comic.

There are other ideas, but nothing more than a couple of pages of notes

S'all good. Thanks!

[Zathoth]

@Quadrophenia Those ideas all sound amazing.

Im extremely incredibly stuck on the second Skyverea chapter, when I try to write I just end up with a lot of world building, which I realized is me just procrastinating because I have no idea where I am going, but now I have ideas so it may have paid off anyway XD

[Quadrophenia]

9 minutes ago, Morzathoth said:

@Quadrophenia Those ideas all sound amazing.

Im extremely incredibly stuck on the second Skyverea chapter, when I try to write I just end up with a lot of world building, which I realized is me just procrastinating because I have no idea where I am going, but now I have ideas so it may have paid off anyway XD

That's exactly my problem! 

[Zathoth]

5 hours ago, Quadrophenia said:

That's exactly my problem! 

So just write until you think of something XD You may need to get that world building out of the way.

Maybe, I'll get back to you if it seems to be working.

[Darkness Ascendant he/him]

Sometimes, a suicidal attempt works, lets you realise that when you do die, all your ideas will go to waste. so you better damnation right them down, don't do this world a disservice.

[Quadrophenia]

14 minutes ago, Darkness Ascendant said:

Sometimes, a suicidal attempt works, lets you realise that when you do die, all your ideas will go to waste. so you better damnation right them down, don't do this world a disservice.

 

... Believe it or not, I've, uh... been there. 

[Darkness Ascendant he/him]

Haven't we all?

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

5 hours ago, Darkness Ascendant said:

Haven't we all?

Probably not.